Missing: SS Waratah

A passenger ship the size of a city block leaves port, gets seen one last time off the South African coast, and then seems to erase itself from the ocean. That’s the SS Waratah, a Blue Anchor Line liner marketed as virtually unsinkable and later nicknamed Australia’s Titanic, disappearing in 1909 with no confirmed wreckage, no verified bodies, and just enough sightings to keep hope alive for decades.

We walk through how the Waratah is built for the Australia run, what “modern” safety means in the early 1900s, and why one missing piece of tech changes everything: no radio, only signal lamps and visual range. Then the story tightens as warning signs pile up, from a stubborn coal bunker fire to repeated arguments about stability and whether the ship rides too top-heavy. When the final voyage loads up with a complicated mix of cargo, including metal ore concentrate that can shift dangerously, the margins get thinner right as the weather turns violent.

From the last confirmed sighting near the Bashee River to frantic searches by naval cruisers and passing ships, we follow the clues, the dead ends, and the long shadow of the Board of Trade inquiry. Finally, we weigh the leading theories: a rogue wave smashing hatches or rolling the vessel, a capsize driven by cargo liquefaction, an explosion that should have left debris, and the wilder ideas that pop up when evidence stays missing. Subscribe, share the show with a friend, and leave a rating or review so more people can find History’s A Disaster.

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Special thank you to Lunarfall Audio for producing and doing all the heavy lifting on audio editing since April 13, 2025, the Murder of Christopher Meyer episode https://lunarfallaudio.com/

Transcript

Building The Waratah And Its Claims

Maiden Voyage Problems And Stability Doubts

Second Voyage Cargo And Final Departure

Last Sighting And The Storm

Searches False Leads And No Debris

Inquiry Testimony And Cargo Truth

Later Hoaxes Expeditions And Theories

What Likely Sank The Waratah

Closing Thoughts And How To Support

SPEAKER_00 0:01

It's so annoying when you lose something. You spend hours or even days looking around desperately for it just for it to turn up in the last place you look. It's bad enough when it's something small like your keys or that stupid little screwdriver you use once a year to change the battery in a remote. But it's even worse when you misplace something larger, like maybe your car, or even worse, a whole-ass cruise ship. Like the Blue Anchor Line did in 1909 when the SS Werita disappeared without a trace off the coast of South Africa. So, what happened? I'm Andrew, and this is History's A Disaster. Tonight we're diving into another mystery. The disappearance of the SS Waritaw, Australia's Titanic. And tonight's episode is brought to you by Waddle Swamp Water Adventure Park. Waddle Swamp Water Adventure Park has expanded with the addition of a brand new attraction, the Invisa Wave Pool. All the thrills of a regular wave pool with the added excitement of never knowing when it's gonna hit. You'll never see it coming. So come on down to Waddle Swamp Water Adventure Park and get swampy. In September 1907, W. Lund Sons, who owned the shipping company Blue Anchor Line, wanted a new ship for their highly profitable Australia run. So they put in an order with Barclay Curl and Company, a famous shipbuilder in Glasgow, for a new passenger and cargo vessel, and they didn't want just any ship. They wanted an updated version of their existing steamship, the Geelong. The new ship would be 465 feet long with a 60-foot beam and a gross tonnage of 9,339 tons, powered by two massive triple expansion steam engines generating 5,500 horsepower, turning twin screws that could push her through the ocean at the swift speed of 13 knots. Since the ship was being built for the Australian run, it was built with three decks to haul both passengers and cargo. It would carry immigrants to Australia, then load up with cargo for the return trip to London. With that in mind, she was built with three complete decks on the ship. The first class accommodations was built on the promenade, bridge, and boat decks and could hold 128 passengers, which included a nursery for the first class passengers, something not very commonly found on ships. The third class passenger accommodations constructed on the poop deck could hold 300 people, but they could only get certified for 160, which just means they'd chug 300 in there if they got the chance, certification or not. The ship had eight state rooms and a salon, as well as a music lounge complete with a minstrels gallery. She was built with a double hull and was divided into eight watertight compartments. And just like the Titanic a couple years later, she was billed as being virtually unsinkable. Since it was intended to be an immigrant ship, the cargo holds could be converted into large dormitories, capable of holding almost 700 steerage passengers on the trip to Australia, while on the way home, she could be loaded down with frozen meat, dairy products, wool, and metal ore from Australia. To be able to carry the frozen produce, her entire front end was fitted with refrigerating machinery and cold chambers. She was also equipped with a Kircaldi's distilling apparatus, which was capable of producing 5,500 imperial gallons of fresh water a day. The only thing the Werita didn't have, which was fairly common for the time, was a radio. It could only communicate with other ships in visual range by signal lamp. After successfully passing its sea trials off the west coast of Scotland, it was shipped off to London and put under the command of Captain Ilberry. Captain Illberry had 30 years of sailing under his belt and was previously the captain of the G Log, the ship the Weritaw was based on. On November 5th, 1908, Captain Ilberry set off on the Warita's maiden voyage with a crew of 154 and carrying 67 first-class passengers and 689 people shut down in third class. They left London for the 5-week trip to Adelaide, Australia. While en route to Australia on December 6th, a fire broke out in the starboard side coal bunker. While they managed to get the fire put out, it would not stay out. The fire kept popping back up over the next four days. The heat from steam valves on the starboard side of the engine room kept re-igniting the flames. They insulated the roof of the engine room, but apparently cheaped out or just flat out did not insulate the starboard side of the room, which would lead to repair work having to be done when they reached Sydney. After hopping around different ports in Australia, unloading passengers and picking up cargo, she headed back to London on January 9th. Her cargo holds now full with food, wool, and 1500 tons of metal concentrate. And for reference, metal concentrate is metal like copper or iron that has been ground down into a fine powder to remove impurities, which makes it more valuable but extremely difficult to transport by sea, since all the moisture tends to turn the powder into liquid, which can often lead to massive cargo shifting, leading to major stability issues on the chip. But she would make it back to London safely and was unloaded and put in a dry dock so the ship could be inspected and have some minor repair work done. During the trip, Captain Ilberry noticed a few tiny, relatively insignificant issues with the ship that he brought up when they made it back to London. He was not happy at all with the stability, finding it a bit top-heavy, especially after having commanded the G-Long. He noted the Werita had issues the G-Long did not have. Also, loading the ship to keep her stable was a bit of a pain in the ass. And all of this would lead to a bit of an argument between the Blue Anchor Line and Barclay Curl. An argument that would get brought back up later on. But with the repair works complete, the Waritas sent out on its second voyage with a much smaller number of passengers. 22 in first class and 193 in third. And only 119 crew members this time around, along with holds filled with general merchandise. Gotta keep those profits up. Less passengers, more room for cargo. They shipped out April 27th and made it to Adelaide uneventfully on June 6th. After dropping off its passengers and cargo, she was loaded with more than 1100 bags of wheat and 11,000 copper ingots. Then it was a quick trip through some stormy weather to Melbourne to pick up another 8,000 bags of flour, 340 zinc ingots, and 2,000 bales of wool. And then finally to Sydney for 1,500 tons of iron concentrate and 2,000 tons of coal. And on top of all of this, they picked up smaller quantities of food, leather, timber, and 21 tons of supplies, and 150 tons of ballast water and bilge. Loaded down with cargo and a total of 212 people, counting both crew and passengers, they set out for London with a couple of quick stops in Durban and Cape Town, South Africa on the way. They made it to Durban on July 25th, where Claude Sawyer decided the ship just wasn't right. He thought it was too top heavy, plus, he claimed he was having bad dreams, in which a man, dressed in a very peculiar dress, which I had never seen before, with a long sword in his right hand, which he seemed to be holding between us. In the other hand, he had a rag covered with blood. So he took this as a bad omen and jumped ship to find alternate passage to Cape Town. So now down to 211 passengers and crew, the Werita left Durban the night of the 26th bound for Cape Town. Around 4 a.m. the next morning, the Weritaw was spotted just behind the steamship Clan McIntyre on the starboard side. Being the faster ship, the Waritaw came level with Clan McIntyre by 6 a.m. Lacking radios, the ships communicated by signal lamp and exchanged information about the name and destination of their ships. This was a normal custom between ships at the time. Wiratah then passed the clan McIntyre near the mouth of the Bashi River on the southeast coast of the colony of NATO. She remained in sight of Clan McIntyre, gradually steaming away until she disappeared over the horizon at 9.30. This was the last confirmed sighting of the Waritah. As the day progressed, the weather quickly turned to shit, with increasing wind and rough seas developing into a cyclone by the next day. And while this was the last confirmed sighting, there would be a few unconfirmed sightings. At around 5.30 on the 27th, the SS Harlow saw the smoke of a steamship on the horizon. Enough smoke that the captain started to think the ship was on fire. When darkness fell, the crew of Harlow could see the ship's running lights approaching, but it was still 10 nautical miles behind them. Shortly after, there were two bright flashes from the direction of the ship and the lights vanished. The captain thought they were possibly caused by explosions, but one of the mates of the Harlow, who had also seen them, thought the flashes were brush fires on the shore, which was a common phenomenon in the area at that time of year. The captain agreed and decided not to enter the events in the ship's log. Only when he learnt of the disappearance of the Weratod did he think the events were significant. At that time, Harlow was 180 nautical miles from Durban. That same evening, at around 9.30, the Union Castle liner Gilf, heading north to Durban from the Cape of Good Hope, passed the ship and exchanged signals by lamp. However, because of the shit weather and poor visibility, Gilf was only able to make out the last three letters of her name, TAH. Another possible sighting was by Edward Conker, a Cape mounted rifleman who on the 28th, along with signaler Antshead, was posted to carry out military exercises on the banks of the mouth of the Zora River. He recorded in his diary that he and Antead had watched the steamship, which matched the description of Waritaw, appeared to be struggling slowly against heavy seas in a southwesterly direction. He watched the ship roll heavily to starboard, and then before it was able to write itself, a wave rolled over the ship, which then disappeared from view, leading him to believe it had gone under. Conker reported his sighting to his base camp and to his orderly sergeant, but the sergeant thought he was full of shit and didn't take him seriously, so the report was never filed and Conker never came forward with the story until 1929. Werita was expected to reach Cape Town by July 29th, but never made it. Which at first did not cause much concern since it was not unheard of for a ship to be a few days or even a week late. And since they thought the Weritaw was unsinkable, everyone figured it had a mechanical problem or was somehow otherwise delayed. But when ships that had left Durban after the Werita began arriving at Cape Town and reported having seen no sign of her en route, people became a bit concerned. The tugboat TE Fuller was sent out first to look for any sign of the ship, but had to turn back when the weather kept getting worse. The Royal Navy next sent the cruisers HMS Pandora, Forte, and later Hermes to search for Werita. Hermes searched the areas near the last confirmed sighting, but while searching, the Hermes hit large waves that managed to damage the hull bad enough it would require a dry dock to repair the damage. Other ships in the area joined the search, including the Geelong, which changed course from Cape Town to Adelaide to search the waters east of the Colony of Natal, where they thought maybe the Waritaw was drifting. The German steamship Gosler also kept an eye out for the Waritah during its trip from Port Elizabeth to Melbourne. There was a reported sighting of the ship on August 10th, but this report made it all the way to Adelaide before being confirmed that the ship sighted was not the missing Werita. On August 13th, the steamship Incisla reported seeing several bodies off the mouth of the Banshee River near the last confirmed sighting of Waritah. The captain of the steamer Totenheim also saw what he thought might be bodies in the water more than two weeks after the disappearance. The tugboat Harry Eskom was sent out to search for bodies. They did not find dead human bodies, but they did find a bunch of dead skates. Skates are a type of stingray and are often confused for a human body floating in the sea. No one was ready to give up on the Waritaw after all the searches. There was still a hope that Werita was still afloat and drifting out there somewhere. This would not be the first time something like this happened. In June of 1899, the steamship Wakado's propeller shaft snapped and could not be repaired. So the helpless ship was at the mercy of the currents as it drifted for over 100 days and traveled over 2,500 nautical miles. Other ships had seen her, but none had been able to help tow the ship back to shore. Until the steamer the Aslon managed to do what all the others failed to do and towed her back to Australia. Since the Waritaw was well provisioned, she'd be able to hold out for at least a year with what was on board. In September of 1909, the Blue Anchor Line, along with the Admiralty and the Australian government, chartered the Union Castle cargo ship Sabine to search for the Waritaw along the Wakado's known drift path. Sabine was fitted out with searchlights and elevated crows' nests to aid in the search which operated around the clock. The search covered 14,000 nautical miles. They sailed back and forth across the southern Indian Ocean for nearly two months with nothing to show for it. With no sighting of the ship for over four months, Waritaw was officially listed as missing at Lloyd's of London on December 15th. In early 1910, a group of Australian relatives of those lost aboard the Werita formed the Melbourne Search Committee and raised funds to outfit one final expedition to locate the missing ship, which they believed was still drifting in the icy waters. The steamer Wakefield was chartered to conduct a four-month search, expanding the grid between the Sabine expedition limits and the Australian coast. During the search, they landed several parties onto uninhabited islands in the hopes of finding castaways. However, like every previous attempt, they came home empty-handed. No wreckage or bodies confirmed to be from Warrata have ever been found. There, however, have been a few unconfirmed reports. In March 1910, wreckage was said to have been found at Mosul Bay. A life preserver reportedly marked with the name Warrata washed up on the coast of New Zealand in February 1912. In 1925, Lieutenant D.J. Roos of the South African Air Force reported that he had spotted a wreck while he was flying over the Transky coast. Though Roos professed that it was the wreck of Waritah, neither he nor anyone else ever saw the shipwreck again. Pieces of cork and timber were washed up near East London, South Africa, in 1939, which is thought to have been from the Weratot. The Port of Trade held an inquiry in December of 1910 at Caxton Hall in London. Its focus was largely on the supposed instability of Waritah. However, most of its evidence came from passengers and crew from Waritaw's maiden voyage, her builders, and those who handled her in port. The only witness they had on its final voyage was Sawyer, who got off right before the ship disappeared. The expert witnesses called in the inquiry all agreed that Waritaw was designed and built right and sailed in good condition. She had passed numerous inspections, including those by her builders, her owners, the Board of Trade, and two of Lloyds of London who gave her their top rating, which is only granted the ships Lloyd's had inspected and assessed throughout the design, her construction, fitting out, and sea trials, on top of the two valuations and inspections Lloyds had made of the completed Wariton. However, the passengers who had actually sailed across the ocean on the ship called bullshit. They testified that Weratov felt unstable, frequently listed to one side even in calm weather, rolled excessively, and was very slow to come upright after leaning into a swell, and had a bit of a tendency for her bow to dip into oncoming waves instead of riding over them. One passenger on her maiden voyage said that when in the Southern Ocean she developed a list of starboards so bad that water would not run out of the bats, and that she held this list for several hours before rolling upright and then settling down to a list going the other way. This passenger was physicist Professor William Bragg. He concluded that the ship's mediciner was just below her center of gravity. When slowly rolled over towards one side, she reached a point of equilibrium and would stay leaning over until a shift in the sea or wind pushed her upright. Other passengers and former crew members commented on her lack of stability, and those responsible for handling the ship in port said she was so unstable when unloaded that she could not be moved without the lost. But for every witness of this opinion, another could be found who said the exact opposite. Both former passengers and crew members said Weritao was perfectly stable with a comfortable, easy roll. Many said they felt she was especially stable. Since the inquiry was getting so many conflicting opinions and had a serious lack of evidence, they came to no real conclusions as far as blame. They ended up deciding that the steamer had sunk in the first major storm she had encountered. It was suggested that the owners covered up details relating to the experimental design of the ship, stating that nothing out of the ordinary had been reported by the ship's captain after its maiden voyage, which is bullshit. To reduce questions about the ship's stability, the vessel's owners also claimed that the vessel was carrying only a third of its load capacity of just over 3,000 tons when it vanished. Which, of course, is a load of bullshit because the Australian Manifest and witness accounts said a completely different story. On her maiden voyage in 1908, she carried 9,800 tons of cargo, around 90% of capacity. On the ship's final voyage, She was loaded down with just under 11,000 tons of cargo, far more than the 3,000 they were trying to claim. Werita's disappearance, the inquiry, and the criticism of the Blue Anchor Line generated a whole lot of negative publicity, which caused ticket sales to drop drastically, which, combined with the loss of the Werita, which just have to be underinsured, forced the company to sell its other ships to its main competitor and declare bankruptcy in 1913. A Brisbane newspaper, the Daily Mail, suspected its competitor, the Daily Standard, was copying its news stories. So the Daily Mail published a fake article claiming the Werita had been discovered in Antarctica. The Daily Standard also published the same story and even added a statement from a harbor master that never existed. Years later, Emilyn Brown, along with author Clive Custler, who was convinced that the sighting of Edward Conquer held the key to Warita's location, took up the task of finding her. Emily would lead multiple expeditions to locate Waritah in 1983, 89, 91, 95, and 97. In 1999, there were newspaper reports that Waritah had been found six miles off the eastern coast of South Africa. After 18 years of searching, they believed they had finally found it. They were so convinced that Kussler even mentioned it in one of his books. A sonar scan conducted by Emlyn Brown's team located the wreck, whose outline was a match to that of Warita. In 2001, however, a dive at the site revealed that the wreck was that of Nail Sea Meadow, a cargo ship sunk by a German U-boat in World War II. In 2004, Brown, after searching for 22 years and exhausting every option he could think of, gave up the search. In 2009, Brown gave his opinion that Weratop possibly capsized in the storm. In his view, the upturned ship may have remained afloat for long enough to be carried south by currents before finally sinking into the deep ocean beyond the continental shelf where it would not be easy to find. So what really happened to the Werita? The most popular and likely theory is the ship hit a rogue wave off the coast of South Africa. Rogue waves are known in the area, and some of the ships involved in the search had hit a few that forced them to turn back. So it's highly likely that Warita with some sketchy stability issues and sailing through a pretty nasty storm was hit by one of these giant waves, which would have either rolled the ship completely over or busted in her cargo hatches, filling the holds with water and pulling the ship down almost instantly. If the ship capsized or rolled over completely, any debris that would have floated out would have been trapped under the wreck, which would be why no evidence or wreckage was ever found. A professor Mallory of the University of Cape Town wrote a paper in 1973 saying that waves of up to 66 feet in height did occur in the last known area the Werital was in, and gave this theory a lot of credibility. Several other ships around the Cape of Good Hope have been severely damaged and nearly sunk by rogue waves flooding their holds. There's also a less likely version of this theory where the ship was damaged by a rogue wave and was unable to make it to shore and swept out the Antarctica and eventually sank. The next likely theory is capsizing due to cargo shifting. Whereita was carrying around a thousand tons of lead and 300 tons of lead ore concentrate. This theory suggests the ore concentrate turned to liquid and caused a massive cargo shift that capsized the ship. Today, ore concentrate is considered hazardous cargo, which requires special measures to be taken to transport it in ships. Something that wasn't really known or thought of back in 1909. A less likely theory says the Whiritaw was caught in a whirlpool and sucked down, which perfectly explains why they never found any evidence. And speaking of no evidence, there is no evidence that there has ever been a whirlpool strong enough to threaten a ship the size of the Whiritaw. While whirlpools can and are extremely dangerous for smaller boats and swimmers, even some of the well-known and documented whirlpools would pose very little danger to a large ship the size of the Whiritah. Another theory, based on the reports from the Harlow, is that the ship was destroyed by an explosion in one of the coal bunkers, which set off the coal dust in the air. The only problem with this theory is that it would have to be one massive explosion to completely destroy the ship in a way no one would be able to escape. And there's also the fact that explosions tend to leave a lot of debris floating in the water. And one final theory, aliens. Because obviously it's fucking aliens. With the lack of any logical evidence, who else could make a ship disappear completely other than those little green men from Mars? And of course, that's just ridiculous. Personally, I think the Weratow was either sunk off the coast of South Africa, near the mouth of the Bashi River by a rogue wave, and was eventually buried in the soft mud, which means eventually as technology improves, she'll be found. Or she drifted off and sank near Antarctica where she will most likely never be recovered. And that was the disappearance of the SS Waraton. Thanks for listening, and if you liked the show, please consider leaving a rating or review on your apple choice. And you can reach out to the show at historiesadisaster at gmail.com with questions, comments, or suggestions. As well as following the show on social media, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, whatever. And share the episode. Your friends will love it. And always remember to take a penguin with you when traveling across the ocean. Because really, is there any better navigator than a penguin? So chase that dream with a penguin. Live for today! Because tomorrow is never guaranteed. Thanks and goodbye.