THE ILL-FATED WARATAH.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 3409, 28 December 1911, Page 5

THE ILL-FATED WARATAH.

A-RELIC DISCOVERED. ! POSSIBLY FROM THE VESSEL. . V | SPECIAL TO TIMES.} AUCKLAND, Dec. 27. A lifebuoy bearing tho name "Waratah” .'has been washed ashore -bn the West Coast, near Waiuku. It is not known how long the buoy had been on the beach before it Avas picked up, but it was covered .Avith barnacles ana marine growth, evidently having been in the water for some considerable time. Unforturiately the findep in removing the barnacles spoilt the' name, but he states that when found the name was plainly seen. . , The likelihood of the . buoy having any connection with-the liner Waratah, which ivas lost off the African coast some three years ago, , was mentioned by a reporter to a number of prominent , deep-sea captains \ this morning. Captain Hart, of the steamship Star of Canada, asked for his opinion, said that he Avas inclined to think that the buoy was from the ill-fated vessel. For the last 20 years he had throAvn bottles over at various points in' his voyages, at the request of the Australian and United States Government Meteorological Observers. Of course a number of the bottles were never heard of again, but he had received a report on his last trip to England of three that had been' picked up in various parts of the Avorld, after drifting for over three years. He remembered throwing bottles over on the African coast, and at Cape Horn, and having them reported from the West Coast of New Zealand, near the Manakau. It was no doubt a long distance for the buoy to drift in such a time, but such things had happened before. Captain Murrison, of the Drayton Grange, said that it Avas by no means impossible that the buoy was from the lost Waratah, though he hardly considered it probable.. Nevertheless the barnacles oh the buoy pointed to the fact that it had been in the water for a long time. . It would be a quick drift for the buoy to be carried 6000 or 7000 miles during the time that had elapsed since the loss of the vessel. There are small steamers and a cutter trading on the Australian coast bearing the name Waratah, so that it is possible that the buoy may have been lost by one of these' vessels, while it may have come from tbe scoav of that name abandoned near Lord Howe Island last year. The official search for the lost Waratah Avas abandoned on December 16, 1909.