SS Waratah was a passenger and cargo steamship built in 1908 for the Blue Anchor Line to operate between Europe and Australia. In July 1909, on only her second voyage, the ship, en route from Durban to Cape Town, disappeared with 211 passengers and crew aboard. The ship was constructed for both speed and luxury, and had eight state rooms and a salon whose panels depicted its namesake flower.
About SS Waratah in brief
SS Waratah was a passenger and cargo steamship built in 1908 for the Blue Anchor Line to operate between Europe and Australia. In July 1909, on only her second voyage, the ship, en route from Durban to Cape Town, disappeared with 211 passengers and crew aboard. No trace of the ship has ever been found. The ship was constructed for both speed and luxury, and had eight state rooms and a salon whose panels depicted its namesake flower, as well as a luxurious music lounge complete with a minstrel’s gallery. She was named after the emblem flower of New South Wales which appears to have been an unlucky name: one ship of that name had been lost off the island of Ushant in the English Channel in 1848, one in 1887 on a voyage to Sydney, and one in the Gulf of Carpentaria in 1897. The vessel had a steel hull, and two sets of quadruple-expansion steam engines, with cylinders of 23-inch, 32-1⁄2-inch and 67-inch diameter with a 48-inch stroke, that provided a combined 1,003 nhp and drove two screw propellers, and moved the ship at up to 13 1 ⁄2 knots. She sailed back for London on 9 January 1909 via South African ports carrying a cargo of foodstuffs, wool and metal concentrates, 1,500 tons of metal, and 1,000 tons of wool, concentrates and concentrates of 1,200 tons of coal. She left London for her maiden voyage on November 1908 with 67 first-class and third-class passengers, and touched off at Cape Town on 27 November and arrived at Adelaide on 15 December 1908.
In order to be able to carry frozen produce, her entire front end was fitted with refrigerating machinery and cold chambers. She also had Kirkcaldy’s distilling apparatus installed on board capable of producing 5,500 imp gal of fresh water a day. At the time of construction, War atah was not equipped with a radio, which was not unusual at the time. The steamer was assessed at 9,339 GRT and 6,004 NRT and had deadweight of approximately 10,000. After successful completion of sea trials the ship was transferred to her owners on the same day and immediately departed for London. She was under the command of Captain Edward Ilbery, a veteran of the Blue Anchor Line with 589 years of nautical experience, and a previous master of SS Geelong. She had a crew of 154 crew and 154 passengers, including Hamilton Wickes, a newly appointed British Trade Commissioner for the Commonwealth, Dr Octavius Beale, president of the Federal Council of Chambers of Manufactures, and Octavio Beavale, the president of Riverina Riverina and the vice-chairman of the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry. After delivery, the steamer proceeded to Melbourne and Sydney and proceeded to Adelaide.
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This page is based on the article SS Waratah published in Wikipedia (as of Dec. 09, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
