100 years since SS Waratah disappeared off the Wild Coast

I am really suprised at how almost all internet mystery-sinking threads seem to miss three very basic points that appear entirely by-passed. The most obvious starting point being well documented similar occurances. These details are easily accessable by doing a google/you tube search on the loss, 80 years later, of a modern cruise ship sinking in virtually identical conditions, and within a stones throw of the suspected Waratha site. Excellent sinking-graphics and filming of the Oceanos going down are simple to come by, and show just how easily it could happen today, let alone how much easier it could have occured back in 1909. The next point focusses on deconstructing the two myths that have elevated this tragedy to a great maritime mystery, way up there with the Mary Celeste and the Flying Dutchman. 1. The ship was never found... Is this really so strage? Without the type of funding spent in locating the Titanic, unchartered, and unpredictable ocean foors, is it not in fact more likely that the ships location is as yet undiscovered. 2. The disembarking passengers phrophecy.... This is the crucial part of the legend. Every great story needs that little bit of extra flavour....enter the passenger who's phophecys and warnings were ignored, but who escaped certain death after questioning the ships sea-worthyness, and being visited in his sleep by visions of the ships fate. He attempts in vain to warn fellow passengers of impending doom should they ignore the warnings, and even writes-off the cost of the remainder of his ticket home, so certain is he of that all aboard the cursed vessel shall perish. The disembarking passenger sends a telegram home stating his predictions prior to the ship leaving port, and ensures written proof that his Nostradamus-esque predictions are recorded in time to ensure the twist that will propell this ship's fate into maritime legend forever. A recently published article by Fortean dares to question this crucial element of the story, which sheds an entirely new light on events. Do tune in tomorrow for concluding chapter. Anton, London.

The passenger Sawyer...The man who was blessed with life-saving visions of impending doom, a latter-day Nostradamus, a man so convinced of the ship's unsea-worthyness that he jumped ship in South Africa en-route back to England, sacrificing his precious onward ticket, and tried in vain to warn other passengers of their fate. All very entertaining, and certainly the difference between a simple vessel loss and one terrific mystery, but how many of the facts here have been slightly distorted, or at best glossed over in order to create a somewhat better story. Lets begin with Sawyer's journey from Sydney to his home in England. What may have slipped everybody's attention is that he boarded the ship in Sydney. From there, it docked at Melbounre and Adelaide before heading for Durban. Sawyer therefore had two earlier ports he could have alighted at, and a distance of 800 nautical miles, in which he could have concluded the ship was unsafe, and declined to continue his voyage. Most articles also seem to deliberately mislead readers into believing Sawyer was in possession of an England-bound ticket, a man who's unshakeable convictions on the ships fate led him to give up a significant financial sum by sacrificing his home-bound ticket by jumping ship in Durban. This is without doubt the biggest flaw of the the entire story, as it provides the legend with an almost supernatural quality that has been greatly embellished over time. Sawyer had in fact only paid as far as Cape Town, the next post of call. Having journeyed past 2 ealier feasible drop-off ports, if his firm beliefs in the ships unsafety are to be believed, he jumped-ship just one port short of his final destination, having got over 95% of his moneysworth already. With this in mind, the great gesture of giving up one's non-refundable ticket price, his futuristic-vision convictions become somewhat less impressive. Next, the telegram home, definate proof of preminations...well, not exactly, in those days, as in these, a message home notifying all of any schedule-alterations were routine. Telegrams were not cheap, and as they were charged by the word, tended to be short. Sawyer's certainly did not mince words, but was this perhaps the deliberately shortest phrasing he might have used to convey his delayed arrival, and if so why....? Concluded tomorrow. Anton, London

26 July, 1909, Durban...an unexpected passenger disembarks from a London-bound ship and will set into motion a series of events that will catapault its imminent loss into maritime folklore forever. Most of his contribution stems from a very short telegram home stating his unexpected early departure from the vessel was based upon his doubts on her sea-worthyness. The testimony of the passengers who chose to ignore Sawyer's phophecy's cannot be verified, as they left no statement either way prior to their demise. All that is certain is that Sawyer had already seen fit to pass two possible earlier exit ports, and had far less to loose than most on board by getting off just one stop short of his final destination, with well over 95% of his paid for voyage already behind him. What is less reported, but not denied, is that Sawyer was also seeking some sort of assistance for a medical ailment of some form. Vague references are made towards a from of Neurosis. The topic is then discreetly shelved. Archchair diagnostics today can do a very quick search to find this possible diagnosis, if correct, opens up a veritable Pandora's Box of possibilities and explanations for our lead character, with vivid nightmares and psychosis being just the tip of the iceberg. But there is no need to have our lead-character dismissed as a nut-case. Whatever Sawyer's mental capacities at the time might have been, they play just a supporting role in the legend. It is a chapter that could diminish the value of the only supernatural wittness in this tale, and so the less said about it the better if the whole mystery-legend angle is gonna float..... Lets instead return to Sawyer, wisely heeding the phrophecy, sacrificing his onward ticket and now about to jump ship once it arrives in Africa. Africa....the dark continent...untamed, and as Wild as the stretch of coast gives its name to where the Waratha was lost. Perhaps the natives were restless when the Waratha approached the shores of Africa. Perhaps their drums beat to the rhythm of the ancestors, perhaps the spirits of the ancestors were resentfull of ships from afar who had brought nothing but evil, or perhaps this entire paragraph is an excercise in phoney-baloney mood setting to remind us of what 1909 readers would have percieved Durban/Zululand to have been like. Unlike the far more urbane Cape Town, Durban would indeed qualify as the Waratha's most untamed and uncivilized port of call for a disembarking English gentleman, which would again add credence to the theory that by alighting here, Sawyer is demonstrating a resolve so strong that he gets off at the most inconvinient, and unknown of all possible ports. But just how unfamiliar was Sawyer with Durban....? Stay tuned.... Anton, London.