100 years since SS Waratah disappeared off the Wild Coast

How marvelously challenging....an opportunity to write an entirely unexpected additional chapter on the great mystery. David has posted an extremely valid point on the whole Waratha-seaworythness debate. Along with all intelligent and sensible minds, the question has to be raised....what did other characters involved in this tradedy believe ? I am unfamiliar with the maritime-safety-regulations quoted above, and so will proceede quoting facts understandable to the general public instead. Ship-hands had indeed agreed that they felt uncomfortable with the ships performance and had jumped ship. The Captain sensed rumours were adrift regarding the ship's performance, and had taken the unprecedented and unheard of step of stating on record his ship was not lacking in any way. An elderly passenger was so badly wounded that she had to be admitted to hospital in Durban due to injuries caused due to the ship's instability. The Captain seemed uncharacteristically concerned with the whole freight loading procss prior to departure. It appeared to observers as if the good Captain seemed obsessed with the whole top-heavy concept for some reason. With these facts in mind,perhaps it might seem an appropriate time to evaluate where this new angle on the maritime-mystery might be heading... Hold on to your hats, this turns out to be the big finale several chapters early.... Contrary to what might be so-far percieved, the conclusion of my questioning approach to the facts is that Sawyer was in fact used by writers to add a sensational twist to the story. No contest was ever thought neccessary in court to question Sawyer's character in any way, and, were he to have had any motive what-so-ever to launch himself as some latter-day-Nostradamus, these attempts are today unrecoreded, and presumabely, non-existant, so in the absence of any contadictory evidence, one can only view his testimony as being without dishonnest intent. So what point could an unscrupulous crank possibly have in suggesting that the entire Waratha Legend is some nutter-based invention..? Well, David is to be commended....further chapters would have revealed nothing more than that a series of so-far unconnected co-incidences that would have lead a reader to conclude that Sawyer was the passenger most likely to have jumped ship, with or without of any supernatural intervention. It might also have urged modern-day readers to question what ever truth they are being fed without questioning facts that today would have led modern conspiracy- theorists into believing just about anything, and have led realist-theorists to argue against the supernatural element to the Waratha disaster. Perhaps readers will indulge me with a final take on what is know acknowledged to be Australia's greatest Maritime Mystery. One of Australia's best known cult-movies was based upon the novel of the same name "Picnic at Hanging Rock". The publishers could spot a hit when they saw one, and commisioned the work on the spot. There was just one minor issue.....The whole movie/book project would be a lot more viable if they shredded the final chapter and put the work out without it. Generations of fans later, their wise descision was rewarded a thousand times over (as anyone who has read the now-revealed "hidden chapter" will almost certainly agree with..) Perhaps another Australian cult legend suffers from the same fate. The Waratha's sole supernatural wittness can, by modern- questioning-skeptical judicial analysis, at the very least be questioned if not dismissed ( do the rest of the research yourselves folks....!), the proven risk that these shores pose to modern passenger shipping is well documented...see the case of the Oceanas. This leaves us with a relatively tiny vessel (in ocean terms) so far undiscovered somewhere in an unchartered ocean floor crator, canyon or crevice. Dissapopinting the essence of the story might seem without the whole hocus-pocus element, but ships sink.....end of story Anton, London.