47["The Waratah", The Hedland Advocate (Port Hedland, WA), Saturday 21 January 1911]

The Waratah

London, January 12.

At the continuation of the inquiry into the loss of the Waratah, Capt. Bidwell, Lund's marine superintendent, stated that after Waratah's first voyage Capt. Ilberry and his officers praised the vessel.

Admiral Davis quoted a letter from Hodder, chief engineer of the Waratah, stating that the coaling of the vessel was stopped on two occasions because the Captain was afraid that the vessel would list.

Counsel read the Sydney pilots' declarations to Ilberry that the vessel was not to be trusted, also the deposition by Latimer, tally clerk, Sydney, that the second officer of the Waratah had told him that the vessel had one deck too many.

The depositions of Luskin (steward) asserted that the Waratah's lifeboats were the most awful he had ever seen.

Witnesses from the "Insizwa" corroborated the evidence concerning human bodies having been seen floating off the African coast, below Durban.

The third officer of the Insizwa said the captain enjoined silence on the matter, and remarked that the owners would have a poor opinion of him if he bothered to pick up bodies and convey them to the nearest Port when other vessels were specially searching for the missing vessel.