["Three Marine Mysteries", The Sunday Times (Perth, WA), Sunday 31 March 1912, page 1]
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THREE MARINE MYSTERIES
The frequency of these appalling disasters during recent years is beginning to get on the nerves of the travelling public, and it is about time that the Federal Government woke up to the fact that it is their business to inquire into the causes and institute preventive measures. A little over two years ago the Blue Funnel liner Waratah disappeared in a wild storm off the South African coast, and not a scrap of her has ever been found since. She had over 300 persons on board, many of whom were Australians making the trip to the Old Country, so that her loss brought widespread sorrow throughout Australasia.
The Waratah was a 12,000-ton boat, well built and strong, but it was notorious that she was too high out of the water. There is convincing testimony to the fact that she had what is known as a "list," and that she was very dead in righting herself when rolling heavily. Her owners pooh-poohed the idea that she was unsafe, but several members of her crew left at Sydney because they were frightened to travel in her, and it is alleged that her captain declared that he had drawn attention to her suspicious behaviour. Yet she was allowed to go to sea with over 300 people on board who went to a tragic and watery grave.
Just under 12 months ago the Yongala went down off the coast of Northern Queensland in a furious storm. It is possible she was driven onto a jag of the Great Barrier Reef. The Yongala was a vessel of some 5,000 tons, and took about 200 people down with her. She left the port of Mackay on the Queensland coast, and that was the last seen of her till fragments were afterwards recovered off Townsville.
Now we have the Koombana, which is missing after encountering one of the fiercest cyclones known on the North-West coast of W.A. She was 4399 tons register, and was 100 yards long and 40 feet wide. The steamer was built in Glasgow about two years ago, and has been running on the North-West line most of her career. From the very outset she had bad luck and got stuck on a sand bank in Shark Bay on one of her first trips. On several occasions since she has had mishaps, and some people who are not at all superstitious would not travel by her. Others maintained that she was far too much out of the water, and did not relish her for that reason. It is to be hoped that at the inevitable inquiry particular attention will be devoted to the question whether vessels of the Koombana type are safe. More we do not care to say until the fate of the vessel is definitely decided.
It is curious that the Yongala and Koombana disasters should have occurred on almost the same dates with 12 months between them, and it is also a coincidence that in each case the calamity took place on about the 22nd parallel of latitude. It is almost precisely on the same spot, only on opposite sides of the continent, which seems to be the centre of danger zone in the Australian tropics.
