Newspapers for vital snippets of information 1870s

A passing reference to Captain and Mrs Caithness adds interest to the timeline for this ancestor. It tells us the Caithness couple had travelled as passengers on the Northam (Norham Castle? possible misspelling) from the Cape of Good Hope to Southampton. Reported in the Hants Advertiser Sat 21 Sept 1872. This ship was carrying a valuable cargo - over 2 000 pounds in specie (money in coin, not notes), gold from the Marabastadt fields, ostrich feathers, ivory - and nine packages of diamonds. The bales of wool would have been valuable too. The departure dates from each stop en route and the weather experienced are a helpful record of what it was like for any passenger to travel by ship from the Cape to Southampton in the 1870s.

What happened to the Waratah?

Everyone has their pet theory as to the disappearance of the Waratah. While we will probably never know exactly what happened on that fateful voyage after the ship left Durban, theories continue to be offered, adding to the aura of Waratah’s mystery. 

1909:  S.S.Waratah, flagship of the Blue Anchor Line, leaves Durban harbour on 26 July for Cape Town, where she is expected to arrive on 29 July. On the next day she signals the ship Clan Macintyre in passing but then, in what becomes one of the enduring mysteries of the sea, she vanishes together with 92 passengers, 119 crew and 6500 tons of cargo. Among the passengers are prominent Durban businessman David Turner, his wife and their five children. (The whole Turner family was lost which led to Turner's partner John Cochrane-Murray taking over Turners Shipping which is still owned today as part of the Turner Group by his grandson. My grandmother Florence went to school with a girl who was lost with her mother on the Waratah while her father and sister were motoring to Cape Town to meet them.)

   

[Jackson Allan Facts about Durban (2nd ed. 2004) pg 26 ]

Following the disappearance of a 10 000- ton passenger liner the Waratah, off the South African coast in 1909, an earlier incident involving the Norham Castle was related in a letter to the press by a Mr. Hermann Flugge :

In January 1888, we left Cape Town [on board the Norham Castle] with only 12 Passengers, and, after being a sea for a day and a half, we had the misfortune to break our propeller, and the worst was that the screw smashed our rudder, so that we were helpless.

Our gallant Captain rigged up a yard and sails, and we were drifting for weeks, and the Norham Castle was given up for lost here and at Home [Britain]. 

Not one but half a dozen ships came in sight, but as soon as we signalled our distress, the vessels turned out of our course .... I remember when our Captain assembled every soul on board in the saloon. 'Our vessel is safe from sinking,' he said. 'With the rigged-up sails I hope to reach St. Helena. Should this fail, we are drifting into a current which, after three or four months, will bring us to the coast of Brazil. From the day that we miss St Helena, only half rations will be served.' 

Fortunately, one of the sailing vessels we sighted, which passed St. Helena, and was questioned there as to the lost Norham Castle, reported having sighted a steamer in distress, and gave as far as possible our whereabouts. A whaler, lying at that time in Jamestown, was despatched to our rescue. 

Three weeks we had drifted, and if not rescued, would perhaps have drifted as many months without our fate becoming known to any living being.

Could not a similar mishap have happened to the Waratah? No wreckage has been found up to date, and I advise all those who have friends on the vessel not to give up hope till it is definitely proved that the Waratah has gone to the bottom.  

[Harris C J & Ingpen Brian D Mailships of the Union-Castle Line (1994) pg 53]

Thanks to Terence Hugh Paterson for the above references.

Rogue wave

Freak Waves that swallow ships whole

From the early days of navigation, the sea off the Wild Coast of South Africa earned a fearsome reputation for its merciless storms and monstrous waves. In one of the greatest unsolved mysteries of the sea, the luxury liner Waratah, with ships both ahead and behind it, vanished in broad daylight off the Wild Coast in 1909.

The explanation generally accepted for the ship's disappearance is that it fell victim to one of the unpredictable freak waves that are the scourge of this stretch of ocean. This belief is supported by the fact that between 1964 and 1973 six ships suffered encounters with these abnormal waves. In addition, in 1968 the tanker World Glory broke its back and sank after ploughing headlong into a freak wave off the Natal Coast.

Freak waves vary from about 5 to 20m in height, an awesome force, but are exacerbated by being preceded by a deep trough. If a ship encounters such a wave head-on, it will first dip into the trough, and before it has time to raise its bow, a 20m wall of water comes crashing down on its deck - enough to smash the sturdiest vessel afloat. With large ships such as tankers, the superstructure may be buckled as the vessel bucks through the steep trough and wave; smaller ships may simply disappear.

Although impossible to predict the exact occurrence of these waves, there are some warning signs. Immediately off the 10 km-wide Transkei continental shelf the Agulhas Current flows strongly south-westwards, creating a 100 km-wide belt up to 2 000m-deep. When a cold front (low-pressure system) moves across Southern Africa, the associated galeforce south-westerly winds generate waves that, on encountering the current flowing in the opposite direction, becomes higher and steeper. If any of these steep waves become superimposed on the long wavelength swells that reach our shores from the Southern Ocean, then a massive abnormal wave can develop.

[Reynierse Cecile (ed) Illustrated Guide to the Southern African Coast (1988) pg 204]

David Willers’ book In Search of the Waratah, published in 2005, reminds us that after the disappearance several ships spent months searching for her in the southern Atlantic and southern Indian oceans, and suggests that Waratah broke down and drifted south – an option that was underplayed at the Inquiry. Willers explores what might have happened if Waratah had not foundered on the eastern seaboard but had drifted into the wastes of the southern oceans. The second half of the book resorts to fiction.

A volume by P J Smith has since appeared, The Lost Ship Waratah. Both this and Willers’ book refer to the Waratah as The Titanic of the South, a term which in my opinion is inaccurate: we know precisely what happened to the Titanic. Smith’s book is based on the diaries and other documents of Walter Smith (P J Smith’s great-uncle), who was on board during both search attempts for the Waratah. No conclusions are drawn. Author Clive Cussler instigated a million-dollar search mission which seems to have faded from view.

The deep has yet to give up her secrets.

Wreck of the Fascadale: a heroic rescue 1895

The Fascadale, a steel barque of over 2 000 tons built in 1890 by A Stephens & Sons, Glasgow, foundered on rocks south of Port Shepstone on 7 February 1895. According to some accounts, she was on her way from Java - where her captain, B J Gillespie, had been left behind due to illness - carrying a crew of 28 and a cargo of sugar. The incident is notable for the heroism shown by those involved.


Under the headline 'Disaster at Sea', The Times (London) reported on 1 March 1895 that the Norham Castle had arrived at Durban with the news that a four-masted sailing vessel, with all sail set, was sighted ashore near Port Shepstone on the morning of 7 February:

'There was a heavy swell breaking clean over the ship and the crew were seen waving clothes, some clinging to the rigging and some to the end of the jib-boom. The chief officer of the Norham Castle, Mr Whitehead, volunteered to go in a boat and attempt their rescue, and succeeded after much difficulty in taking off the 18 men. Mr Whitehead behaved with great bravery. It was only after several attempts that a line could be attached and communication made with the ship, and this was only effected by Mr Whitehead jumping into the sea and swimming with a line around his waist. He was met half way by an apprentice from the wrecked ship, with another line. The two lines were joined in the water, and by this means 17 of the crew were hauled aboard the boat in an exhausted condition. The captain of the ship [i.e. her First Mate who was in command at the time] was washed off the poop, but was rescued by Mr Whitehead who again jumped into the sea and swam with him back to the boat. Five men were still on board clinging to the jib-boom but the surf was so heavy that it was impossible to get near them.

The boat returned to the Norham Castle for rockets and other apparatus but before she got back to the wreck the five men were either washed off or dropped into the sea with the object of swimming ashore. They were not seen again. Ten men were missing altogether, but one has since got to land, and two bodies have been washed ashore. It is feared that the seven others were drowned. The wrecked vessel was the Fascadale, Captain Gillespie, from Java to Lisbon, with sugar. Mr Whitehead was presented with an address by the passengers of the Norham Castle, and also with an illuminated address by the inhabitants of Durban in recognition of his heroism.'

Frank Whitehead, chief officer of the Norham Castle (later Captain Whitehead), and the Fascadale's apprentice, Robert P G Ferries, were subsequently awarded the Board of Trade medal for bravery at sea. Sergeant C R Ottley of the Natal Police also received a bronze medal for his contribution in saving the lives of crew members of the Fascadale.

Death at Sea: Tragedy on the Conway Castle 1880

This was the headline in the Natal Witness of January 8 1880 and the original report follows:

A tragic event occurred on the Conway Castle during her voyage out this last time, particulars of which have been furnished us (Advertiser) by a gentleman who arrived here on Melrose and was a witness of the whole affair. It appears that a man named Robert Ross took a steerage passage in this steamer and came out to work for a firm in Durban. He had not been long at sea, in fact was in the Bay of Biscay, when he expressed himself dissatisfied with the arrangements below, and told some to whom he was known that he should sleep upon the deck. This was on Sunday night before reaching Madeira and the next morning (Monday) at 7.30, there was a cry of 'man overboard', and it was found that Ross had disappeared in the sea. The boatswain states that Ross leaped overboard, but there were many who had their doubts of this. Anyway, the ship was stopped for half an hour and Mr Brown, the first officer, in a very smart manner, got a boat lowered and went down himself in charge. The search proved unsuccessful and the boat was hauled up, when, just as the vessel was under weigh, they passed the body floating face upward in the water. The captain was on the bridge, but said it was no use stopping, the man's head was knocked in and he was dead, and the vessel proceeded on her voyage. Our informant asks the rather pertinent questions: How could Captain Jones  know this? And would it not have been more satisfactory to make himself and all on board assured of the fact? For our own part, having known Captain Jones when on the Florence, we cannot believe him capable of doing anything that lacks of courtesy and consideration for the feelings of others, but at the same time are fully convinced of the correctness of our informant's story. Ross leaves a wife and family at home to mourn his untimely end. The passengers on board got up a subscription for them. 

The story illustrates the fact that even by 1880, there was a chance that those leaving England for South Africa may well have said a last farewell to their home and loved ones and that the great adventure held as many hazards as did the days of sail.

It's also useful as a practical example of how to find maritime events: the precise death date of the unfortunate Robert Ross is given on www.FamilySearch.org under the collection 'United Kingdom, Maritime Births, Marriages, and Deaths, 1787-1933':  Robert Ross, death, 1 Dec 1879, vessel Conway Castle. The Conway Castle reached Natal by 8 January 1880 but the death at sea occurred about a month before while the ship was in the Bay of Biscay, as reported in the Natal Witness. From the FamilySearch site there's a facility to follow up the information on www.findmypast.com and, for a fee or through subscription to the latter site, to obtain an image of the register page giving further details.




Conway Castle (2,966 tons) built in Glasgow in 1878, was a regular mail steamer until 1883, during which period the above tragedy occurred, and was later transferred to the intermediate service when the Roslin Castle, Norham Castle and Hawarden Castle joined the Line. She underwent considerable improvements in 1892, fitted with triple-expansion engines, her funnel lengthened and with iron bulwarks replacing the open deck rails. The passenger accommodation was upgraded too, with refrigerating machinery and electric light being installed. Not long afterwards, on the Mauritius route, she ran ashore on May 10th 1893 50 miles south of Tamatave while on a voyage to Durban. Her passengers were ashore for 10 days until the Union liner Arab conveyed them to South Africa. But it was the end of the Conway, which could not be brought off the rocks and finally broke up.