In July 1909, on only her second voyage, the ship, en route from Durban to Cape Town along the coast of what is present-day South Africa, disappeared with 211 passengers and crew aboard.

In September 1907 W. Lund & Sons placed an order with Barclay Curle of Glasgow for a new cargo and passenger vessel to be delivered within twelve months that was specially designed for their Blue Anchor Line trade between the United Kingdom and Australia.

[4] Sea trials were held on 23 October 1908 on the Firth of Clyde, during which Waratah was able to successfully maintain a mean speed of 15 knots (17 mph; 28 km/h) over several runs on the measured mile.

[1] Waratah had a cellular double bottom built along her entire length, and the hull was divided into eight watertight compartments which, it was claimed, rendered her "practically immune from any danger of sinking".

[8][9] She was under the command of Captain Josiah Edward Ilbery, a veteran of the Blue Anchor Line, with thirty years of nautical experience and a previous master of Geelong, and had a crew of 154.

[10] Among her passengers were Hamilton Wickes, a newly appointed British Trade Commissioner for the Commonwealth, Dr. Ernest Anderson, Bishop of Riverina, and Octavius Beale, president of the Federal Council of Chambers of Manufactures.

[11] While on her maiden voyage, early in the morning of 6 December 1908, Waratah's second officer reported a small fire in the lower starboard bunker, extending all the way to the engine room.

[13] On 27 April 1909, Waratah set out on her second trip to Australia, carrying 22 cabin and 193 steerage passengers, in addition to a large cargo of general merchandise, with a crew of 119.

[14] She continued on to Sydney where she loaded her cargo for the return voyage, consisting of, among other things, flour, wool, dairy, frozen meat, and 7,800 bars of bullion, and departed on 26 June.

[18] Waratah reached Durban at 11:00 AM 25 July, where one passenger, Claude Gustav Sawyer, a director of public companies and an experienced sea traveller, left the ship rather than continuing on aboard her to Cape Town.

Just before departing for England on 5 August, Sawyer posted a telegram to his wife in care of his business associates which read: "Booked Cape Town, Thought Waratah Top-heavy, Landed Durban.

Eighteen months later Sawyer testified at the Board of Trade inquiry that he had booked passage on Waratah as far as Cape Town, but had decided to disembark at Durban because he had become nervous about the behaviour of the ship during his voyage.

However, because of the bad weather and poor visibility, Guelph was able to identify only the last three letters of her name as "T-A-H."[22] Another possible sighting, which was not disclosed to the London inquiry, was by Edward Joe Conquer, a Cape Mounted Rifleman who, on 28 July, along with Signaller H. Adshead, was posted to carry out military exercises on the banks of the mouth of the Xhora River.

He recorded in his diary that he and Adshead had observed, through a telescope, a steamship which matched the description of Waratah that appeared to be struggling slowly against heavy seas in a south-westerly direction.

Fears started to grow for her safety when ships which had left Durban after Waratah, and had travelled on a similar course, began arriving at Cape Town and reported having seen no sign of her en route.

The Chair of the House of Representatives in the Australian Parliament halted proceedings to read out the cable, saying: "Mr. Speaker has just informed me that he has news on reliable authority that the SS Waratah has been sighted making slowly towards Durban.

In June of that year, Waikato's propeller shaft snapped and could not be repaired at sea, leaving the ship to drift at the whims of elements for over 100 days and covering a distance of over 2,500 nautical miles (4,600 km).

[38] In September 1909, the Blue Anchor Line in conjunction with the Admiralty and the Australian government chartered the Union Castle cargo ship Sabine to search along the Waikato's drift course for Waratah.

[42] A number of later efforts to locate a wreck have taken place, in particular undertaken by Emlyn Brown who was convinced that the sighting of Edward Joe Conquer held the key to Waratah's whereabouts.

[45] In 2009, Brown gave his opinion that Waratah possibly capsized in the storm; in his view, the upturned ship may have remained afloat for long enough to be carried south by currents, before finally sinking into the deep ocean beyond the continental shelf, where it cannot be easily located.

However, many witnesses who had travelled on the ship testified that Waratah felt unstable, frequently listed to one side even in calm conditions, rolled excessively, and was very slow to come upright after leaning into a swell, and had a tendency for her bow to dip into oncoming waves rather than ride over them.

[54] The ship's builders produced calculations to prove that even with a load of coal on her deck (that several witnesses claim she was carrying when she left Durban) she was not top heavy.

[55] Correspondence between Captain Ilbery and the line's managers show he commented on numerous details about the ship's fixtures, fittings, cabins, public rooms, ventilation and other areas, but failed to make any mention at the basic level of Waratah's seaworthiness and handling.

However, virtually all ocean-going ships (which are, after all, designed to carry a large weight of cargo) need to be ballasted to some extent when moved unladen, so Waratah was certainly not unique in this respect.

Van Rensburg found references that the bituminous coal taken aboard ships at Durban was prone to releasing firedamp (methane gas) when broken during loading and when stored under weight in unventilated spaces.

[citation needed] This work also found differences between accounts by Captain Bruce of the Harlow in the press before he attended the inquiry and his official evidence - his earlier statements appeared more confident that the ship he saw was damaged or destroyed by a sudden event, in the form of two closely-spaced explosions creating flashes of fire 300ft and 1000ft in to the air respectively.

Unable to properly contain or control the fire, which was generating a lot of thick smoke due its tar-heavy composition, the Waratah was put about to return to Durban for assistance.

While in view of the Harlow, the buildup of methane released from the burning coal and heated in adjacent bunker spaces exploded, immediately causing catastrophic damage to the ship and sinking it instantly, at 8.30pm on July 27th 1909, near the mouth of the Mzimvubu River at Port St.

In the strong Agulhas Current of the region, wrecks may move over time in the soft seabed, or even drift some distance as they sink slowly in the water column and settle to their final position.

Evidence from pilots in the 1920s referred to an uncharted, ship-like dark shape visible in the shallow waters off Port St. Johns, and a navigational almanac from the same time mentioned a mast protruding from an unnamed wreck in the breakers at the bar at the river mouth.