The end of a 100-year Mystery

 SS Waratah

In Sept 2009, a 100-year mystery was ended when a diving team from Spain located the wreck of the SS Waratah.

She vanished without a trace in July 1909 after rounding the Cape of Good Hope (how ironically named) the Waratah disappeared for over a century.

The captain had reported the ship had a bad list, as did her sister ship, and a crew member reported she appeared top-heavy. The night before she disappeared, a passenger had a nightmare featuring a hand rising from the sea, raising a plank with the letters S A R H visible.

He canceled his berth, telling his friends he'd return on the next ship.

The last sighting of the Warath was as she passed Cape Town; there was a sighting of a blue flash by a horserider on the plains. No wreckage has been found. 

There are several theories about her disappearance, some are ludicrous, and others carry some validity. The main issue is the lack of wreckage. No wreckage means the ship capsized as she was top-heavy, or the blue light could have hit a rogue wave (unusually high - sometimes over 70 feet high) and turned over. 

With the warm Indian Ocean current meeting the cold South Atlantic waters and crashing over the rocks, you have the worst conditions for a ship to sail. When you have the added danger of a ship with a steerage problem and being top-heavy, you can see the ship turning over and the cold waters rushing into to meet the boiling conditions of the boiler room; there was no wreckage as the explosion was contained by the hull.

The team that found the wreckage vowed not to tell anyone as they said her position was too deep to safely dive on, and she was on a ledge. They only found her by using a remotely-operated-vehicle,