["The Missing Waratah", The Mercury (Hobart, Tas.), Monday 13 December 1909, page 5]
THE MISSING WARATAH;
CAPTAIN TICKELL STILL HOPEFUL.
THE SABINE'S SEARCH.
MELBOURNE, December 12.
Captain Tickell, the Victorial naval commandant, whose son is a passenger on the missing steamer Waratah, said yesterday that, in spite of the fact that the Sabine had returned from an unsuccessful trip, and that the Waratah was to be posted as missing on December 15 if no news was to hand, he still had hopes that she was afloat. The Sabine'e search only covered a little more than half of the ocean to Australia, and from Amsterdam Land to Australia remained unsearched. The Sabine was out 90 days zigzagging across the track of shipping. She had a powerful search- light burning at night, which would have made, her conspicuous at least 20 miles on either side in clear weather, yet they had only news of her being sighted once during the 90 days, and that was when she came north. By the report of the Sabine's search she could only go to Possession Island and the Crozets, being unable to get to the others owing to the fog. If she could not find islands that were marked accurately on the chart, she had a slender chance of sighting the Waratah, whose position she did not know.
