["The Waratah", The Register (Adelaide, SA), Friday 11 March 1910, page 9]
...
Messrs. John Sanderson & Co. were the local agents for the Waratah and also for the Tottenham. A representative of the firm stated that he saw Capt. Cox, of the Tottenham, frequently when he was in Melbourne, and never heard anything from him in regard to that vessel passing dead bodies. Enquiries had been made in his office, and no one else had heard of the story or had asked that it be suppressed so as not to create friction.
When Capt. Simpson, of the Aberdeen White Star Company's steamer Pericles, was in Melbourne a few days ago, he said that the supposed bodies sighted by the Insizwa, and afterwards searched for and found by the tug T. E. Fuller, were never taken out of the water and examined. "She just steamed im to them," said Capt. Simpson, "decided they were pieces of skate or whale flesh, and came right home again." They may very well have been pieces of human flesh. I saw these men at Cape town, and the first query I put to them was, "Did you lift the floating flesh on hoard?' They replied 'No.' 'Well,' said I, 'how do you know they were not pieces of human beings?' They did not answer."
notes:
This piece reveals that John Sanderson & Co. were the local Port Adelaide agents for both Tottenham and Waratah;
although agent's rep denies any conspiracy of silence, the inference is clear.
