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 first search effort was launched on 1 August, when the tugboat T.E. Fuller was sent out to look for any sign of the ship, but was forced to turn back after encountering dreadful weather. She later returned to search along the coast. The Royal Navy deployed cruisers and HMS Forte (and later ) to search for the Waratah. The Hermes, near the area of the last sighting of the Waratah, encountered waves so large and strong that she strained her hull and had to be placed in dry dock on her return to port. On 10 August 1909, a cable from Colony of Natal reached Australia, reading "Blue Anchor vessel sighted a considerable distance out. Slowly making for Durban. Could be the Waratah". 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 Adelaide, the town bells were rung, but the ship in question was not the Waratah. Numerous other ships in the area joined the search, including the Waratahs sister ship Geelong which deviated from its course from Cape Town to Adelaide, to search waters east of Colony of Natal where the Waratah was thought to be possibly drifting. The German steamship Goslar also kept special lookout for Waratah for 1262 miles of ocean while en route from Port Elizabeth to Melbourne. On 13 August 1909 the steamship Insizwa reported sighting of several bodies off the mouth of Bashee (Mbashe) River, near the location of the last confirmed sighting of the Waratah. The Captain of the Tottenham also allegedly saw bodies in the water, more than two weeks after the Waratah disappeared. The tug Harry Escombe was sent out to search for the bodies, but failed to find any; it did however find floating objects which resembled human bodies, which turned out to be dead skate. Hope remained that Waratah was still afloat and drifting; this was bolstered by the experience of the steamer SS Waikato which had in 1899 broken down off the Cape, and had drifted eastwards for over 100 days covering , before being discovered