/ 17 July 1999

WARATAH GENERATING HUGE FOREIGN INTEREST

ONE of the crew that located the SS Waratah’s final resting place in June says there’s huge international interest in producing a documentary on “one of the most famous wrecks in the world”. Dr Peter Ramsay, head of the Council for GeoScience’s marine geoscience unit and part of the crew that solved the 90-year-old maritime mystery, said they were looking at bringing international television companies on board to try and raise the necessary finances to launch a submarine expedition to view the ship and attempt to retrieve some artefacts. Ramsay said he believed the discovery of the wreck would boost tourism along the Wild Coast as many of the 211 passengers who died on the ship were from Australia. He said a number of relatives were still alive and they “might want to come and see where their relatives passed away”. About R900000 has been spent on the 18-year search for the vessel.