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 and towed to Australia. "Waratah" had enough provisions on board to last for a year, however as she lacked any radio equipment, she would have been unable to communicate with any ships beyond visual range. In September 1909, the Blue Anchor Line chartered the Union Castle cargo ship "Sabine" to search for the "Waratah". The "Sabine" was specially fitted out with search lights and other equipment. Its search covered , and zig-zagged across the drift path of the aforementioned "Waikato" but yielded no result. With no sighting of the ship for over four months, "Waratah" was officially posted as missing at Lloyds of London on 15 December 1909. However in early 1910, relatives of "Waratah" passengers made one further attempt to locate the ship, and chartered the "Wakefield" which conducted a search for four months covering , this again proved unsuccessful.