"Waratah" reached Durban on the morning of 25 July, where one passenger, Claude G. Sawyer, an engineer and experienced sea traveller, left the ship and sent the following cable to his wife in London: "Thought Waratah top-heavy, landed Durban". Sawyer later testified to the London inquiry that he had booked passage on "Waratah" through to Cape Town, but had decided to disembark at Durban, as he had been nervous about the behaviour of the ship during his voyage. He also claimed that he had been disturbed by visions he saw in dreams during the voyage of a man "dressed in a very peculiar dress, which I had never seen before, with a long sword in his right hand, which he seemed to be holding between us. In the other hand he had a rag covered with blood." Sawyer claimed that he took these visions to be a warning to leave the ship at the earliest opportunity. In any event his decision to leave the ship at Durban saved his life.