DEVONPORT FATALITY.

Auckland Star, Volume LIV, Issue 49, 27 February 1923, Page 6

DEVONPORT FATALITY.

SAILOR FOUND DROWNED.

HEART SEIZURE PROBABLE

) The adjourned inquiry into the eireum ' stances surrounding the death of Hubert i ( harles v hinnery, ward-room steward on ' H.M.*. Chatham, who was found on tho i rooks off the promenade on the eastern ! side of the Devonport ferry wharf last ' Saturday morning, was continued before the Coroner. Mr~ \V. R. McKean, S.M., this morniriir.

I .John McElligott, a stoker of TT.M.-. : Philomel, stated that on Friday evening, while waiting for the 10.50 p.m. ferry steamer from town he ami two other.-* took a fltroll along the concrete promenade on the eastern Fide of the wharf They saw the deceased, with two other men, sitting on a seat. He recognised one of the men as a cook un H.M.s. Chatham. The men were conversing as witness and his two companions passed. There was nothing unusual in their appearance or actions. The next morning j witness heard that the body of the deI ceased had been found near the place ! where witne.-s last saw him. ; Edgar .1. Andrew, a .scroolboy, residins at Calliope Road, Devjnport, gave evidence as to finding the deceased at about 7.4-"> on Saturday morning. The body was lying fa.'c downwards. There was blood on his face and eyes.

Medical evidence as to the fac? and other par;, uf tiio body being brui-cd mid cut vva-i given by Dr. D. N. \\". Mnrray. The left lung showed old plp-.iritie adhesion*, and bjtli lung? wore waterlr>ppe.l. The heart was enlarged and fatty, with slight atheroma of the noru, and contained an ante-mortPin clot. There was r.o sni'll of alcohol or p- Ur, n in tie contents of thp stomach. Death iva; pr-babh- dm- to drowning following on a heart seizure. The Coroner refrrned a vordiet tba' dent!, was due to drowning, proh.bh- following on a heart seizure, but there ,va« no evidence to .how how the deceased -o' into the water. ' ■"