THE WRECKED BARQUE EMILIE.

Press, Volume XLVII, Issue 7526, 16 April 1890, Page 5

THE WRECKED BARQUE EMILIE.

SERIOUS ALLEGATIONS.

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INVEitCABGILL, April 15.

An inquest was held to*day\on the body of John Brownrigg, mate of the wrecked barque Emilie, who died in the Hospital shortly after admission from gangrene of the limbs and exhaustion. Charles Cummiiigs, one of the survivors, deposed that when the vessel left the Bluff he and the others of the 'crew knew she was cot fit for sea, They had no canvas that would stand any sort of a breeze, and the standing rigging was in a bad condition, the bolts in the top3ides being loose, as if the wood round them was decayed. The bolts that fastened the decks to the beams were nearly all eaten away by rust. Several of the crew told people at the Bluff that the ship would never reach Port Pixie if it met rough weather. The captain, told Cummings and others who joined at the Bluff to take a look at the vessel for a day before signing articles. They said they would hot disappoint him, and joined the ship. They a poke to the constable at the Bluff about the ship's condition, but made no official Complaint.' Those of the crew who had been in the' barque before told him she had five feet of water in the hold when she went into dry dock at Melbourne, and that on the voyage from San Francisco they were at the pumps day and night. Bad the vessel beensound the disaster wouldnot hare happened, the gale not being anything serious, and had the canvas not been rotten they could have weathered the breeze by running before the wind, Mr J. O. Ward, who chartered the vessel, at this stage informed the Coroner that a Nautical Enquiry would be held into the wreck and the examination of Cummings ceased. It transpired that Brownrigg was a native of Canada, aged fifty-six, and had two. children, resident in Upper Stanley street, Liverpool.