MAN’S DEATH IN HARBOUR

Press, Volume LXXXV, Issue 25739, 26 February 1949, Page 7

MAN’S DEATH IN HARBOUR

FALL FROM GANGWAY

EVIDENCE AT INQUEST (P.A.) WELLINGTON, February 2fi. That the deceased died on February 11 by drowning as a result of an accidental fall into the Wellington ha:hour was th* finding of the Coroner (Mr W. G. Mellish) at an inquest into the death of George Albert D'Arcy Wright. Wright fell into the water while descending the gangway of the Dominion Monarch on the night of February 11. Robert Tennyson Bell said deceased was New Zealand representative for British Celanese, Ltd. Jack Seddon Hoar said he was present at a cocktail party in the Dominion Monarch. Deceased and his wife had alsd been present. At 7.15 p.m., when he saw accessed and his wife in the palm lounge, he assisted deceased’s wife to his car on the wharf and when he went back to get Wright a crowd had gathered, and he was told Wright was in the water. Rescue attempts were unsuccessful. Albert Edward Boyton, a Harbour Board employee, said he was about to go aboard the Dominion Monarch at about 8.10 p.m. when the quartermaster threw him a lifebuoy and said that there was a man overboard. Witness could hear a man between the ship and the wharf, and he dropped the lifebuoy. He heard a voice say: "I have got it." Witness attempted to go down to the man, but was prevented. Ropes were thrown down. The man in the water caught one, and helpers started to haul him up, but before he got to the top the ship surged and he dropped off. The man then was caught with a fit of vomiting and sank from view. Witness had a clear view of the man. Jack Drew Olliver, a tally clerk, said he heard a voice calling from the water. "Save me. save me.” It had been a very rough night and the ship had been surging all the time. Usually in passenger ships they had a safer type of gangway than this He had not seen a net slung under the gangway. In witness's opinion, deceased had walked off the end of the gangway and stepped into space. He did not think there was anything at the bottom of the gangway to prevent this. There was no net under the gangway, said Police Sergeant John Sidney Callanan. There had been nothing on the far end of the platform 4o stop anyone irom walking straight off into the water. From the fluid taken from deceased'* stomach and tested, it was clear that he had been heavily intoxicated at the time of his death, said Dr. Flora Smith, assistant pathologist, who conducted a post-mortem examination. Death was due to drowning while in a state of intoxication. “I cannot shut my eyes to the fact that deceased was under the influence of liquor." said the Coroner. “There was nothing to stop anyone from going straight ahead down the gangway and walking into the harbour. There was no net. in accordance with the regulations. There was no evidence to show the deceased actually did get into the harbour by that means. One could only assume th’t that was probably the way he feD ” Wright was a former British Olympic swimming representative.