SINKING OF HOLMGLEN

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29206, 17 May 1960, Page 16

SINKING OF HOLMGLEN

Coroner Gives Verdicts

(New Zealand Prase AssoetaMm) TIMARU, May 18. Two members of the crew of the coastal vessel Holmglen died from asphyxia by drowning, and 12 others who were lost when thp ship sank off the coast near Timaru are presumed to have died from asphyxia by drowning. This was the verdict of the Coroner (Mr J. M. Jenkins) when he concluded today the inquest into the deaths of the crew of the Hnlmglen, The Coroner found that Neil James McEwan, a wiper, also known as Janes McEwan, and Sydney Victor McKenzie, an able seaman, of Glasgow, also known as Sid McKenzie, died on or about November 21, 1959, in the sha about 18 miles east-south-east of Timaru from asphyxia by drowning. He also found that the fbllowng were presumed to have died from asphyxia by drowning: Wildred Henry Harding, third engineer, of Mangakino; Joseph Anson, cook, of Newcastle-on-Tyne; Keith Lawton Barker, second officer, of Auckland, also known as Keith London Barker; Keith Douglas Billinghurst, chief officer, of Grey street, Port Chalmers; Gary Joseph Boyce, ordinary jeaman, of Motueka; John Cleary, able seaman, of Preston, England; Ronald Andrew McColm Foster, chief engineer, of Petone; Aubrey Shepherd McClelland, steward, of Otane; Alfred John Pemberton, able seaman, of Newcastle-on-Tjrne; Edward Joseph Eugene Regnaud, master, of 59 Totara street, Nelson; Derek Whorlow, able seaman, of Whitstable, Kent; Alexander James Wolgast, second engineer, of Ceversham. The inquest into the death of the fifteenth member of the crew, Henry Weatherby or Weatherly, able seaman, was adjourned until his correct surname has been established. “No Concrete Evidence** The Coroner said there was no concrete evidence before the Court as to who was on the Holmglen or as to the actual time of the disaster. The Court had been given evidence in the case of McEwan by the superintendent of Mercantile Marine, Raymond Lewis Keats, who said that McEwan had signed on to the crew of the Holmglen on November 17—seven or eight days before the ship foundered. » “The ‘ Solicitor-General, in making -the appointment of myself to conduct these inquests, has presumed that the members of the crew were members of the Holmglen and that they Were lost from that ship,’’ said the Coroner.

The Coroner’s verdict on McEwan and McKenzie was in accordance with medical evidence given at an earlier hearing by the pathologist at the Timaru hospital (Dr. R. C. Taylor). x