BELTS WATERLOGGED.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 15 January 1929, Page 6

BELTS WATERLOGGED.

MYSTERY OF RYE DISASTER. STARTLING DISCOVERY AT INQUEST. “I was horrified to find that the life--1 belts -were waterlogged, and so heavy that they 'would have drowned any man. I think they were dud belts. . . . ‘‘lt is time for an inquiry, as the same kind of belts axe being used in boats at other ports. 5 ’ These startling words rang through the gloom of the inquest room at. Rye at the inquiry into- the death of six of the 17 victims of the lifeboat tragedy. They were spoken by Major "W". B. Hackling, joint coxswain of the lifeboat crew-, who jumped up during the hearing of -evidence and made a sensational statement. “It is my duty,” he said. A police sergeant had given evidence that the belts found on the men washed ashore had -worked up tightly round their necks. . TREMENDOUSLY HEAVY. “1 am very anxious about this,” Major Hacking declared, “because I was in the boat ivhen the new jackets were first used. I tried their buoyancy by going into the water and they were buoyant at first. “I was horrified, however, to find that these jackets were all waterlogged when found after the capsizing of the boat. I don’t see how any one of the&e men could have struggled ashore with one of these belts round his neck. I believe they are a French patent.” Dr. Henderson, a witness, was asked what he thought of the belts, and said that they were tremendously heavy, so much so that it was almost impossible to lift them -with one hand. Major Hacking said he did not know whether the lifebelts were perished or not. He suggested that one or two 1 of the lifebelts at the old lifeboat house should he tested to see if they gotwaterlogged. Major Hacking- explained that years before the war the -old cork jackets were used, but were changed after a man had had his face injured by one of them. “I was the first person to use one of the lifebelts in the boats,” he said, “and I think it is time for an inquiry, since boats at other ports are using the same belts. ’ ’ LUNGS WERE STOPPED. “11l two -cases, in my -opinion, the men I saw were so tightly fixed with their belts that it was not a question of water; it was a question of their lungs being stopped. The belts were off when the doctor saw them. “I hold that these belts should not be waterlogged; they should bo watertight. I think they were ‘dud’ belts. I thoroughly appreciate everything the Lifeboat institution has done. I myself have been on the com-, mittee here for twenty years.’’ “Usually,” said Major Hacking, “a drowned man is full of water, but three of the bodies I saw on Thursday were empty.” Dr. Henderson stated, however, that he found water in all the bodies. On an invitation from the coroner, Major Hacking then repeated on -oath his statements about the lifebelts. Corroborative evidence was 'given by Mr -Charles Southeden, a member of the lifeboat crow, who did not go out oil the fateful trip. The coroner, who recorded a verdict of death by accidental drowning, said :ie would write to the secretary of the National Lifeboat Institution -on the. natter. Accidental death was the verdict re;urned by -the Romney Marsh coroner it an inquest of nine other of the load lifeboatmen.