SEAMAN’S DEATH.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVI, Issue 121, 23 April 1936, Page 2

SEAMAN’S DEATH.

INQUEST CONDUCTED

Per Press Association. AUCKLAND, April 22. Although tne body has not yet been recovered, an inquest into the death of Jack McMillan, aged 07, a seaman on the motor-ship Limerick, who fell; into the \yater between tne vessel and Princes Wharf about midnight on Monday and was drowned, was opened before Mr F. K. Hunt, S.M., Coroner. Special permission had to be given by the Attorney-General (Hon. H. G. R. Mason) to hold the inquest without the body. The chief engineer of the Limerick, Frank Moivajt, said that when he returned to the ship about 11.35 p.m. on Monday he saw three men who appeared to be members of the crew having a drunken argument on the wharf. Two of the men in the argument were Angus McLean, boatswain, and Angus McLean, able seaman, while witness learned subsequently that the third man was deceased. The seaman McLean was more or less helplessly drunk, the boatswain McLean was more or less drunk and in a cantankerous mood, while deceased was fairly drunk. Hearing a commotion about midnight witness said he came on deck and found the two McLeans and was told that a man had fallen overboard. He later found deceased’s hat on the wharf, where the argument had occurred. He had known deceased for about 15 years and had found him an inoffensive man.

Angus McLean, seaman, said the boatswain McLean went on board about a quarter of an hour before deceased fell in. Deceased left witness and went in the direction of the ship, but walked over the edge of the wharf about 30' yards from the gangway. Witness said the boatswain McLean had bumped deceased’s head against a corner of the shed opposite the place where deceased went over. “If he had been sober he would have saved his friend; he would not have let him walk over the wharf, ' said the Coroner when witness was being further questioned. Angus McLean, boatswain, said he did not strike deceased or bump his head against the wall. “He was my best ‘cobber’,” said witness. The inquest was adjourned sine die.