LOST AT SEA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 12908, 3 July 1905, Page 5

LOST AT SEA.

fc CAPTAIN'S WIFE DROWNED,

INQUEST AT NAUMAI.

'ji'jj inquest was hold at Naumai, Northern '.Wairoa, oil Wednesday, by Mr. F. Webb, , bn board the barque Devonport, into the circumstances attending the death of Mary Patterson Sundberg, wife of Captain Sundberg, master of that vessel. Thorc Vandician Sundberg deposed that bii June 8, when lie was five days out from Melbourne, bound for Kaipara, a heavy sea Was running, and fierce equally were frequent. His wife was on board the vessel, and at twenty minutes past twelve p.m. on the day in question was at dinner. She got up and went out by the fore companion ladder. Witness thought she was " squeamish." Hearing a cry of alarm he ran up on deck and saw his wife floating in the sea. He ran to throw a lifebuoy, but the mate had already done so. The buoy went within 10ft of deceased, but she appeared to be unconscious. The ship was hove-to, and the lifeboat prepared for lowering. A man was sent aloft to keep a lookout. Witness also went aloft himself, but nothing more was seen of deceased. He remained •near the spot whero his wife disappeared, for eighty minutes, and thou went on his tourse. James Ernest Capsfick Dale, chief officer bf the Devonport, said when Mrs. Sundberg went overboard he run aft and saw her floating back up near the stern; She made jno effort to catch the lifebuoy. The ship : was at once hove-to, the lifeboat got ready

to launch, and the crew selected, but it would have been absolutely useless and dangerous to have launched the boat. The caplain and his wife were on the best of terms. W. Williams, able seaman, said when Mrs. Sundberg came up the fore companion ladder the wind seemed to blow her clothes Lbout, and she put both her hands to keep them down. She then appeared to lose her balance and stumbled; She caught hold of lie companion door, which swung loose, and (hen she fell overboard. Ho left the wheel ia get a rope to throw to her, but by that time she was 15 fathoms away. He put the fcbip up by direction of the captain. . Alexander McAdie, able seaman, who was Sent aloft to keep a lookout, three or four minutes after the accident, said he could fcee the lifebuoy, and kept it in view till it was a mile to windward, but nothing was to be seen of Mrs. Sundberg. ' The decision of the coroner, who, according to the Act, was unattended by a jury, was that deceased was accidentally lost overhoard from the Devonport at sea, five days put from Melbourne, on Juno 8, in latitude 38 degrees south, longitude 161.17 degrees east; that every effort was made to render assistance, consistent with the safety of the crew, and that no blame is attachable to any one.