WRECK OF THE BARQUE EMILIE.

New Zealand Times, Volume LI, Issue 8965, 16 April 1890, Page 5

WRECK OF THE BARQUE EMILIE.

THE INQUEST. (per press association.) Inveloahgill, AprillS. An inquest was held to day on the body of John Brownrigg, mate of the wrecked barque Emilie, who died in the Hospital shortly after his admission. A verdict was found that he died from gangrene ot the limbs and exhaustion. Charles Cummings, one of the survivors, deposed that when the vessel left the Bluff he and the others of the crew knew that she was not fit for sea. She had no canvas that would stand any sort of a breeze, and the standing rigging was in bad condition, the bolts in the topsides being loose, as if the wood round ttem was decayed. The bolts that fastened the deck to the beams were nearly all eaten away by rust. Several of the crew told the people at the Bluff that the ship would never reach Port Pirie if she met with rough weather. The captain told Cummings and the others who joined at the Bluff to take & look at the vessel for a day before siguing articles. They said they would not disappoint him, and Joined the ship.. They spoke to the constable at the Bluff about the ship’s condition, but made no official complaint. Those of the crew who had been in the barque before told him she had five feet of water in her hold when she wont into the dry dock at Melbourne, and that on the voyage from San Francisco they were at the pumps day and night. Had the vessel been sound the disaster would not have happened, the gale not being anything serious ; and had the canvas not been rotten they could have weathered the breeze by running before the wind. Mr J. G. Ward, who chartered the vessel, at this stage informed the Coroner that a nantical inquiry would be held into the wreck, and the examination of Cummings ceased. It transpired that Brownrigg was a native of Canada, aged 56, and had two children resident in Upper Stanley street, Liverpool.