FATAL FALL DOWN A HATCH.

New Zealand Times, Volume LVII, Issue 2426, 4 February 1895, Page 2

FATAL FALL DOWN A HATCH.

A YACHTSMAN KILLED. At an early hour on Saturday morning the body of a man named Harry Summers was found by two boys in the fore hatch of the hulk St. Kilda, which , is lying alongside the breastwork near the Eailway Wharf. The man, who was one of the crew of the yacht Pastime, was quite dead, and had bled freely from a. severe wound On the upper part of the forehead. Deceased ‘was in the habit of sleeping on the ye chip and had, it is surmised, gone ashore the night previous, fastened his dingey to the ketch Spec, and on returning to the breastwork to go aboard the yacht had evidently mistaken the St. Kilda for the Spec, tripped on the combings and fallen down the hatchway, a distance of 12ft. About half-past 9 on Friday night Mr Malcolm Miller, owner of the yacht, saw the dingey tied to thw Spec, and on' Saturday morning he noticed that it had not been moved. An inquest on the body was held at the Morgue on Sunday morning, before Lieut.Colonel McDonnell, Acting-Coroner. Dr Pollen stated that the wound on the deceased’s forehead was consistent with fracture of the base of the skull, and was sufficient to cause death. A seaman named James Antonia stated that between 10 and 11 o’clock on Friday night he saw a man in a very drunken state on the breastwork, in the proximity of the Spec. Ho had seen the deceased since, and ho was very much like the man he saw on the breastwork, but he would not bo certain that he .was the same man.- Other evidence having been given, the jury, of which Mr A, Williams was foreman, returned a verdict of “Accidental Death," adding a rider recommending that the hatchways bn hulks should be kept covered. We understand the body of the deceased will be removed to Lyttelton for burial. Summers was a single man.