KILLED ON BATTLESHIP

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22068, 26 September 1933, Page 14

KILLED ON BATTLESHIP

YOUNG SIGHTSEER'S . FATE. Adding that no one was to blame, the jury returned a verdict of "Accidental death" at an inquest at Portsmouth recently on John Gordon Spring, the nine-year-old son of Brigadier F. G. Spring, of Southsea, who died as the result of- a fall on H.M.S. Hood while he was being shown round by his brother. The boy had fallen down the armoured tube from the _ upper conniiig _ tower to the lower conning tower, a distance of 54 feet, and had fractured his skull. Brigadier Spring stated that John had a weak ankle, and wore special boots. He also had glasses owing to a defect in his left eye. Seaman Albert Jollands, who showed the boys around, said that he took the lads to the upper couning tower, from which the ship is steered. When he was facing the eicle of the wheel with Peter in front of him he heard a .scream, and saw that John, who must have walked round behind the wheel, had disappeared. He climbed down the tube, and saw the boy. who was very badly hurt. Witnesses stated that they had never heard of such an accident happening before. The opening of the tube had since been covered over.