MISSING FROM VESSEL

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22742, 30 November 1935, Page 18

MISSING FROM VESSEL

WOMAN’S STRANGE DISAPPEARANCE EVIDENCE OF HUSBAND (Per United Press Association) AUCKLAND, November 29. At the instigation of the Marine Department, an inquest into the disappear-' ance of .Mrs Ernest Bevington, a first-dps passenger on the New Zealand Shipping Company’s liner Rangitata, who was found missing from the vessel on November 3, over two days out from Balboa, was opened before Mr Wyvern Wilson, S.M., coroner. Detective-sergeant M'Hugh appeared for the police. Ernest Bevington, who was represented bv Mr Purdie, said he was the husband of the woman. Witness was a widower, aged 69, and he and Mrs Bevington, who was 49 years of age, had been married at a registry office in London on June 16. She had divorced her previous husband. Witness was of independent means, as was his wife. They were coming to New Zealand on a holiday trip. His wife’s means were possibly equal to about half of his, and she had made a will just before she left. Witness did not know the contents of the will, but was under the impression it was in favour of her sisters. In reply to the coroner witness said he first met his wife on the Orousay. Witness continued that on the voyage by the Rangitata from London to Balboa he was on very friendly terms with his wife, and when two and a-half days out they attended a race meeting on the tourist deck. Later in the smoke room lounge they had a couple of drinks with other passengers. It was probably, just before midnight that witness and his wife went to their cabin, which was on the C deck. Mrs Bevington’e bed was on the starboard side, immediately under a porthole; and there was another porthole at the foot of the bed. The portholes were always open except in bad weather. “We both undressed when we reached the cabin,” witness added. “ I got into bed and started to read a book with my back to my wife. She came across to me and I think she said my name and I said ‘Oh, go to bed.’ I was very tired at the time.” Witness said that he did not remember much more until he was awakened by a rustling sound on the other side of the cabin. So far as he could determine, there were curtains on the portholes and on the door, which could have made such a sound. So far as he could say, the lights of the cabin were still on. His wife s bed was not disordered, and as she was not in the cabin he rang three times for the steward. He met the head steward in the passage, and asked him to institute inquiries and inform the bridge. Witness said he told the steward that he had told his wife to go to bed, and she was not there.

Mr M'Hugh; What would you say if the head steward says you said you had told your wife to go down to the cabin and wait for you and she was not there.

Witness: I would say that waa not correct.

Continuing, witness said his wife was wearing jeweller? on the night of her disappearance. He believed that two diamond bracelets, a wristlet watch and necklace Vere now missing. The jewellery was insured for £BOO. Witness sent a cablegram to a relative of Mrs Bevington, giving notification of her death at sea, and later he sent a second cablegram in relation to the insurance on the jewellery. A reply was received, “Utterly shocked. What happened jewellery? No account." So far as ho was aware, his wife’s life had not been insured. She had an internal chill for two or three days on the vessel, and was under the care of the doctor. She had never suggested suicide. Witness thought it was two or three nights before she disappeared that he saw her leaning out of the porthole talking to the occupant of an adjoining cabin. lie thought she was leaning out to a dangerous extent. Questioned by Mr Purdie, witness said he was undressed before his wife, on the night of her disappearance, and was reading a book before she began undressing. He was nearly half asleep when she came across to him. The inquest was adjourned until the arrival of the Rangitata at Auckland from Napier next week, when further witnesses will be heard.