TRAGIC DEATH OF A PORT CHALMERS RESIDENT.

Otago Witness, Issue 2010, 1 September 1892, Page 15

TRAGIC DEATH OF A PORT CHALMERS RESIDENT.

TiarAKU, August 24. A man named George Durham, clerk to tho Fort Chalmers Salvage Company, who had been employed on board the stranded steamer Elginshire, was found dead on the 'tween-deck in the after-hold of the steamer about 6.30 this evening. The men on board missed at 12.10, but, concluding that he. Had gone ashore, did not then trouble about him. In the evening, however, tkejr became' anxious as to where he had gone, the inquiries made as to who had Been him ashore meeting" with* the reply that none of them had done so. A search of the ship was then made, and the' body was found hanging in the -after-hold, the searchers concluding that it was a case of Buicide. The body was quite cold .when found, and the men on the steamer cannot account for the death. Durham was a married man. His wife and children reside at Mansford Bay.' He was secretary to the Fort Chalmers School Committee and agent for the Port. Chalmers Building Society, &c. Detective Livingstone will bring the body to the police station m 'the morning. .■,."' . August ;25. At the inquest to-day touohingihe death, of George Durham, it was shown thab ( deceased was strangled by the bight of a rope over the beam, his feet being a few inches from the deck. Nothing is known to suggest suicide;,' and he might have tripped off a loose pipehead into the bight, or have been amusing himself with gymnastics. The jury found an'open verdict. Deceased, who belonged' to Port ' Chalmers, leaves a widow and two children^ ' ' ' Durham was in the best of spirits when last seen alive. The rope was about sft long, and was tied loosely round the beam. Underneath lay a short length of ventilator tube, and it is sur- ■ mised that, walking along the deck, he stepped on the tube ; that this rolled under iim, and He fell forward, his head going .into the bight' of the rope ; and that the rope, being behind nis ears, trapped and strangled him. A suggestion that he was taking gymnastic exercise (ho had not much to do on board) is less favoured. .The suicide theory is contradicted by the unlikelihood of anyone trying to strangle himself in a fixed bight and by the knot in the rope coming ' right under the chin. His death caused -a great shock among those on board the Elginshire. All hands were quite unnerved by it. . • '