“LOST OVERBOARD”

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19365, 1 July 1937, Page 15

“LOST OVERBOARD”

WOMAN’S DEATH AT SEA INQUEST WITHOUT BODY EVIDENCE OF ILL-HEALTH (Per Press Association.) WELLINGTON, this day. A finding that the deceased was lost overboard and drowned at sea during the passage of the Rangatira from Lyttelton to Wellington on May 2, and that he could find no cause to say she committed suicide, was returned by the coroner, Mr. E. Gilbertson, at the inquest concerning the death of Marjorie Elizabeth Jane Fulton, 68, a married woman. The inquest was conducted by order of ihe Attorney-General under section 3 of the Coorners Amendment Act. The husband, Nicholas Fulton, of Wanganui, said his wife had been suffering from general nervous disorder for a number of years, and since 1935 had been an inmate of a hospital at Hanmer Springs. Her health had shown a continued decline, and recently she asked him to take her homo. Ho tokl of being awakened by a stewardess on the Rangatira and informed that no trace of his wife could be found. There was no family. Medical reports were produced stating that the deceased had suffered from involuntary melancholia. There was no evidence of the deceased actually committing suicide, said the coroner, although she might have had a sudden urge, to do away with herself. The evidence showed that there was a deck watch kept on the Rangatira, but it was possible for someone to jump overboard unseen. It had happened before.