FATAL ACCIDENT

Southland Times, Issue 25341, 20 July 1935, Page 4

FATAL ACCIDENT

MISHAP ON EARNSLAW. IRON PLATE FALLS ON MAN. While engaged in riveting plates yesterday on the steamer Earnslaw, which is at present undergoing her annual overhaul at Queenstown, Orkney James Stevenson, aged 32, a married man with a child aged three, was killed when the iron plate, weighing about 1501 b, used for conveying coal from the wharf to the ship’s bunkers came away from its fastening and fell on him. lie received a severe fracture of the skull, and it is thought that his neck was broken. At the time of the mishap the Earnslaw was moored three feet from the wharf, and Stevenson was standing on a chafing board between the ship and the wharf, his head being just above the level of the raised portion around the edge of the wharf.. The vibration arising from the riveting operations caused the pin holding the plate to slip out of position, and the plate fell on Stevenson’s head, crushing his skull and throwing his neck across the raised portion. A doctor was immediately summoned, but Stevenson, who had been lifted on to the wharf, died just as he arrived. The deceased had been employed for six weeks on the overhaul of the Earnslaw. Previously he had been engaged in driving a bus to Skippers. An inquest will be opened at Queenstown to-day.