THE WRECKED STORMBIRD

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2870, 7 September 1916, Page 7

THE WRECKED STORMBIRD

INQUEST ON THE DROWNED MEN. An inquest on the bodies of the three men, John William' Hinchey, Robert Kyle, and James Hunter, who were drowned in the wreck-.pf the Stormbird, was held at Wauganui on Monday, bofore Mr. W. Kerr, S.M. (Coroner). Arthur Sutherland Gibson deposed:— I -was the master of the s.s. Stormbird, that traded between Wellington and Wanganui. John William Hinchey signed on the vessel as able seaman. Ho acted as lamp trimmer. He was aboard tho ship in November, 1915. Robert Kyle was engaged as fireman on. board the Stormbird. I loft Wanganui Wharf at 11. p.m. on Saturday, September 2. We had a very small amount of cargo on board. When we arrived at tho Heads, tho vessel wont ashoro at the south mole, and after a while the vessel broke through the tip, and tho two men' were washed off and drowned. Kyle was drowned about 1 o'clock on the morning of September 3, and Hinchey was drowned a few minutes later. 1 beliovo both men were somewhere near seventy years of age. Kyle wae fully dressed when ho was drowned. The action of the sea would strip his clothes off. A third man, named James Hunter, a. fireman, was also drowned. He was drowned somewhere about midnight. About that time I ordered all hands to abandon tlio ship. Hunter, in company with others, went forward, and mado a jump at tho wrong moment to get. ashore, and fell into tho sea. I saw his body pass the ship, apparently dead or unconscious. Tho Coroner, Mr. W. Kerr, S.M., returned a verdict of death by drowning through misadventure. The body of tho third man who was drowned, James : Hunter, firemau,, was recovered on Monday near the mouth of the.Wangaehu River. The Putiki, which arrived in Wellington at 1.10 o'clock this morning from Wanganui, brought four members of the crow of tho Stormbird.. They woro Mossrs. R. Hunt (mate), W. C. F. Richardson (engineer), 11. Williams (steward), and T. Keogan (seaman). Other membors were brought to Wellington by train. Captain Gibson'will remain at Wanganui to bo present at the inquiry. •,