Killed coming alongside
AN ACCIDENT AT THE WHARF.
A MAN KILLED. Mr H. W. Robinson, District Coroner, held an inquest at the Hospital yesterday afternoon on the body of Neil McDonald, carpenter of the s.s. who was killed by falling between the vessel and the wharf as she came up to her berth yesterday morning. Captain Strang, local Inspector of the Union Steam Ship Company, said the captain of the Tarawera reported to him that morning that when the vessel was coining up to – the wharf a man hid slipped and fallen into the water. It was no part of his duty to have jumped off the vessel, as it would have been easier for him to have done his duty without doing so, but he had no doubt it was his eagerness about bis work. He was a sober, steady, and very competent man. Constable Murphy said he was on the wharf and saw the deceased jump from the Tarawera with a fender, and immediately afterwards heard a cry of * man overboard.’ He turned and saw him in the water ; he had risen again and had got between the vessel and the wharf, and was badly squeezed, A man went down at once with a rope, and put it round McDonald’s waist and hoisted him up. He was put on one of the Harbour Board’s stretchers and taken in an express to the Hospital, where he died three-quarters of an hour after admission. The jury returned a verdict of ‘ Accidental The deceased, who had been employed on the steamer for the last year or so, was about 35 years |of age, and hailed from Dunedin.
