IN THE MATTER OF THE LOSS OF THE S.S. IPHIGENIA Port Hume County Coroner's Inquest, Day 4 — 11 January 1913 Coroner: Dr. Malcolm Herrick. Clerk: J. A. Fairfax.

CORONER. Mr. Fazackerley, you are the senior marine adjuster for Mutual Marine of Buffalo, is that correct.

WITNESS (Owen Fazackerley). Yes, sir. Eighteen years in the position.

CORONER. And you have reviewed the available evidence — salvage reports, manifest, surviving crew affidavits, such hull portions as have been recovered.

WITNESS. I have.

CORONER. What, in your professional opinion, was the proximate cause of the loss.

WITNESS. Boiler failure, sir. Specifically, the starboard boiler fracturing under the strain of laboring in exceptionally heavy seas. The subsequent loss of steam would have rendered the vessel unmanageable in a matter of minutes.

CORONER. And the extraordinary weather — you regard that as the underlying cause.

WITNESS. I do. A gale of that November severity is, in the adjuster's trade, an act of God. It exposes any latent mechanical weakness.

CORONER. Thank you, Mr. Fazackerley. — Mr. Reddick, you appear on behalf of the Hume Shipping Company.

MR. REDDICK. I do, sir. I would commend Mr. Fazackerley's testimony to the Court, and note that the Company has independently instructed a marine surveyor whose findings corroborate the adjuster's in every particular.

CORONER. So noted.

[At this point a woman in the gallery — Mrs. Malinowski, widow of Stanisław Malinowski, deckhand — rose and spoke in Polish. An interpreter was not immediately available. She was escorted out after objecting in English that the boilers had been inspected only two months prior. The Coroner instructed the record to note her interruption and nothing of its substance.]

CORONER. We will proceed. — Mr. Reddick, does the Company have any further evidence to offer bearing on the captain's fitness for command.

MR. REDDICK. It does not, sir. Captain Hume is well remembered in the service of his line.

CORONER. Thank you. We will recess.

[End of excerpted transcript. Cross-examination of two surviving crew was completed in closed session per motion of Mr. Reddick (granted). Jury returned verdict of misadventure, attributable to extraordinary weather, 15 January 1913.]