Shanghai, May 7.
How the chief engineer o¢ a British ship, moored at the International Dock in Shanghai, fell. nto. the river May 4 while walking across a plank from another vessel to his ship, was described to Mr. C. H. Haines, HM. Coroner. yesterday when an Inquest was held on the officer, Peter Biait Allen, aged 48, a native of Falkirk, Scotland, who died later in the Ger eral Hospital.
The inquest was opened at the mortuary of the "General Hospital where evidence of identifation was given by George Steele, master the s, Jeanatte Skinner, In which, vessel "Allen was chief ehginecr. was resumed in the afternoon at H.C, Police Court when the first witness wag the Chinese No. 1 fireman, He told the Coroser that the Jeanette Skinner was moored between {wo ships one of which was alongside the whar while the other, a smaller vessel, the s, Sultal, was moored in line with the other two. He noticed the chief engineer and a foreigner on: the Suitai and the" chief engineer asked hin where the gangway. was Upon being. told that it was at the "back side." the foreigner handed him a parcel which he placed ona hhateh oh the Jeanette Skinner The foreigner then walked across the plank from the Suital to. the Jeanette Skinner and the chief en-lineer followed. "About half way across the latter lost his balance and fell Into the water on the left. side of the plank, Witness rushed to the' side "of the' ship" but could not see him in the river. 'The plank, he said, was about five to six feet length and about' one foot wide. There was a rope on one side to walking across It, Witness after seeing the chief engineer's fall, shouted and. showed the second officer, Mr. Wang, the place where he had fallen in. He then climbed down the fender and tried to find him but failed. About ten minutes later he heard people! shouting that they had found the chief engineer and he gave this information to the second engineer.
With the second engineer and some other men he went to the. wharf! here he assisted. some"men to carry the chief engineer, On the whort the second engine: tried first aid as it appeared. that the chief engineer was sll alive, breathing fecbl Robert MacGregor. Second Engineer. said that he was called by the No. I fireman and he went to the side of the ship to sce where the hier engineer had. fallen in. The fireman then informed him that the man, had been found on the "shore side". "On the shore he found the ehier engineer bleeding very badly with his lung. full of water, applied frst aid to remove the water from the lungs. After this he tried to stop the flow of blood from the head, 'Witness added that the quarantine doctor, who was just leaving in his launch, gave every assistance to the man and his launch was used to take Allen to the General Hospital. Witess" left him' in. the emergency operating room. "The inquest. was then adjourned until today for De, 1G, Anderson to give evidence.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.