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Bert Eshouf, a waiter on the boat some four months ago, was the first witness called. He said he remembered some days before the accident calling the attention of other waiters to a funny scraping noise. They went outside and found that the rudder was hard a starboard. For his own curiosity he examined the rudder, and noticed cracks in it which showed plainly. Thomas Moore, a passenger, was the next witness called, but outside of the fact that he remembered seeing one boat some two hundred yards away with people on it, and that he had helped to save some men out of the third boat launched, he had little to say. Before taking evidence the coroner addressed the jury saying that he was surprised to hear outside that one of the jury had already expressed his opinion publicly on the matter now under investigation. Juror Marcon asked the coroner for his authority, who refused to speak further on the matter. A.E. McPhillips, K.C., informed the coroner that letters had received from both Capt. Roberts and Mate Doney, who, he expected on Monday. However, he could not yet say positively as to their being here, but that there would be some witnesses on hand at that date. The inquest was then adjourned until 2 o'clock Monday afternoon. |