File:SS Aramac at the wharf, Cairns, 1897.jpg

Sat 22 July 1893

THE FATALITY ON BOARD THE S.S. ARAMAC - A Pathetic Incident -

The city coroner, Dr. Youl, held an inquest yesterday at the Melbourne Hospital concerning the death of Albert Jonathan Johnson, seaman, who was killed on Thursday by a falling from the masthead of the s.s. Aramac.

The evidence of the chief officer of the Aramac was to the effect that the deceased was 25 years of age and an able seaman. On Wednesday morning at 10 o'clock he was sent aloft to reel a line. When he had reached the top of the mast he lost his hold and fell to the deck. He was removed at once to the Melbourne Hospital, and examined by Dr Pabst, but he lingered for a few minutes only, when he died from fracture of the base of the skull.

A verdict of accidental death was recorded.

While the police were puzzling themselves yesterday to devise means for learning the address of Johnson's wife they were relieved of all difficulty by the appearance of Mrs. Johnson herself under circumstances perculiarly pathetic. She had learned that the Aramac had arrived in port, but she had not heard of the accident to her husband, and, wondering why he had not sought her out, she went to the ship yesterday to inquire for him. At the ship she was treated with the utmost kindness, and the sad story of her husband's death was broken to her. Johnson had been out of work for a long time, and his home had in consequence to be broken up, and his young wife with her child to seek a situation. Three weeks ago Johnson booked with the Aramac, and then, just as he was contemplating re-establishing his wife in a home of their own again, he met his death.