An recent enquiry to the Pilot’s Cottage has raised the possibility of what was classed as an accident at the time was really an unsolved murder. Read this excerpt from the Kiama Independent of 16th April 1880 and see if you think it was an accident.
After seeing Blondin do his ropewalk across the Blowhole, did the Swedish Captain Martin Galopain, of the Terrigal Packet, slip and fall into Kiama Harbour, where he was found floating standing up, because the water had filled his sea-boots, or was he pushed? Why did the two sleeping crewmen sat they didn’t hear a spalsh?
The Court of Inquiry brought in a verdict of accidental death due to the lack of a plan to reach the ship and no lighting. Ironically the ladders to climb out of the Harbour were due to be installed the next day by Moriaty Engineering.
He is buried in Kiama Cemetery under the name Martin Gullofsen
Spooky aside. This story in the Kiama Independent is dated 16th April, 1880.
How does that sit with the report of the Terrigal Packet (Brisbane Courier, July 22nd, 1879) sinking on 22nd July, 1879? (Cue Spooky music)
[...] Swedish Captain Mystery [...]