Note:
In the last post I showed a letter written by Mr. Morely Johnson which appeared to have been a copy of his either handwritten or typed original letter perhaps on the letterhead of his company. No trace of his original letter could be found in the records. The date on the letter In my last post is the 22nd of April the same date as his Affidavit herewith shown. The original letter would have been sent to the Board of Trade immediately as its contents would have caused some alarm to them, I found no trace of this letter in the Archives in London. Reading through Mr. Morley's statement here, there seems to be a common thread in some of the wording that appears in other affidavits taken, which indicates that the interviewer in this and other cases have made suggestions of what might look good in favour of the ship.
Please excuse the quality of the original documents I have tried to make them as legible as possible by enhancing them for the reader.
When the Waratah arrived back in England after the first voyage she was laid up for eight weeks undergoing dry docking and having repairs carried out. It was at this time that Captain Ilbery also went ashore and was said to be in ill health and may not return to the sea again. It was at this stage that Lund's had briefed Captain Pidgeon a long time employee to command the Waratah for the second voyage. Whether Captain Ilbery insisted on taking the second voyage or not is not known Nothing was mentioned about Captain Ilbery's sickness or what he had been diagnosed with within in the court. In the medical records only one word was shown, he was described as to be suffering from Hyperpyrexia. Definition; Hyper means abnormally increased, Pyrexia refers to fever. A fever is when the body's temperature rises above the normal 96.6 Fahrenheit. Hyperpyrexia occurs when the body's temperature rises above 106.7 Fahrenheit. This complaint is usually associated with viral infections. Hyperpyrexia is a sympton of a of a larger problem, finding the underlying cause is important and often challenging as it would have been in the early 1900's because medical science was not as advanced as it is today. One could speculate that the culprit may have been Malaria picked up on his travels. the The Ships Captain's medical guide provided to ships in that period gives instructions for dealing with fever that was somewhat crude by today's standards.
