From The Times – 9 December 1844
Melancholy Catastrophe
On Friday last Mr.T.T.De Lasaux, one of the Coroners of Kent, held an inquest at Whitstable on the bodies of
Edward Polhill, aged 34, William Polhill, aged 25, George Miles, aged 32, John Mason, aged 31, and Henry Pym,
aged 33, the whole of whom had been unfortunately drowned on the evening of Wednesday last, while passing from Whitstable to the Isle of Sheppey
Henry Pym had been a farmer at Leysdown, in Sheppey, but had retired from farming and was then living at Bridge near Canterbury. The others killed were all coast guards stationed at Whitstable. E.Polhill and G.Miles have both left widows and five young children. J.Mason was also married with one child. The other two were unmarried.
Mr.Aldridge, chief officer of the Coast Guard station at Seasalter gave evidence that shortly after 4pm he had
ordered E.Polhill, chief boatman, W.Polhill, G.Miles and J.Mason, to take the four-oared gig and go and watch the craft rounding Shellness Point and then to go to Shellness and see the chief officer there. Mr.Pym asked if he could go with them in the boat because he wanted to go to Sheppey. He agreed and the five men set out. The boat did not return all night and he was concerned so he went out the next morning to look for them. Between 1 and 2pm he found the bodies of E.Polhill, W.Polhill, G.Miles and Mr.Pym lying on Pollard sands. The boat was near them, lying on its starboard side. Mason’s body was later found in the water nearby. Since all the men concerned were of a steady and careful disposition and none had been drinking he assumed that the boat had capsized as a result of a heavy swell which often occurred where the two tides met, near the place where the bodies were found.
Charles Foreman, a dredger, of Whitstable, said he had seen a boat near Pollard Sands on the day concerned,
going quite fast, and then it disappeared and he assumed it had taken its sails down. There were no other boats in the vicinity at the time.
Captain Blair, R.N., inspecting officer for the district, asked whether the conditions at sea were good enough
on that day to attempt the crossing to Shellness and whether the boat was heading in the right direction. Foreman said there was nothing in the weather to cause any difficulty, and the boat was going the way that he would have gone to Shellness.
The verdict was accidental death.
