Adelia

Jean Baptiste Le Taul (also referred to as Le Taule in reported newspaper articles of the time) was a native of Brittany, France. He was of stout build, unmarried, with a suggested age of around 26 years.

On the afternoon of 20 August 1896, Jean Baptiste borrowed the fishing boat, Adelia, (also referred to as Arbla in reported newspaper articles of the time) from a mate, Cortesi Fancelli. He left the North Jetty, Fremantle at around 4.30pm, determined to go out on a fishing expedition, even though the weather was squally and the seas choppy. His mates warned him not to venture out of the river, but Le Taul was not to be turned from his purpose.

At about 6.30 am on Sunday, 30 August water police Constable Powers, while on duty on the main jetty at Fremantle, noticed something floating in the sea about 20 yards off the main jetty. It looked like a bundle of clothes, however as the waves washed the object closer to the jetty, Constable Powers saw that it was the dead body of a man.

He called on the assistance of water police Constable Baker, and towed the body ashore. It was taken to the morgue and later identified by a man named Dominic Morgan, as that of the French fisherman, Jean Baptiste Le Taul.

The body was in a very advanced stage of decomposition and the features were unrecognisable, with the face, hands and legs having been eaten by fish. The deceased was however, identified by the clothing he wore.

An inquest was formally opened by the district coroner, Dr. Lovegrove, and an adjourned inquest was held in the water police station at the Fremantle Port on 16 September before Dr. Lovegrove and a jury of three.

One witness, Lucian Bougault, testified that he saw Le Taul go out of the river under full sail in a ‘cranky’ fishing boat, while he was returning in his own boat. He passed the deceased near the end of the North Mole, and thought it very injudicious on the part of the deceased to be going out to sea under so much sail as he had up and on such a bad day.

He stated that he later heard that the deceased was under the influence of liquor when he left the jetty.

Another witness, Luke Tonkin, a ganger on one of the boring stages in the river, testified that he saw the deceased sail out of the river on 20 August.

The boat was under full mainsail, a jib and a staysail, the jib being improperly set and he thought that the deceased seemed to be unable to handle the boat. The men on the stage watched the boat until it had gone about two and a half miles out when they couldn’t see it anymore, and it had disappeared.

He and three other men put out in a boat to ascertain whether an accident had happened, but no trace of the boat or the deceased could be found.

The matter was later reported to a water police constable. The jury returned a verdict of ‘found drowned’.

The owner of the Adelia, Charles Westwood, later sued Cortesi Fancelli for the loss of the boat as the agreement they had was that if the boat was damaged in any way while in his charge, then Fancelli would have to pay the cost of repairing such damage. Judgement for twenty pounds with costs was awarded to Charles Westwood.