There was nothing wrong with that boat as regards the work I did to her.
I examined every corner of her there on the lighter up the pill where Captain Searle had put her.
She had sunk on sandy bottom.
I asked the diver about that, and he told me so.
She had not touched the ridge at all.
The ridge was a clear five feet away. She was lying on sand, and there wasn't the mark of a rock on her.'
He paused.
The Coroner looked at him expectantly.
'Well?' he said, 'is that all you want to say?'
'No, sir,' said Tabb emphatically, 'it's not.
What I want to know is this. Who drove the holes in her planking?
Rocks didn't do it.
The nearest rock was five feet away.
Besides, they weren't the sort of marks made by a rock.
They were holes.
Done with a spike.'
I did not look at him.
I was looking at the floor.
There was oilcloth laid on the boards.
Green oilcloth.
I looked at it.
I wondered why the Coroner did not say something.
Why did the pause last so long?
When he spoke at last his voice sounded rather far away.
'What do you mean?' he said, 'what sort of holes?'
"There were three of them altogether,' said the boat-builder, 'one right for'ard, by her chain locker, on her starboard planking, below the water-line.
The other two close together amidships, underneath her floorboards in the bottom.
The ballast had been shifted too.
It was lying loose.
And that's not all.
The seacocks had been turned on.'
'The seacocks?
What are they?' asked the Coroner.
'The fitting that plugs the pipes leading from a washbasin or lavatory, sir.
Mrs de Winter had a little place fitted up right aft.
And there was a sink for'ard, where the washing-up was done.
There was a seacock there, and another in the lavatory.
These are always kept tight closed when you're under way, otherwise the water would flow in.
When I examined the boat yesterday both seacocks were turned full on.'
It was hot, much too hot.
Why didn't they open a window?
We should be suffocated if we sat here with the air like this, and there were so many people, all breathing the same air, so many people.
'With those holes in her planking, sir, and the seacocks not closed, it wouldn't take long for a small boat like her to sink.
Not much more than ten minutes, I should say.
Those holes weren't there when the boat left my yard.
I was proud of my work and so was Mrs de Winter.
It's my opinion, sir, that the boat never capsized at all.
She was deliberately scuttled.'
I must try and get out of the door.
I must try and go back to the waiting-room again.