The harbour inquiry

An original fiction passage set in the nineteenth century.

Samuel had expected his uncle to sit beside the harbour officers. Instead, Captain Reeve was placed alone at the end of the long table, where the morning light exposed every crease in his coat. Samuel stood opposite him with one hand resting on the witness rail.

The chairman asked whether the captain had known that the warehouse bolt was cracked before the storm. Samuel looked towards his uncle, but Captain Reeve was examining the floor.

“He knew it was stiff,” Samuel said. “I cannot say that he knew it was cracked.”

A committee member produced two requests for a replacement bolt, both copied in Samuel’s handwriting. He admitted writing them. He also explained that Captain Reeve had sent the first request to the owners and had received no reply.

“Then the captain took every possible precaution?” the chairman asked.

Samuel’s fingers tightened on the rail. He said that his uncle had ordered the upper shutters secured, but had allowed cargo to remain behind the weakened door. When one officer suggested that Captain Reeve had ignored a warning delivered on the evening of the storm, Samuel interrupted him. The warning had arrived after the captain left the harbour; Samuel himself had received it.

Nobody spoke while this correction was entered into the record. Captain Reeve raised his head for the first time, though he did not look at his nephew.

When the hearing ended, the captain walked past Samuel without taking the coat he had left upon his chair. Samuel picked it up and followed him into the entrance hall. He made no attempt to withdraw his evidence or soften it with an apology. Instead, he brushed a thread from the sleeve and held the coat open until his uncle turned and put it on.

“Although Samuel gives evidence against his uncle, the passage presents him as truthful rather than disloyal.”

Evaluate how successfully the writer presents this view. Support your judgement with detailed references to the passage.