provisions for several months. On 19 March, new information was released: the British steamer SS Coventry reported seeing two of Naronics empty lifeboats 500 miles east of Halifax, Nova Scotia; the first lifeboat, found at 2:00 am on 4 March, was capsized and the second, found at 2:00 pm, was swamped. In the months following the disappearance of the ship, hoaxes and rumours began to circulate: several messages in bottles supposedly written by members of the crew of Naronic, were recovered from both sides of the Atlantic, but their authenticity was too doubtful to be taken seriously. The American press hypothesized that Naronic could have been sabotaged with on-board explosives; a cargo of this type would indeed have been discovered on Tauric. This rumour did not last long as Tauric's explosives turned out to be just fireworks. Following the disappearance Inquiry and hypotheses In addition to the 74 casualties, the disappearance of Naronic caused a net loss for the White Star Line, which had not insured the ship that was worth £121,685. However, as early as 1894 another cattle transporter replaced it, the Cevic, which was much larger, and another one was ordered to compensate for the loss, the Georgic, which was put into service in 1895. Insurers had to reimburse the cargo, which was valued at £61,855. The shock was also difficult for the families of the sixty British sailors and the fourteen American passengers. The wives of two crew members were sent to asylum due to trauma. In June 1893, when hopes of recovering the ship had vanished, a commission of inquiry was convened at the initiative of the Board of Trade at St George's Hall, Liverpool. It was a priority of the investigation to refute a rumour created in the press. An inhabitant of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, claiming to be the brother of a ship's mechanic, had indeed declared having received a letter from the latter declaring that the boilers were in very poor condition and threatened the safety of Naronic. After investigating this matter, the commission concluded: “The machines and boilers were described by the inspector of the Board of Trade as being the best, and as having been installed at best… The machines are not only the best in their category, but were also maintained on each trip.” Other rumours were that Naronic capsized after being caught in a storm. Experiments were carried out on her