At the time of the incident the wrecks of four other ships already lay on the reef, including whose position was found to have contributed to the "Bury Hill"s grounding. "Bury Hill" was not refloated and became a total loss. Allowing for 10% "per annum" depreciation, her book value at the time of the loss was £10,828 0s 2d. She was insured for £21,500 and her cargo was insured with both a time policy for £4,000 and a voyage policy for £5,400. At the time of her loss, her owners valued "Bury Hill" at £29,000. On 4–7 May 1937 the UK's Board of Trade held an investigation hearing into the accident and on 17 June the Court published its report. It found that "Bury Hill"s Master, Captain Walter V. Smith, had failed: "...to navigate his vessel with that degree of care which is to be expected from a prudent seaman in that he did not give the coast, of which he had no previous knowledge and for the navigation of which his aids were insufficient, a safe and proper offing; did not take proper steps to provide himself with sufficient aids to navigation for the voyage upon which he was engaged; failed to make proper use of such aids to navigation as he had on board his vessel; and assumed too readily that the Almadi light, of whose existence he was wholly unaware, was the light of another vessel." "Bury Hill" had no chart of the approaches to Dakar, so when in Durban, Captain Smith had tried without success to obtain one. He was therefore limited to large-scale charts of the area and was completely unaware of the Almadi light. The third officer, Mr. Walter, was on watch at the time of the grounding, and both Walter and Smith sighted the light. However, the wreck of "Beryl" lay on the reef behind the light in their line of sight. Smith and Walter saw "Beryl", failed to realise she was a wreck and mistook the Almadi light to be one of her navigation lights. They accordingly set the wrong course and struck the reef. The Court considered suspending Smith's Master's Certificate. However, the Court made allowance for what it called Smith's ""sheer ill fortune"" that the necessary chart was out of stock when he sought to buy a copy in Durban. The Court also made allowance for the conjunction of the Almadi light and "Beryl"s wreck in Smith and Walter's line of sight contributing to their error.