“Why did it fall overboard?”
I know you were asking Basil, but allow me to butt in:
Strangely, this has happened to many of us who had guns. Some of us lost our entire collections in boating accidents.
Quite often a boat will capsize while all the guns are on board and you know how it is when heavy steel objects fall in the water...straight down they go.
NOT uncommon at all.
But you shouldn’t ask questions about it.
Come to think of it, all of mine fell overboard too......but that was a long time ago.