In the case of Duncan...

The news of the ship sinking was withheld from surviving family for reasons of "morale." It wasn't because telling the public was a threat to British national security...

More likely, bereaved relatives came to Duncan and Duncan figured out how to give them what they wanted - told them that their relative was dead. If you think about it, it makes sense - relative is a sailor that is long overdue, there is a war going on during which ships get sunk, so it is logical to assume that the overdue ship the relative was on was sunk. No threat to national security there. Even the draconian security imposed in Britain during the war couldn't, (or shouldn't have been able to), criminalize coming to the only logical conclusion.

Undoubtedly, there was scuttlebutt going around bars frequented by sailors that concluded the ship had been sunk. However, none of those sailors were prosecuted. Why prosecute this woman? Because she is convenient, a woman and does something that they don't understand.

When the bubonic plague hit Europe, the people cast about for someone to blame. [The plagues arrival coincided with the "little ice age"] I mean, after all, the Pope was hiding out in Avingnon, the nobles had taken to their country estates and the common people were left trying to figure out why everyone was dying. So, naturally, they settled on the Jews. And started killing Jews.

Pretty much the same idea, just different target. Humans are a superstitious lot and prone to doing irrational things when stressed. This does not make it right or even understandable...

Heresy resides in the minds of reasonable men.

Well thought out - very interesting! Our forthcoming depression compared to the Plague.

Bruiser’s Performance

Vice President Richard Bruiser a celebrated pianist
the Jasper kid who flopped his doctorate
zipped up the Yamaha grand reving it full bore.
He rocked the grapes off the crossbeam

then fell heavily from his high perch

puncturing his beloved biohazard suit.

With blood dripping on the floor & a paranoid growl

he said, ‘go fark yourself!’ & hurled the score

of the grosse fugue by Ludwig Van Beethoven the immortal

at an unsuspecting quartet of foreign dignitaries.

With flare Bruiser stepped up to the footlights

where he took out his running mate
with a personalized version of the celebrated

water boarding technique.

High heels conservative ties academic gowns
& bonnets stampeded immediately.
Fire dancers ripped down the aisles & up the drapes
as that fat old boy turned the burning deck & set

into a spectacular spontaneous pyrotechnic event.

Vice directum dickhead leapt astride Harry’s casket
that accidental hero once sadly impregnated

with friendly fire on an ill fated Texas hunting trip.

Teeth gleaming phoenix eyes squinting

Bruiser immediately became an immortal

& just as impotent as the pope in his pointy red shoes.

He hummed the hymn ‘onward christian soldiers’
as he smiled his triumphant frostyboy smile
whispering hoarsely as he expired into the ears

of jackal axle herself, ‘so this is how it’s done.’