Sentence:  For hundreds of years , the evidence available consisted of ( 1 ) the captain 's fragmentary journal , ( 2 ) a highly prejudiced account by one of the survivors , ( 3 ) a note found in a dead man 's desk on board , and ( 4 ) several second-hand <WSD>reports</WSD> . 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  the act of informing by verbal report