BUILT FOR EASY ESCAPE
Missing skipper’s best mate reveals that sunken boat was ...
THE best friend of FV Dianne skipper Ben Leahy cannot believe that the six missing crewmen may not have escaped the capsized vessel.
Owen Schubert, who operates an identical boat, says they should have easily swum out.
The missing boat was found off Round Hill Head, near the Town of 1770, late yesterday. A recovery operation will start this morning.
THE mother of fishing boat survivor Ruben McDornan is overwhelmed her son made it and has now thrown her support behind the families of those still missing.
“I am extremely grateful and relieved Ruben has survived and cannot begin to express what it means to me that my son is alive and what he has just achieved,” Machans Beach resident Mardi McDornan said.
“It’s a miracle. But at the moment, they still haven’t located the others and we’re all banding together as a group to support each other.
“There are about 20 of us from the different families staying here in Gladstone. Some are still in Cairns.” Ms McDornan said support had come from far and wide for the tight-knit group, who are awaiting news of the six remaining beche-de-mer divers from the vessel Dianne, which overturned near Middle Island north of Town of 1770 on Monday night.
“Police and the communities of Agnes Waters and Glad-
stone have gone above and beyond to help and support all the families – not forgetting our Cairns community and family and friends spread across Australia.
“The community here in Gladstone has also appreciated our need for privacy at this time,” Ms McDornan said.
Ruben McDornan, 32, clung to the overturned hull of the sea cucumber fishing trawler for five hours before it sank around midnight Monday.
“After that, he swam to shore for eight hours before being found by a catamaran early Tuesday morning,” Ms McDornan said.
“He sounded the alert that the boat had capsized the night before.”