Dad and son killed in whale-watch tragedy … but mother survives
A FATHER and his son were among five Britons who drowned when a whalewatching boat sank off Canada.
David Thomas, 50, and his son Stephen, 18, who had Down’s syndrome, were flung into icy waters when the 65ft vessel went down.
Mr Thomas’s wife Julie, 49, was also on board the Leviathan II on Sunday but was plucked from the sea by rescuers and survived.
Last night, she was in hospital in a stable condition being comforted by her other son Paul. The student, 22, flew to Canada to be by her side.
Friends and colleagues paid tribute to IT expert Mr Thomas, who worked for Microsoft.
The committed Christian was a trustee and one of the ‘driving forces’ behind the Down’s Syndrome Group in their home town of Swindon. Stephen was an ‘amazing’ young man and ‘gifted photographer’, added the charity.
Two other victims were expats Jack Slater, 76, a former Royal Navy engineer, originally from Salford, and Katie Taylor, 29, from Lichfield, who was working in a spa in Whistler, Canada.
The fifth Briton to die was Nigel Hooker, 63, an IT expert from Southampton.
He was on board with his daughter Danielle, 28, and her Australian boyfriend, believed to be Rav Pillay, 27. He was still missing last night.
Regional coroner Matt Brown said all five victims had been on the upper deck of the boat.
There were 27 people, including three crew, on board when the Leviathan II got into difficulty eight miles from the small town of Tofino, to the west of Vancouver Island.
It remains unclear exactly why the vessel went down on an apparently calm and clear day but a survivor said it was hit by a freak wave which sank the boat in minutes. There were also suggestions that it may have hit rocks after diverting to watch sea-lions. The passengers were not wearing life jackets, which are not a legal requirement.
Local fisherman Clarence Smith said one survivor told him a huge wave had capsized the boat. ‘That’s why there weren’t any radio communications, no Mayday,’ he said.
The crew was able to shoot a flare which attracted fishermen who went to help. A pregnant woman and a survivor with a broken leg were among those rescued.
Mr Smith said he and a friend saw people in life rafts in the water and on rocks, and were able to pick up 12 survivors. ‘We went to get the people in the water first, three of them,’ he said.
‘One guy was clinging on to the boat. And then I heard these voices in the water – two ladies clinging to each other about 100ft away. So we went and picked them up.’
Safety experts will examine the wreckage, the vessel’s maintenance history and the weather in an investigation which could take months.
The boat, which is run by the tour company Jamie’s Whaling Station, was 34 years old and had been rebuilt in 1996, records show.
Owner Jamie Bray said people were ‘traumatised’ and in ‘disbelief’ at what had happened.
In 1998, two people died when one of the firm’s boats was swamped by a wave close to where Sunday’s accident happened.
Both Mr Thomas and Stephen were keen photographers, and the teenager won a Down’s Syndrome Association competition with a picture taken on a trip to Canada last year.
Gateway Church in Swindon said father and son ‘brought smiles and encouragement to all who knew them and they will greatly missed’.
A spokesman for the Swindon Down’s Syndrome Group said trying to tell the other children the news was going to be ‘impossible’.
Mr Slater’s daughter Michele Slater Brown, 52, who was raised in Bolton but now also lives in Canada, paid tribute on Facebook.
‘Our Dad was larger than life, a charmer, handsome, our lovely Dad, I will miss him forever. We are heartbroken, he was an adventurer, he lived his life his way,’ she wrote.
Mr Hooker’s family was too upset to comment last night but it is understood that his ex-wife Dawn was travelling to Canada to comfort Danielle, a designer who lives in Sydney with her boyfriend.
The grandfather was a keen fundraiser and motorcycle enthusiast. A neighbour said: ‘He was a very devoted dad. He kept his three girls together, they were very close. It is heartbreaking.’
Miss Taylor’s family in Lichfield were also too distressed to comment but said she was a ‘beautiful soul’ in an online tribute. Additional reporting: Claire Ellicott and Inderdeep Bains