I’m having the time of my life...
Briton’s last call to his mother before sea snake bite killed him on Australian fishing boat
THE young British fisherman who died after being bitten by a sea snake in Australia had called his mother the day before to say: ‘I’m having the time of my life.’
Harry Evans, 23, was bitten on the thumb while working on a trawler off the Northern Territory.
The carpenter and boat builder is the first person to die from a sea snake bite in Australia.
Mr Evans, from Poole, Dorset, had been working there since August after arranging work via the trawler’s skipper, who is a relative. yesterday his mother, Sharon, 48, said her son had called her the day before Thursday’s tragedy.
She said: ‘Harry was the happiest he had ever been as an adult on that boat. He called me and said he was having the time of his life. He was so happy.’
But when she received the call telling her he had died, she initially thought it was a ‘sick joke’.
Crew members told her the snake, which had been caught in nets, had lashed out as Mr Evans tried to empty them.
Mrs Evans added: ‘He knew he had been bitten by a sea snake.
‘Afterwards, he had a shower. He went to the wheel house and was saying he was fine. Then the captain noticed his eyes were rolling. There wasn’t any seizures in agony or anything revolting.’
The vessel, which was fishing off the island of Groote Eylandt, 400 miles east of Darwin, headed for land. Mr Evans was pronounced dead when they arrived in the town of Borroloola.
It is thought he might have survived if he had received antivenom medication in time, but it was not readily available. Mrs Evans, a mental health worker, added: ‘ Harry had the kindest heart and he had a great interest in people.’
His twin brother George said: ‘When you think about being bitten by a snake, you go back to all these documentaries that your body shuts down and it is horrendous, but it wasn’t.
‘It was all very peaceful. He was in and out of consciousness. They did CPR, but he just went and never came back.’
The family are waiting the results of a post mortem examination but suspect Mr Evans suffered a severe allergic reaction to the snake venom. His twin added: ‘Harry was a funny guy, with a massive heart. We were extremely close.’
Mr Evans, who worked part-time at Le Bateau bar and restaurant in Poole, was not due to return to home until February.
Rosie Norian, the bar’s general manager, said: ‘Harry was just a lovely guy, he was always smiling and always helping. It was a big, big shock. It is so sad.’ Scores of friends have posted tributes to Mr Evans, who was described as having a ‘contagious smile’ on social media sites.
A spokesman for the Foreign Office said it was supporting Mr Evans’s family.
It is the second death of a Briton working on a fishing boat in the north of the country in five years after a 20 year old died on a prawn trawler in 2013.