EERIE video footage of three missing sailors from the ghost ship Kaz II shows them fishing and joking before they vanish without a trace under “threatening” skies.
It also emerged yesterday that the three men went to sea loaded with three cartons of beer, a .44-calibre rifle and 100 rounds of ammunition.
Skipper Derek “Des” Batten, 56, his best mate Peter Tunstead, 69, and his brother Jim Tunstead, 63, all of Perth, disappeared on a “trip of a lifetime” near Bowen in north Queensland in April last year.
State Coroner Michael Barnes, heading an inquest into their disappearance, yesterday watched the video as the court heard of “bullet winds”, capable of knocking the vessel drastically off keel in a sudden gust.
One of the men in the footage shown yesterday talks about “very threatening skies ahead, sailing along beautifully, about 12km an hour”.
Batten, a semi-retired carpet layer, is at the wheel, Jim Tunstead, a concrete truck driver, holds the camera and Peter Tunstead, a former trophy shop owner, can be seen fishing.
They can be heard mocking Peter – a non-swimmer who is not wearing a lifejacket and is sitting fishing at the back with the safety rail down – as he hauls in a “lump of plankton”.
The just-bought 10.8m catamaran was found adrift, unmanned and under sail – with food still on the table.
The men had embarked three days earlier on an “undoubtedly ambitious voyage” to sail the boat from Airlie Beach to Perth in six to eight weeks.
Veteran skipper Geoff Fitzsimmons said the video footage placed the men heading towards Dingo Beach, north of Airlie Beach, about 11am on the Sunday they were last seen.
He suggested bullet winds could have thrown the men overboard.
Other theories heard by the inquest included a “scuffle”, an encounter with an unknown third party, or a misadventure while swimming off the back of the boat.
The former owner of the Kaz II, Graeme Douglas, told the inquest he warned the three men, “if they were not ready, don’t go”.
Source: News.com.au
[tags]ghost ship, wrong turn, ghost ships, czabe, henry cavill, mary celeste [/tags]