Australian coroner ends mystery of 'ghost ship'

Crew of yacht found drifting off Great Barrier Reef 'suffered freak accident'
Catamaran Kaz II The catamaran, Kaz II, found drifting off Queensland. Photograph: Cameron Laird/Rex Features

When the yacht Kaz II was found off Australia's Great Barrier Reef, drifting and no one on board, there were many theories about what could have happened to its three middle-aged crew members.

There were suggestions the skipper, Des Batten, and brothers Peter and John Tunstead staged their own disappearance for insurance purposes or suffered at the hands of drug smugglers or pirates.

One of the wilder theories was that some kind of paranormal event had happened aboard their catamaran and inevitably, comparisons were made to the lost crew of another "ghost" ship, the Mary Celeste.

But yesterday a coroner in Townsville, Queensland, ended the speculation that has been buzzing around the bars of Australian yachting clubs for months by ruling that the three friends drowned in a freak accident during what was supposed to have been a trip of a lifetime, even though their bodies have never been found.

The trio, described as "typical Aussie blokes", vanished after setting sail on April 15 last year on a planned two-month trip, bound for Western Australia where they all lived. Three days later, the white-painted vessel which Mr Batten had only recently bought for £60,000 was found adrift and with a ripped sail about 100 miles north-east of Townsville, near the Whitsunday islands.

The engine was idling, a half-empty cup of coffee and a laptop computer were sitting on a table, a newspaper was lying open with some pages strewn on the floor and clothing had been piled on a bench.

The men went to sea with a large supply of food, three cases of beer, a .44 calibre rifle and 100 rounds of ammunition, the inquest was told.

Coroner Michael Barnes said evidence put before him during a four day inquest led him to conclude that "an unfortunate series of events," befell the trio, who were all relatively inexperienced sailors, only a few hours after they set sail.

In the scenario he laid out, the coroner said one of the brothers attempted to free a fishing line that had become wrapped around the yacht's propeller when he fell overboard. The other brother fell in while trying to rescue him.

Mr Batten tried to drop the sails so he could turn around and go back for his two friends but a change in the wind's direction caused the yacht's boom to swing and knock him overboard.

"Once the three men were in the water there was very little chance they could get back on the boat," he said. "It would be beyond their reach in seconds. From that point, the end would have been swift.

"None of them was a good swimmer, the seas were choppy, they would have quickly become exhausted and sunk beneath the waves. Although I can't exclude the possibility of a shark attacking them, drowning is a far more likely cause of death."

Rescue officer Corrie Benson told the inquest earlier this week that he found an "eerie" scene when he was winched down from a helicopter to search the stricken vessel.

He saw the discarded coffee cup and newspapers and found knives strewn on the floor. "My biggest fear was being attacked by somebody who did not want me on the boat. I was 160km out to sea with no back-up," he told the court earlier this week.

"I didn't know if someone was going to burst through a cupboard and go at me with a knife. I saw all the knives on the ground, but no blood, and thought 'what the ... ?'"

Graeme Douglas, the boat's previous owner, also gave evidence saying he had warned the men not to leave the Whitsunday area because they did not seem to have enough experience. The 56-year-old skipper, he said, was the only one of the trio who had sailed a large vessel before while the Tunstead brothers, aged 69 and 63, had minimal boating experience.

Mr Douglas said the men appeared nervous about the trip but anxious to get under way, since their original start date had been postponed because of bad weather and the fact that they had trouble understanding the vessel's global positioning system. "I said if you're not ready, don't go," he said.

A video, shot the morning the men headed out to sea, was also shown to the court. Mr Batten, a semi-retired carpet layer was holding the camera and Jim Tunstead can be seen fishing while he and Mr Batten are heard mocking Peter Tunstead, a non-swimmer, who was sitting fishing at the back with the safety rail down. He was not wearing a lifejacket. In the film, the men talk about "threatening skies" ahead.

The coroner said there was no evidence of any third party involvement in the disappearance of the sailors and noted that there had been no suspicious transactions in their finances.

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