Whale Boat Sinks

[Anonymous]

... well, twenty-four hours have gone by and still no survivors talking.  very suspicious.  have they been gagged?

They will speak if and when they are ready the shark hunter.

... how do you know this?  was it announced by someone?

That is how people are the shark hunter.

[the shark hunter]

... well, twenty-four hours have gone by and still no survivors talking.  very suspicious.  have they been gagged?

They will speak if and when they are ready the shark hunter.

... how do you know this?  was it announced by someone?

That is how people are the shark hunter.

... some, but not all.  surely out of twenty-plus survivors you'd get a statement from ONE of them ...



... thanks for your reply, Fash!

[Anonymous]

... well, twenty-four hours have gone by and still no survivors talking.  very suspicious.  have they been gagged?

They will speak if and when they are ready the shark hunter.

... how do you know this?  was it announced by someone?

That is how people are the shark hunter.

... some, but not all.  surely out of twenty-plus survivors you'd get a statement from ONE of them ...



... thanks for your reply, Fash!

Be patient the shark hunter.

 ac_smile

[Annie]

They're now reporting that it was caused by a freak wave killing 5 Britons and one Australian. Didn't this same company have a boat sink in 1998(?)



http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/oct/28/freak-wave-caused-whale-watching-boat-tragedy-say-canada-investigators">http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/o ... estigators">http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/oct/28/freak-wave-caused-whale-watching-boat-tragedy-say-canada-investigators



The board's announcement will raise questions about the design of the vessel, which had two decks for better viewing and a relatively shallow draft. The Leviathan II's owner, Jamie Bray, said it had made the same trip every day for 20 years without incident and the skipper had 18 years' experience.



The transportation safety board's announcement came a few hours after the coroner released the names of the five Britons who were killed. Stephen Thomas of Swindon was the youngest of the victims. Aged just 18, with Down's syndrome, he had been indulging his passion for photography when the sinking claimed his life.



Stephen's father, David, died with him. The 50-year-old, a committed Christian who worked for Microsoft, was described as a "huge supporter" by the Down's Syndrome Association, which also said Stephen Thomas "was a very talented young man and a gifted photographer" who won a national competition with a picture of a lake.

Fifth British victim in whale boat disaster named

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The Swindon Advertiser quoted Stephen's brother, Paul, as saying that their mother, Julie, survived the ordeal with minor injuries and was in hospital. Paul Thomas was travelling to Canada to be with her.



The eldest of the victims was Jack Slater, 76, who was originally from Salford but settled in Toronto. His daughter, Michele Slater Brown, said on her Facebook page that "our hearts are broken today".



"Our dad was larger than life – a charmer, handsome, entrepreneur, engineer in the Navy, he was 76 years old, he was our dad, our lovely dad, I will miss him forever but I'm grateful for all the times I spent with him, I love you dad," she wrote.



Slater was on board the Leviathan II with his wife Marjorie, who was rescued and taken to hospital.



The fourth victim named was 29-year-old Katie Taylor who was born in the UK but resided in Whistler, a Canadian ski resort. The fifth victim was named as Nigel Hooker, 63, from Southampton.



On Tuesday police resumed their search for a sixth person, a 27-year-old Australian man from Sydney. It was believed he had been travelling with his girlfriend who was the daughter of one of the Britons who died.



Matt Brown, coroner for the island region of British Columbia, said none of the five who died had been wearing lifejackets, although they were available.

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"Lifejackets were on board. I believe that this vessel can occupy up to 50 individuals. There were 27 on board and there were lifejackets available for all of them," he said.



The British consul general in Vancouver, Rupert Potter, went to Tofino to assist survivors who lost relatives. He described the response of the community as "really remarkable".



"What always strikes me in these situations is the bravery that people show, and that's definitely been the case here – how they manage to continue coping when they've had such loss," he said.



Potter, who also visited survivors in hospital, said loved ones were travelling to the town from the UK..



The premier of British Columbia, Christy Clark, visited the town on Tuesday and praised the rescue effort led by fishermen from an indigenous community of the Ahoushat First Nation a few miles to the north. "More lives would have been lost if not for the Ahoushat First Nation. We're all incredibly grateful," she said.



Although there was not time for a distress call before the boat sank, one of the crew found a flare in the water and fired it. It was spotted by fishermen who raised the alarm by radio and then set off to rescue survivors. The radio call was also picked up in Tofino from where boats also put to sea.



Among the first on the scene was Clarence Smith, from the Ahoushat First Nation, who found the vessel mostly underwater with just its bow still above the waves, held up by trapped air. "We saw three people in the water. One guy was clinging to the boat so we picked him first. Then I heard these voices. There were two ladies in the water clinging to each other," he said.



Smith said one of the women was pregnant and another person had a broken leg. The rescuers described people covered in diesel fuel and injured from being thrown against steel bulkheads as the sightseeing boat turned over.



Ken Lucas was working with Smith. He said one of the people they rescued was a member of the crew who said the boat had been hit by a wave. Fishermen described a heavy swell in the area during the rescue.



Francis Campbell, driving a water taxi, was also early on the scene. He pulled eight survivors from the frigid water. "It's something you really can't describe. It's going to be held with me for the rest of my life," he said.



The flare was also spotted by Peter Frank, who rescued people clinging to a life raft that had run on to rocks. "There was this one guy saying: 'My wife, my wife. She doesn't know how to swim. She isn't a great swimmer,'" he told CBC.



"Some of them, when they hopped on the boat, it was just a sense of relief ... I did my best to reassure them, to tell them they're OK."



About 30 boats responded to the rescue call alongside the Canadian coast guard. All 21 of the survivors had been picked up by the time the official vessels arrived. Ambulances met them on Tofino's waterfront.



The fishermen also brought the dead to shore. Survivors were taken to Tofino's small hospital. But it soon became overwhelmed and so local residents began taking the less serious cases into their homes.



Tofino's mayor, Josie Osborne, praised the townspeople. "This community's response has been nothing short of phenomenal," she said. "People opened their homes to keep the survivors warm and comfort them."

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[Annie]

My hubby said to me yesterday that maybe they were too close to a whale and that could have caused a huge wave.

[the shark hunter]

... have any of the alleged survivors said anything yet?  i'm still very suspicious about this story ...