By TIM WATKIN
Mike Cassidy was just two weeks into an introduction-to-fishing course in 1996 when Mark Phillipson appeared at the Marlborough Maritime School looking for a crewman.
Phillipson, aged 28, was planning a trip into Cook Strait fishing for hoki and needed a replacement for his regular crewman who was injured.
Warren Wood, who ran the school, was reluctant to let any of his pupils go. They hadn't done the course's safety lessons yet. But Cassidy, a year older than Phillipson and with previous fishing experience, said "I'll go - I've been fishing before".
Before, but never again.
The pair went out on the 14.6m fishing boat Chance. At 12.42pm on Saturday June 1 they reported their position as near Lucky Point, south of the eastern entrance to Tory Channel. They had four tonnes of hoki on board and were heading for Picton in the face of deteriorating weather.
A lifejacket and pieces of the boat were washed up at Port Underwood, but the Chance was never heard from again. Phillipson's mother, Liz, said fishing was all he ever wanted to do.
Such tragedies have been part of this country's story since people first arrived here. Maori and Pakeha alike have fished to survive on these remote islands and many have died in the process. As one 46 year-old skipper said "every time you throw the lines off it's a risk, isn't it? You're going out to an environment that's not ours."
New Zealand history has many stories similar to the fatal final voyage of the Andrea Gail in The Perfect Storm, as it sunk, exposed and unable to withstand the sea's "big wet fist".
Most recent is the loss of Endeavour III off the east coast of Northland on August 18, 1998. A long-line fishing boat 14.06 metres long and just over four metres broad, it set off from Tauranga harbour early on the morning of August 13 with three crewman and 4.5 tonnes of ice on board.
Skipper Keith Collier, aged 45, well-liked and respected, Reg Shaw, 58, and Lachlan McKenzie, 22, were headed to fishing grounds north of Great Barrier Island looking for tuna.
The wooden-hulled, 30 year-old Endeavour III was in good condition and was well-equipped with safety equipment, should disaster strike. It had been issued a Safe Ship management certificate just seven months earlier and was fitted out with a four-person inflatibale liferaft, two lifbouys, four lifejackets, four parachute rocket distress signals, two buoyant smoke signals, two EPIRBs and VHF and SSB radios.
The boat was owned by a family trust and managed by fishing company Tobe International.
By Sunday August 16 the men had reached Port Fitzroy on Great Barrier. There they took on-board 500 litres of diesel and, according to the fuel supplier, were in good spirits.
By Tuesday August 18, they had 2.5 tonnes of fish in their hold. At 8.37am that morning they radioed the Tauranga coastguard to advise that the wind was west, 30 knots. They would haul in their gear and head home. An Auckland Regional Council buoy nearby showed that the maximum wave height was still under a metre at that time.
Despite that message and the fact that a gale warning had been in force for the sea area Brett since the day before, the trio kept fishing until 3pm. They then decided to seek shelter at Opua in the Bay of Islands, steaming towards port at eight knots.
By that time the wind was shifting to the east and the ARC buoy was registering wave heights of three metres.
At around 7pm each of the men called home. It was the last time their families would ever hear from them, but there was no indication of what was ahead. No fear, no warning. They simply reported they were 40 miles off and that all was well on board, despite four metre waves. Reg's wife Marjorie says when he rang, "he was so happy".
In fact, the ARC buoy was recording waves five metres high and rising. The wind was now easterly at 35 to 45 knots, blowing into a northerly swell. The result was rough, confused seas, with the wave height increasing as they entered shallower water near the coast.
A storm was coming in with the night.
At 8.40pm Collier spoke by mobile phone to old fishing friend George Pinny, skipper of the Whangerei-based San Elizabeth.
At that time the boat is estimated to have been just 55 miles from the wave buoy, which was now being hit by waves reaching six metres. The maximum wave heights stayed that high for the next two days.
Collier told Pinny they were 20 miles, about two hours, off Opua and described the conditions as "pretty gnarly", but did not sound worried.
Whether his worry grew, we'll never know. After 8.40pm, the Maritime Safety Authority accident report states: "No further communication is received from Endeavour III".
Throughout Wednesday August 19 various family member tried and failed to phone the crew. But no-one raised the alarm. Endeavour III had talked frequently to the Tauranga coastguard, but the reports were not made at arranged times and so when they stopped they were not unduly missed.
But by Thursday concern was growing and eventually, at 8.30pm, Tobe management called the Tauranga Police, which in turn advised the National Rescue Centre.
The trio were all fit "survivalists".
"You wouldn't get three better guys able to survive," Tobe manager Kent Peters said during the search. 60,000 sg km of sea was searched.
On Saturday August 22, an oil slick was discovered near Moturoa Island in the central Bay of Islands and the next day an oar from the boat was found. The official search was called off, but a private search involving seven planes, two helicopters and 35 fishing boats continued and found floats, buoys and other items of wreckage. Even a sonar scan by the navy several weeks later failed to provide family and friends with any answers.
The Maritime Safety Authority accident report considered it "likely that Endeavour III capsized and sank in rough seas while heading for shelter in the Bay of Islands".
Endeavour III and its crew were never found.
Even the toughest fishermen don't always make it
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