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An Australian fisherman who swam for 10 hours after his trawler sank was able to crawl ashore and pass on news of the accident to emergency services, who then rescued a second crew member adrift in the ocean.
But a third fisherman was still missing last night, with
rescue officials holding grave fears for his safety.
The drama began when their trawler, Sea Rogue, sank after its netting became entangled on a reef 15km off the coast of northern New South Wales before dawn on Wednesday.
Thrown into the water, Michael Williams, 39, swam through shark-infested waters for more than 10 hours until he reached shore, sunburnt and exhausted, near the town of Brunswick Heads.
Police said the fact that he had managed to swim for so long, and to reach land, was "miraculous".
"He had pretty bad cuts and bruises to his legs and his arms, he was pretty exhausted, pretty badly sunburnt," said Chris Gort who helped the fisherman and called for an ambulance. "Someone had taken their singlet off and wrapped it around his waist. the only thing he had on was a singlet, he was naked."
Rescue services launched a massive search of the area and 30 hours after the boat went down a helicopter spotted crewman John Jarratt, about 15km northeast of the fishing town of Ballina.
The 41-year-old father-of-three, who has worked on trawlers since he was 14, was found clinging to an esky.
He was winched to safety and taken to hospital in Ballina, near Byron Bay.
He was suffering from dehydration and hypothermia but otherwise uninjured.
He told friends he would "never" go back in the ocean.
Relatives paid tribute to his determination to survive. "I never gave up," said a sister, Rosemary Jarratt. "I knew he would come through, I just knew it."
Jarratt said he and skipper Charlie Picton, 40, had both clung to the esky after the ship went down, but in the darkness the two became separated.
He said a search party helicopter had flown right over them but had not spotted them.
"Judging that the second fisherman survived through the night ... we can only hope that the same has occurred with the third," said Roger Fry, a spokesman for a helicopter rescue service.
Surf rescue and police helicopters were joined by fishing trawlers in the search for Picton.
"A lot of our trawlers are up there participating in the search," said a friend of Picton, Russell Creighton. "He's a really, really good fisherman - a nice young bloke. Like everyone, I'm waiting to hear the news."
Police said they would search until nightfall in the hope that Picton might still be alive as sea conditions were calm and the ocean temperature a warm 24 degrees Celsius.
"We hold grave concerns for that gentleman at the moment based on the time the search has been going on," said Water Police Superintendent Mark Hutchings. "We live in hope and we will continue to search."
