John Patrick Maher

John Patrick Maher was born on 2 May 1955 in Auckland, New Zealand. Reportedly, he lived with his parents and his passport stated he was a student. He was one of five siblings. There is little known about his personal life after he left home, other than he smoked tobacco, had medication prescribed for schizophrenia and rode a 250cc motorcycle.

In 1978, John ventured to Western Australia, and lived in Perth with friends.On 22 April 1980, at 24 years of age, he was in Carnarvon, and although he had no trawler experience, he approached Murray Turner, the skipper of the Tawarri lll prawning trawler, to ask for work. Mr Turner told John there were no vacant paid positions, but despite never meeting him before, he was welcome to go aboard for a trip to build experience, so that John could gain work on a vessel that required crew. This was (and still is) a way for “green” fishers to gain experience in order to acquire deckhand work.

The Tawarri lll, was a registered 64 feet steel prawning trawler. She had a forward wheel house, and was equipped with all the necessary safety equipment. Her crew consisted of Eric Thacker, Kerry Scott and Russell Howells (16 years). At 3pm on 23 April, Tawarri lll left Carnarvon port, heading for Elbow Shoals, about 22 mile south-south west. They arrived at the prawning grounds at 8.45pm and fished until 3am.

The seas were very rough, with a north west swell. The boat was travelling north. They had just pulled their nets and cast away again, and the crew were sorting the catch on the port side of the sorting table. Kerry and John were standing either side of the rubbish chute, and Eric was standing opposite to John. The rubbish chute was fibreglass, approximately five feet by three feet, hooked to the side of the sorting table to receive unsaleable catch and return it to the ocean.

Mr Turner saw John lean over the table to pull some prawns to his section of the table, when the boat rocked towards him. The prawns he was pulling towards him started to slide, and Eric stated John tried to stop them from disappearing down the chute. John slipped and tried to regain his balance by stepping backwards. The back of his knees struck the 20-inch gunnel that went around the deck, and he fell backwards into the water. Kerry said he fell into a backwards somersault over the side of the boat.

Kerry and Russell shouted “Man Overboard” to Mr Turner, and started to winch up the nets so that the boat could turn around. Eric and Russell saw John surface and was clearly visible to them. He was treading water, and Russell threw him a rope, but it was not long enough for John to catch hold of while the boat was still moving. Eric ran forward to tell the skipper to turn the boat.

John called out his location in the water, while Eric and Kerry pulled the nets in, which took about two minutes. As the boat turned, John was seen in the spotlights on the port side of the vessel, floating in the water. The skipper threw a life buoy and shouted to John to swim towards it. The crew saw John swimming, and he was approximately four feet away from the buoy. As it looked like John was going to reach the buoy, the skipper turned the boat away to prevent the nets from complicating the rescue.

Russell prepared to jump into the water to help John, who was looking tired. While Russell was undressing John slipped under the surface. The crew kept a spotlight on the place where he had submerged, however he did not resurface. Russell later stated that from the time John fell overboard, to the time they saw him with the spotlight, was between five and ten minutes.

The skipper went to the wheelhouse to call in other boats in the area, asking them to help search for John. Meanwhile he circled the buoy with the spotlights on the water for 20 minutes, hoping to catch sight of him.

Tawarri lll was joined by nine other boats to search for John. Carnarvon Police and the authorities commenced a formal search at 7am on 24 April 1980, using planes, a fisheries and wildlife vessel, fishing boats and private craft. The search continued until 30 April, 1980, however John’s body was never found.

Since little was known about John by the skipper, or crew of the Tawarri lll, photographs provided by his parents in New Zealand, and his friends in Perth were used to verify he was the man aboard the vessel that fell overboard. On 5 September 2019, Coroner Vicker declared John died by accidental drowning.