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Three sailors vanish in a modern-day Mary Celeste riddle
Last updated at 23:52pm on 20.04.07When this yacht was found drifting out to sea, the engines were running, all the lifejackets were on board - and there was even a meal on the table.
However, the crew was nowhere to be found.
Rescue services are calling the discovery a "modern-day Mary Celeste mystery", after the legendary abandoned ship found off the coast of Portugal in 1872.
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Mystery: the Kaz II had table set for meal but the crew had gone
The yacht, a 12-metre catamaran called Kaz II, left Airlie Beach in Australia on Sunday with three men on board.
Skipper Derek Batten, 56, Peter Tunstead, 69, and his brother James, 63, from Perth in Western Australia, had planned to sail round northern Australia for six to eight weeks.
However, their vessel was spotted drifting on Wednesday. When rescue services approached, they found a scene of ghostly desertion.
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Three life jackets and the emergency beacon were still on board, the computers and global positioning systems were working, and there was even a switched-on laptop computer on a table.
There was, however, no sign of the yacht's lifeboat, fuelling hopes that the three men are still alive.
Would-be rescuer Corrie Benson, who swam to board the yacht, said it was an eerie experience: "All their clothes were hanging up, the meal was laid out and all the equipment was in good order. It was as if the men had only just left the boat.
"There was even a Sunday paper there."
Rescue services spokesman Jon Hall said he was puzzled because "everything appeared normal". It's a complete mystery - a modern-day Mary Celeste," he added.
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The Mary Celeste: the legendary abandoned ship found off the coast of Portugal in 1872
"It looked like the boat had been recently abandoned. The engine was still running in neu-
tral but one of the sails had been damaged.
"There was a laptop computer on board and running with power, the computers on board were running, the radio was working, the GPS was working and things below deck were normal except for the absence of crew."
The GPS will be analysed for clues to see if the boat's route can be traced.
"That will now enable us to track backwards where this yacht has actually been in the last few days. We're hoping that can pinpoint the search area for the missing crew," added Mr Hall.
James Tunstead's daughter, Keryn Grey, said her family was hoping the men were in the lifeboat and that the catamaran had drifted away.
"That's what we are hoping, that they forgot to anchor it and it's drifted off - the three idiots - and ( they have) not been able to get back to it."
Nine planes and two helicopters are searching an area spanning about 700 nautical miles, along with four volunteer rescue boats. Marine police have towed the vessel back to shore for further investigation.
The fate of the crew of the Mary Celeste remains one of history's biggest mysteries.
The ship was found drifting off the Azores in perfect condition, with the crew's oilskins and pipes still on board.
But the vessel was deserted and the crew was never seen again. Possible explanations include mutiny, piracy - and insurance fraud.
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