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| Kaz ll |
On April 20 in 2007 the sea
was a bit choppy in northern Australia near the Great Barrier Reef but this was
not something the 3-man experienced crew aboard the catamaran Kaz ll would have
found challenging.
The owner of this sailing
vessel Derek Batten had 25 years of nautical experience. Two of his neighbors,
brothers—Peter and James Tunstead accompanied him. These two men had been
sailing since their teen years and were savvy when it came to boat navigation
and safety.
When the police boarded the
drifting Kaz ll on the 20th they felt as if they had walked into an
episode of The Twilight Zone. The
vessel was unmanned.
The ship’s engines were
running, there was food on the table and drying dishes at the sink and a laptop
was on.
A videotape camera found
onboard was used just 90 minutes before the crew inexplicitly vanished into
thin air. It shows two of the men just before sunrise on deck, the sea was calm
and the men’s behavior was casual.
When the authorities went
onboard there was no sign of an impending disaster or any signs of violence—the
only thing found amiss was a torn sail--so the police concluded there was no
foul play. So why was the Kaz ll abandoned and where were the crew?
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| Police boat approaching the adrift Kaz ll |
The answers to these two
questions remain unsolved. At the time some speculated that a freak wave might
have swept the crew overboard or maybe one man fell in by accident and the
other two met the same tragic fate while trying to rescue the first.
Some even speculated that
drug runners or pirates forced the 3-man crew to abandon the ship. Others
stated it was an insurance scam the 3 men cooked up. But all of this is just
speculation and the fates of Batten and the Tunstead brothers remain an intriguing
mystery.
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