Lancet Jades
06-04-2004, 09:35 PM
How a few beers saved my life
By EDITH BEVIN
June 5, 2004
A man told yesterday how a few beers saved him from being killed during Cyclone Tracy.
Robert Browne, 56, turned down a request by his former boss Ray Curtain to ride out Cyclone Tracy aboard the Princess.
"I had been drinking" Mr Browne said yesterday. Mr Curtain and the Princess disappeared in Darwin Harbour.
The passenger ferry was discovered last week lying on the bottom of Darwin Harbour. Police divers will search for Mr Curtain's remains next week.
"I was supposed to be working on the Princess the night it went down," Mr Browne said from his Darwin nursing home. "There were a couple of reasons I didn't want to go.
"We'd had a cyclone the week before Tracy -- that was pretty strong. I took the ferry to sea to ride out that cyclone.
"I was out there for five days. I was so hungry when I got back."
Mr Browne was painting a boat when Mr Curtain asked him for help to "ride out the storm". "I'd had a few beers so I said, 'I went out on the last one for you, boss'," he said.
Mr Browne said he took one of the few surviving boats out the next day looking for the Princess and his boss.
"I went out every day for a week in that boat looking for him -- I checked every river and waterway that I knew, hoping Ray may have gone up into one of them to get shelter," he said.
"There were boats up in the mangroves -- we had no idea how rough the seas had been until we saw that. There were prawn trawlers virtually sitting on top of Emery Point -- it's a sheer cliff there.
"I found eight or nine bodies along Doctor's Gully.
"I really felt bad because I didn't go -- I felt really guilty."
Mr Browne said he was glad the wreck of the Princess had finally been found. "It's over now," he said.
Northern Territory News
By EDITH BEVIN
June 5, 2004
A man told yesterday how a few beers saved him from being killed during Cyclone Tracy.
Robert Browne, 56, turned down a request by his former boss Ray Curtain to ride out Cyclone Tracy aboard the Princess.
"I had been drinking" Mr Browne said yesterday. Mr Curtain and the Princess disappeared in Darwin Harbour.
The passenger ferry was discovered last week lying on the bottom of Darwin Harbour. Police divers will search for Mr Curtain's remains next week.
"I was supposed to be working on the Princess the night it went down," Mr Browne said from his Darwin nursing home. "There were a couple of reasons I didn't want to go.
"We'd had a cyclone the week before Tracy -- that was pretty strong. I took the ferry to sea to ride out that cyclone.
"I was out there for five days. I was so hungry when I got back."
Mr Browne was painting a boat when Mr Curtain asked him for help to "ride out the storm". "I'd had a few beers so I said, 'I went out on the last one for you, boss'," he said.
Mr Browne said he took one of the few surviving boats out the next day looking for the Princess and his boss.
"I went out every day for a week in that boat looking for him -- I checked every river and waterway that I knew, hoping Ray may have gone up into one of them to get shelter," he said.
"There were boats up in the mangroves -- we had no idea how rough the seas had been until we saw that. There were prawn trawlers virtually sitting on top of Emery Point -- it's a sheer cliff there.
"I found eight or nine bodies along Doctor's Gully.
"I really felt bad because I didn't go -- I felt really guilty."
Mr Browne said he was glad the wreck of the Princess had finally been found. "It's over now," he said.
Northern Territory News