A witness has described the mayhem that unfolded on deck of the Spirit of Tasmania I after a man went overboard on Friday night.
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Passenger Jeffrey Blundell said he was sitting on the left-hand side of the boat having a cigarette when a man wearing a life jacket and holding a torch went overboard.
Two men rushed to get staff and Mr Blundell said he ran inside and sounded the fire alarm.
“[Staff] called everyone to come to a certain floor to do a head count, we were sitting there and they said ‘does anyone want to be a help or volunteer’, at that time everyone got up to help,” Mr Blundell said.
The 45-year-old Ballarat man was spotted in the water by other passengers, floating devices were thrown to the man but they hindered the search as it made it more difficult to keep the man in eyesight, Mr Blundell said.
A life support boat was deployed but conditions were rough.
“They got him on the rope and they were pulling him in and they were going ‘pull, pull’, but then people on the deck were yelling out to him ‘take your life jacket off’, because it looked like his life jacket was dragging him under,” Mr Blundell said.
“The man tried to take his jacket off...he went to swap hands and slipped and come off [the rope].”
Mr Blundell described the traumatic scene after losing sight of the man.
After the boat docked at Devonport, Mr Blundell gave a statement to Tasmania Police. A report was being prepared for the coroner by Victoria Police, the death was not being treated as suspicious. TT Line Company was contacted for comment.