By Michael Perry
SYDNEY (Reuters) - A fisherman swam 12 hours to reach theshore while another survived 30 hours at sea until a helicopterspotted him on Thursday after their trawler sank off theAustralian coast, rescuers said.
"I wasn't going to die out there mate," said a sunburnt anddehydrated John Jarratt from his hospital bed, after spending30 hours in the water clinging to a fish-sorting bin.
A third fisherman is still missing.
Their trawler sank after hitting a reef 15 km (9 miles) offthe mid-northeast coast of Australia before dawn on Wednesdaymorning prompting a major search and rescue operation.
One of the fisherman, 39-year-old Michael Williams, crawledashore near Brunswick Heads, exhausted, dehydrated andbloodied, some 12 hours after his ship sank.
"He had pretty bad cuts and bruises to his legs and hisarms, he was pretty exhausted, pretty badly sunburnt," saidChris Gort who helped the fisherman on the beach.
NEVER AGAIN
Recovering in Ballina District Hospital, Jarratt toldfriends he would "never" go back in the ocean, reported localmedia.
Jarratt said he and skipper Charlie Picton, 40, had bothclung to a foam cooler called an "esky" after the ship wentdown, but in the darkness the two became separated.
He said a search party helicopter had apparently flownright above the men without spotting the exhausted pair.
"Every time the esky got a bit too much water in it he'dhave to sort of hold Charlie up in one hand and hold the eskyup out of the water with the other and then put it back down soit was full of air again," said family spokesman MarkMcMurtrie.
Jarratt, was picked up by a helicopter about 15 kmnortheast of the fishing town of Ballina, 30 hours after he wasthrown into the ocean.
"Judging that the second fisherman survived through thenight ... we can only hope that the same has occurred with thethird," said Roger Fry, a spokesman for a Lifesaver RescueHelicopter service.
Fishing trawlers joined surf rescue and police on Thursdayto search for the skipper Picton, a longtime fishermen offAustralia's east coast.
"A lot of our trawlers are up there participating in thesearch," said friend Russell Creighton. "He's a really, reallygood fisherman -- a nice young bloke. Like everyone, I'mwaiting to hear the news."
Police said they would search until nightfall for Picton,holding out hope he may still be alive as sea conditions werecalm and the ocean temperature a warm 24 degrees Celsius.
"We hold grave concerns for that gentleman at the momentbased on the time the search has been going on," Water PoliceSuperintendent Mark Hutchings told reporters. "However, at thisstage we live in hope and we will continue to search."
(Editing by Jeremy Laurence)
