Skipper’s wife hopes

Press, 3 December 1987, Page 6

Skipper’s wife hopes

PA Napier Diane Kristensen, wife of the skipper of the missing trawler Deep Sea 2, said yesterday her husband had been overdue on fishing trips before. She is hoping that the present episode will end like the others — with Sven Kristensen, aged 38, coming home late. “I have never really been worried until now,” she said. The Napier housewife was speaking on the sixth day since contact was made with the Deep Sea 2, the Napier trawler at the centre of a major

search. Also on board are crewmen Bede Parker and Stu Hamilton, both of Napier. Mrs Kristensen, who has three children aged 17, 14 and three, said she was clinging to the hope that the trawler may be drifting far out to sea. In Wellington, however, the search controller, Flying Officer Peter Northcote, said it was probable the trawler had sunk. He said all calculations were now based on a search for a liferaft with three men aboard. Mrs Kristensen said her two elder children were

taking their father’s absence “pretty well.” The younger child sensed something was wrong.; “He is just waiting for his dad,” she said. Michelle Parker said her husband, a qualified builder, had not been overdue in the past, but she was holding to hope that the trawler was drifting. ’V- ' ? “I have spoken to other trawler skippers and they have all been positive,” she said. Her husband had been fishing about 2J£ years but the latest trip was his first for several months.