The fiancee of one of the six fisherman killed after their trawler boat capsized has remembered the love of her life almost one year later.
Ana James, 29, was engaged marry Eli Tonks before his tragic death off the coast of 1770, Queensland, in October 2017.
Mr Tonks’ body has never been recovered.
‘Going from planning a wedding with the love of my life to suddenly being on my own, it’s been hard,’ she told The Courier Mail.
Ana James, 29, (pictured) was engaged to be married to Eli Tonks (pictured right) before he tragically died in a fishing boat accident in Queensland in 2017, his body has never been recovered
‘Having someone so special tragically taken away from us, it’s devastating. I find strength in knowing that Eli would want me to stay positive and not dwell in negativity, he always said my positivity was my best trait and one that he loved.’
Miss James described Mr Tonks as the type of person who would have gone out of his way to help someone else and ‘was the most genuinely kind, selfless and honest person I’ve ever known’.
Mr Tonks was one of seven crewmen on the FV Dianne when it was flipped in seas off the coast of 1770, only one crewman was able to survive when the boat sunk six hours later.
Ben Leahy, Adam Bidner, Zach Feeney, Adam Hoffman, Chris Sammut and Mr Tonks all died in the tragic accident while Ruben McDornan managed to escape.
The ‘FV Dianne’ sank in on October 16, with seven people on board. The vessel was on a trip from Cairns to Bundaberg collecting sea cucumbers
Mr McDornan broke down in tears on 60 Minutes as he recalled the moment he realised his six ‘brothers’ would die.
Miss James said while she hasn’t been able to bring herself to watch Mr McDornan’s interview, she was thankful for his courage.
‘What he survived is nothing short of a miracle and without him we may have never known what happened to our loved ones, as the safety and monitoring systems utterly failed them,’ she said.
‘Going from planning a wedding with the love of my life to suddenly being on my own, it’s been hard,’ Ms James said (pictured left)
Mr McDornan heard the screams of his crew mates trapped inside the FV Dianne trawler when it capsized off the coast of Queensland.
The 32-year-old was the only one of the men who escaped by desperately clinging to the hull of the boat while trying to communicate with his trapped friends.
‘I could hear some banging, and I just banged, and then instantly I heard banging back… I just screamed into the hull and I heard a voice scream straight back,’ he told 60 Minutes.
Ruben McDornan heard the screams of his crew mates trapped inside the trawler
The 32-year-old (back right) was the only one of the men who escaped, desperately clinging to the hull of the boat while trying to communicate with his trapped friends
Mr McDornan said the thoughts of his wife Sammy drove him to make it back to dry land
‘They were working on something, they were making efforts. They never stopped making an effort to get out.’
About four hours after she capsized, Dianne sunk to the sea floor with the six men still trapped inside.
‘I just broke down… I’ve just lost my mates and my brothers. I wanted to go back under, but the boat was completely submerged,’ he said.
‘To go back under is to… I couldn’t go back under.’
Heavily bleeding in treacherous seas known for tiger sharks, Mr McDornan began to swim.
Zachary Feeney (pictured left) and skipper 45-year-old skipper Ben Leahy (right) were among the seven men on board
‘Honestly, [sharks] never even crossed my mind, not even for a second. I was too focused on what was in front of me, you know, and that was getting [back to land],’ he said.
‘I was talking to myself, motivating myself, talking to [wife] Sammy I was just saying, ”Don’t worry. I’m going to make it. I’m not going to disappoint you”,’ he recalled.
‘To me, the feeling was really weird. It was like I was letting her down by not giving it my all. Everything was flashing in front of me for her without me of what it was going to be like.
‘No way am I letting that happen. Not while I’ve still got a chance.’
Pictured left is 30-year-old Adam Hoffman. He was one of the seven men on board the boat when it capsized. Another was Chris Sammut (pictured right)
At first light the next day, Mr McDornan considered giving up the fight after realising the tide had taken him away from land and further out to sea.
‘I thought, do I swim or do I just bloody give up? Is it easier just to drown yourself or something?,’ he questioned.
‘I just felt like I’d failed. But, you know, I just quickly snapped out of that… So I just went, right – I’m going to go down swimming. If I die, it’s because I’ve died from exhaustion.’
Mr McDornan spotted commercial fisherman Mal Priday and his wife Linda in the distance as he entered his eighth hour in turbulent seas.
Ruben McDornan (with wife Sammy), 32, was one of seven men aboard trawler ‘FV Dianne’ when it capsized off the Queensland town of Seventeen Seventy in Octobe
Mr McDornan considered giving up the fight after realising the tide had taken him away from land and further out to sea. Pictured is Adam Bidner
‘It got so close to where I could see the people on the boat. And when I saw them, I could see that all their heads were turned away and they were going miss me,’ Mr McDornan said.
‘I was screaming and whistling as it was coming past.’
The bodies of two of Mr McDornan’s friends – Adam Hoffman, 30, and Ben Leahy, 45 – were later found in the wreckage by police divers.
Eli Tonks, 39, Adam Bidner, 33, Zach Feeney, 28, and Chris Sammut, 34, have never been found.
Mr McDornan spotted commercial fisherman Mal Priday and his wife Linda in the distance as he entered his eighth hour in turbulent seas