'A genuine legend': Family pays tribute to young father confirmed dead after fishing trawler capsizes
Queensland Police have identified one of the bodies recovered from the wreckage of the fishing vessel Dianne, which capsized off Central Queensland last week, as young father Adam Hoffman.
Mr Hoffman, 30, was on board with skipper Ben Leahy, 45, and crew members Eli Tonks, 39, Adam Bidner, 33, Chris Sammut, 34, and Zach Feeney, 28, and Ruben McDornan, 32, when their ship overturned near the town of 1170 last Monday.
Two bodies were recovered from the wreckage on Saturday, with weather hampering rescue efforts over the past week, and so far Mr McDornan is the only survivor.
On Monday, police confirmed one of the two bodies recovered from the wreckage was Mr Hoffman.
In a statement from Mr Hoffman’s family, they said their hearts were broken to lose their “beloved Adam” and said he was “one in a million with a heart of gold”.
“He loved what he did and loved his crew,” the statement reads.
“He will always be remembered for his love of the ocean and adventurous spirit. He will forever be our beautiful pirate who went out doing what he loved.”
“For those who knew him he loved to laugh and was funny as hell. He had amazing energy, was fearless, courageous and was a genuine legend. To his family he was our cherished brother who was kind, thoughtful, loving and would always tell it like it is. I do what I want.”
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Mr Hoffman’s family said “he loved his family and friends” and had left behind a daughter Evie, 5, who “he loved more than anything in this world, along with his parents Ross and Suzanne along with his five sisters Melody, Heidi, Sally, Sarah and Alicia”.
The family have set up a GoFundMe pagefor Evie and all money raised will be held in a trust to be put towards her future.
“The family are forever grateful to all those involved in the search and rescue/recovery and ask for privacy during this hard time,” the statement reads.
On Sunday, police divers located the ship's wreckage, but found no sign of four of the men.
We know what happened with the vessel turning over and sinking. We have one survivor and - as far as he knew - there were six people still in the vessel," Queensland Police Inspector Darren Somerville told journalists at Gladstone on Sunday.
"(Mr McDornan) was unsure they had not escaped the way he had. At this stage, we don't know where the remaining four people are."
The fishermen were on their way to harvest sea cucumbers when the storm hit.
