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Asylum seekers floated in rough surf off Christmas Island after their boat capsized (Supplied)
Sailors involved in the rescue asylum seekers during the Christmas Island tragedy have given graphic accounts of the ordeal to a coronial inquest in Perth.
Lieutenant Jeremy Evain, 21, was the boarding officer on one of two fast sea boats dispatched from the patrol boat HMAS Pirie.
They battled seas of up to eight metres as they rushed to the scene where the asylum seeker boat Siev 221 had smashed against the cliffs at Rocky Point.
He told a coronial inquest in Perth he saw six or seven people clinging to the wreck as other people were thrown against the rocks by the waves.
Lieutenant Evain says he heard people screaming and yelling from the water as the crew searched for survivors but some were impossible to reach.
At one point his crew struggled to recover a child whose life jacket was still attached to a woman floating just below the surface.
The crew could only cut the line and haul the child aboard.
Lieutenant Commander Mitchell Livingstone said HMAS Pirie was sheltering on the eastern side of Christmas Island when Siev 221 arrived off Rocky Point in the early hours of December 15.
He said it was more than half an hour after the first sighting that the patrol boat was ordered to rush to its aid.
Lieutenant Commander Livingstone told the inquest that if immediately alerted, his vessel could possibly have been on the scene in 20 minutes, but once his boat arrived his options were limited.
Rain and squalls reduced visibility and heavy seas ruled out attempting to board or tow the boat.
Lieutenant Commander Livingstone said the only real option was to try and guide it to calmer waters.
Once the asylum seeker boat was swept close to the rocky shore, he said his crew could only attempt to rescue survivors.
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Chat about this story w/ TalkitaSource: http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/05/20/3222670.htm
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