Skipper Lance Goodhew is on trial in Whangārei District Court.
Photo: RNZ / Peter de Graaf

Tears flowed as families of the Enchanter tragedy victims listened to the skipper recounting the events of that fatal night for the first time.

For the past two years, Lance Goodhew has remained silent on the tragedy, but on Thursday the court heard about his dramatic escape from his submerged vessel, and how he survived on one last air pocket.

“I stopped and thought, ‘now I drown’,” the skipper recalled of what he thought were his last moments before eventually swimming towards light.

Goodhew’s initial interview with Maritime New Zealand, conducted shortly after the tragedy, was presented during his trial in the Whangārei District Court. He faces a charge of allegedly breaching his duties as a skipper, leading to the deaths of the five men.

The men spent three days fishing at the Three Kings Islands before heading south to North Cape, where they were scheduled to anchor on 20 March 2022.

A significant front of bad weather had just passed, leaving behind a wake of sea patterns Maritime New Zealand alleged were too dangerous for Goodhew to be operating in.

From the beginning of the interview, Goodhew voiced his frustration with Maritime New Zealand for not permitting him to have family support present. He did, however, have one of his lawyers present.

The Enchanter.
Photo: Supplied / Auckland Rescue Helicopter Trust

“I’ve gone through a traumatic, horrific incident, my state of mind isn’t very good at all. I’ve been dealing with this one hour at a time and I have been refused a support person and I am deeply, deeply upset about it,” Goodhew was recorded saying.

Goodhew was clear; he knew the weather was going to be “nasty” and although they had some rough patches in the Three Kings area, he maintained the weather was easing when they left there for North Cape on the afternoon of 20 March.

“It [the weather] was a bit scruffy when we left but it’s been backing off and it’s quite nice now,” Goodhew texted his friend at about 5pm.

Goodhew told Maritime New Zealand it was so calm that the men were free to move around the boat and put fishing lines out.

He said he expected to arrive at their destination around 8pm, called his friend at around 7.40pm and believed it was around 20 minutes after that phone call when the wave hit.

Goodhew recalled it was getting dark and he was at the rear of the boat checking his client’s lures and decided to give them another 15 minutes before calling it a day.

Goodhew’s recollection was almost cinematic as he described a colossal wall of water with no end in sight.

The wreck of the Enchanter on the beach at Houhora Heads, Northland, following the second salvage attempt.
Photo: Supplied / Transport Accident Investigation Commission

“I looked up out my side window at a wall of water. An absolute wall, I could not see the top of it, I don’t know how big it was,” Goodhew said.

At the time, the boat was on autopilot and Goodhew raced to reach the wheel, but it was too late.

“It smashed us to pieces, and I am true as honest to God to me right this moment, it smashed us to pieces.

“It took us out, so easy, instantaneously. Smashing, collapsing, rolling and water all in a second.”

He was almost immediately thrown underwater and said he was trapped under the flybridge, in pitch-black darkness, not knowing which way was up or down.

He found a pocket of air in the flybridge and took a second to calm himself down.

“That’s the only reason that saved my life. I lifted my head so I could breathe and calm down and I thought I’ve gotta get out of here, otherwise, I’m going to drown.”

Goodhew said he took a breath and went under, trying to navigate through debris and when he could not, attempted to go back to the air pocket, but it was gone.

“I stopped and thought ‘now I drown’ and I was surprisingly quite calm,” Goodhew recalled.

At that point, he saw a patch of light that he thought was below him and swam towards it.

As he got closer, the light got brighter and he eventually popped to the surface.

“I just thought, ‘what the f*** just happened?'”

He said he could not wrap his head around how the sea had gone from calm to capsizing them and asked a survivor to look at the ocean.

“Look at the sea, it wasn’t rough, and it’s just capsized us right there.”

Goodhew climbed on to debris with another survivor and held on to a victim for two hours while being rocked around by waves.

“We were struggling to hold on to him, but we had to let him go,” Goodhew tragically recalled.

Multiple people in the courtroom, including Goodhew, were in tears listening to the interview.

When Maritime New Zealand asked why the lifeboats did not go off, Goodhew said that had also confused him but realised they had become trapped under the hull that people were floating on.

“They’re depth-charged and designed to go off at three to four metres, from memory. We seen the hull floating upside down… they never went off because the boat never sunk, the boat stayed afloat, they were under the hull,” Goodhew said.

The court later heard evidence from sea scientists.

– This story was originally published by the New Zealand Herald.