A dad-of-five died after suffering a heart attack while onboard a Stena Line Ferry with his children.
Jon Morley was travelling from Dublin to Liverpool to visit friends with his son and daughter when tragedy struck on April 8.
The "fit and healthy" 52-year-old passed away roughly 20 minutes into the ferry crossing, with his heartbroken family describing his death as "completely out of the blue".
Brother-in-law Dave Herron said: "He was living in Dublin after spending many years in Liverpool and he was bringing his two children to visit friends in Liverpool on the Stena Line, and he was feeling a bit tired so he sort of decided to have a sleep."
Jon's teen daughter, who is in her early teens, then went to wake up her dad before making the devastating discovery that he had died in his sleep, the Liverpool Echo reports.
The results of a post-mortem, carried out by a coroner in North Wales, found that John had died as a result of a heart attack and heart failure.
He was described "family man at heart" and leaves behind four sons and a daughter.
Dave has now set up a Gofundme page with the hope of helping the family to cover the costs of Jon's funeral once he has been repatriated back to Ireland.
Paying tribute, Dave said: "He was a good guy, family orientated. In his younger years he was the life and soul of the party but as you get older you [are not] the life and soul of the party."
Dave said Jon, who worked as a tiler, tiled the floors in his home while his partner was in hospital as a surprise.
He added: "He was one of those guys that if you needed a favour, if he could help you out he would. He was a family man at heart."
"It came completely out of the blue. He seemed fit and healthy. [The family] are absolutely devastated. It absolutely came as a shock.
"We knew he was going to Liverpool for a couple of days with the kids to see friends but this is the last thing we would have expected."
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