Crew members on-board the Queen Mary 2 have reportedly banned from drinking alcohol after a Chilean chef was suspected of throwing himself overboard in the early hours of Saturday.
The Cunard-owned ship was on its way from Southampton to New York when the 26-year-old chef, named locally as Favio Onate Ordenes, disappeared on Saturday morning.
Testimonies of crew members quoted in The Telegraph suggest he had been drinking the night before. “He was crying and screaming that he wanted to throw himself off,” one said. “None of his friends believed him or took him seriously.”
The crew woke on Saturday morning to at least four tannoy announcements asking for the chef to report for his shift. Passengers on the liner – which has a capacity for 2,620 people, paying up to £4,849 each – were asked to join the search. But efforts was called off on Sunday night.
The ship continued towards New York, anchoring on Monday in Halifax, the capital of the Canadian province of Nova Scotia. “Alcohol has been banned for crew members and all ‘deck privileges’ have been taken away,” another crew member said, according to the newspaper.
“It’s just so sad. Everyone is incredibly sombre on board.”
Four people from the 1,200-strong crew are understood to have resigned, the crew member said, and told Cunard they do not wish to reboard the ship once it docks in New York on Wednesday.
A spokesman for Cunard said they could not comment on the alcohol ban or circumstances surrounding the death, as the investigation was ongoing.
