An inquest into his death heard he was a long-standing and popular crewman on board the 90ft boat based at Newlyn.

In January last year, the trawler had returned to port in the evening and the crew gone out for a few drinks.

Stephen Atmore told the hearing in Penzance he had been last off the boat with 47-year-old Mr Coady and the pair had gone for a drink in The Star pub.

However, Mr Coady then left, saying he was going to see his ex-wife at the Dolphin pub.

It was common for the crewmen to come back to the boat after a night out in Newlyn to be ready to land their catch first thing in the morning.

Mr Atmore said when he returned he was surprised to see his friend had not yet come back, although the alarm on the vessel was going off.

In the early hours of the morning however, another crewman shouted that Mr Coady's body was floating in the water near the boat.

"I went straight out and I saw Steve face down. From his leather jacket I could tell it was him."

The court heard a toxicology report had put Mr Coady's blood alcohol count at 244 milligrams of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood and that would have been enough to cause him to be unsteady.

Shirley Postlethwaite, a friend of Mr Coady's former wife, was probably the last person to see him alive. She told the court when he said he was going to turn in at around 10.30pm, he seemed "quite drunk".

She had offered to walk him down to the boat, but that was treated as something of a joke as Mr Coady would "never have agreed to let me walk him down the quay". She added that Mr Coady could swim "quite well".

There were no witnesses to the incident, although it was known Mr Coady had slipped and fallen from the quayside previously.

Deputy coroner Andrew Cox concluded Stephen Coady had drowned as a result of an accident. In recording the verdict, Mr Cox referred to a lengthy report on the incident carried out by the Health and Safety Executive which was published in October 2006.

He said it was impossible to say whether any of the health and safety issues highlighted in the report had contributed to Mr Coady's death.

But he was pleased that both the Newlyn Pier and Harbour Commissioners and W Stevenson and Sons, owners of the Marie Claire, had made "significant efforts" to improve safety at the port.

"Newlyn is a working port, so it's never going to be an entirely safe environment," said Mr Cox.

"But I am pleased to see significant efforts being made to improve safety, although that is not to say that there was a problem before."

article copyright THE CORNISHMAN 

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