Canal barge enthusiast falls to death after slipping through sheet ice into freezing water on Leeds-Liverpool canal near Ormskirk

Dec 23 2009 by Staff Reporter, Liverpool Echo

A CANAL barge enthusiast fell to his death when he slipped from his boat and through sheet ice into freezing water.

The tragic scene played out yards from a beauty spot popular with boaters on the Leeds-Liverpool canal.

It is understood the man’s heartbroken wife reported the 57-year-old captain of the Hamlet missing.

Specialist water rescuers were scrambled to the area but arrived too late.

They were sent away as police divers entered the water and recovered the man's body, which was found under the Hamlet's hull.

The owner of canal boat the Black Pearl, which is moored around 300 yards away at the Ship Inn, Haskayne, near Omskirk, recalled the search on Sunday afternoon.