Man who fell from Quantum of the Seas cruise ship identified

The girlfriend of a Brisbane man missing, presumed dead, from a Hawaiian-bound ocean liner has tearfully told of her devastation, and how he had invited her on the cruise.

The shattered girlfriend of a Brisbane man who plunged to his suspected death from a cruise ship bound for Hawaii says she’s devastated the search was called off.

Warwick Tollemache, 35, went overboard from the Royal Caribbean Quantum of the Seas cruise ship on Wednesday night.

A massive air and sea search involving the US Coast Guard was called off on Friday after discussions with his family.

Brisbane woman Celine La Roche, who said she had been dating Mr Tollemache “on and off” for six years, broke down as she told The Courier-Mail she had been clinging to faint hopes he could still be alive, and was devastated the search had been suspended.

Warwick Tollemache with Celine La Roche on a previous cruise

She had earlier posted of her devastation on Facebook, telling a friend on Thursday: “Warwick is lost at sea.”

“I love you, always have and always will,” she wrote above a picture of the two of them cruising together in the South Pacific last month.

“RIP my love.”

Ms La Roche told The Courier-Mail: “They should have kept looking – I don’t understand why they stopped the search.

“I’m just devastated.”

An earlier statement from the US Coast Guard said that after reviewing all relevant information of the case and discussing it with the next of kin, the difficult decision had been made to suspend the active search for Mr Tollemache.

Warwick Tollemache with Celine La Roche

Ms La Roche revealed that Mr Tollemache had asked her to go on the cruise with him, but she was busy with work and he had instead gone with his mother Mandy.

“We were talking in the morning (before the tragedy), we were making plans for another trip,” Ms La Roche said.

“We were cruising in the South Pacific last month and I was going to move in with him.

“He told me we were going to go to France to meet my family and cruise on the Mediterranean.

“I was still hoping until I heard they’d stopped the search and now… he could still be alive in the middle of nowhere.

“I won’t have closure personally until they find him. He knows how to float in water, we did it together when we were snorkelling.

Brisbane man Warwick Tollemache has been identified as the person who fell from the Quantum of the Seas cruise ship on Wednesday night.

“I heard reports saying one woman saw him hitting the boat on his way down.

“What if he just hit his arm or his leg and just had a broken limb?

“Maybe he’s just injured?

“But his mum told me straight away, ‘He’s gone,’ so I just thought, ‘That’s it, he’s dead.’

“But he’s very strong.”

A social media post by Mandy Tollemache said the family was “heartbroken at the loss of our beloved Warwick”.

“He was kind, beautiful, and gentle soul who was adored by everyone who knew him,” she said.

“He will be deeply missed.”

The keen fisherman and boatie was born in South Africa, but went to high school and university in Brisbane.

The Quantum of the Seas, which is based in Brisbane, was on a cruise to Honolulu. Picture: Royal Caribbean/Michael Verdure

Friends said Mr Tollemache had left “an indelible mark on all who knew him”.

“He will live on in all of us,” Yasmin Barber said.

Mr Tollemache’s fall overboard was first alerted to fellow passengers on board the Brisbane-based ship early on Thursday morning, when the vessel was about 1400km south of Hawaii.

The Brisbane to Honolulu cruise left Queensland on April 12 and on Friday morning docked in the US island state.

The recovery effort was called off earlier on Friday after discussions between the US Coast Guard and Mr Tollemache’s family and Australian consular officials.

Royal Caribbean issued a brief statement saying crews were working with local authorities but “out of respect for the family we will not share further information about this unfortunate event”.