Her teenage son could have lived had adequate safety measures been implemented on the boat he was on before jumping overboard to his death two years ago, a mother argued in court.

Julian Quatresous and five of his friends had leapt off the Fernandes II in mid-August 2017 as it cruised past Paceville on its way back from Comino, thinking they would save time and swim ashore rather than go all the way back to the boat’s berth in Sliema.

“At a certain moment, we recognised the great tower at St Julian’s, which is very close to the night clubs. At a glance it didn’t seem that far away,” his friend, Louis, said in an affidavit presented in court.

His family has taken the boat owners, Captain Morgan Submarine Ltd, to court, saying the young Frenchman’s death was the result of their negligence and their failure to abide by rules and regulations, both with regard to maritime law and also to health and safety. The case is being heard by Mr Justice Lawrence Mintoff. The magisterial inquiry into the fatality has not been concluded yet.

Documents submitted in court give a heart-breaking account of the hour the teenagers spent in the sea after they jumped off the boat at about 1am.

Julian Quatresous had wanted to join the merchant navy.

It seems the leap was not pre-planned: one of the boys, Pierre Antoine, jumped and others followed, leaving one of the others asleep on board. It was only when they were in the sea, fully dressed, that they realised the shore was much further than it had seemed and the waves much harder to deal with.

They started calling out but lost sight of each other several times.

“I heard someone panicking and swam towards him. Among these cries of panic, I heard Julian asking where we were. He did not seem to be in difficulty… I found Pierre Antoine, who was drowning, in front of me. Louis joined us and we brought Pierre Antoine to his senses,” another of the boys, Hugo, said.

“I heard Raphael shout the first name of Julian three or four times… I thought that Raphael and Julian were both swimming. I was not worried about them as they were both used to the water,” he recalled.

After about a quarter of an hour, they could see rescue boats and a helicopter but realised they had not been spotted and continued trying to swim to shore.

It was only some 45 minutes later that three of them were picked up by rescuers and taken to the Armed Forces of Malta maritime base where they found two of the others who had been picked up from the beach.

Hugo was the first to be picked up by a patrol boat and he guided it to where he thought the others were but it was only when they were picked up that they realised Julian was not with them.

“As he got into the boat, Raphael was sobbing and told me that they had lost Julian,” he said.

As the hours passed with no news of him, they realised that they had to tell Julian’s family about his disappearance.

His mother flew in from France with her sister and other son the following Sunday. They were still hoping for the best and set up teams, having someone at the apartment all the time in case Julian showed up.

The days passed and their worst fears were eventually confirmed when Julian’s body was found by divers. He was just a few months short of 20 and was due to start his studies at the National Maritime School, in Marseilles that September.

The friends’ affidavits gave some insight into the situation on board the boat.

The sea had already been choppy when they set off, with a friend saying: “The boat was rolling a lot and you had to hold on in order to move without falling over.”

Pierre Antoine said in his affidavit he had only seen one security guard on board (his friend Hugo said there were two) and that, even so, the guard was only concerned with making sure that only those with VIP tickets got into the reserved area.

One of the friends said there had been about 200 people on board for the event organised by Lazy Pirate. A few of them said they had not been given any safety briefing and that they could see no safety equipment.

In her affidavit, Julian’s mother, Christine, said she bought a ticket and went on the Fernandes II herself the Saturday following her son’s death, wanting to see for herself what kind of party it was.

She said that although the tickets were verified on boarding, none of the youngsters were asked about their age even though it was to be an open bar. She said she saw no headcount being taken either as they boarded the boat nor once she sailed off, nor when the boat left the swimming stop at Comino, even though a number of passengers had swum out of the area illuminated up by the boat’s floodlight.

Some of Julian’s friends gave similar accounts in their affidavits.

Although she could not recall whether there had been a safety briefing, the mother said there were no life jackets visible, nor any cabinets where they could have been stowed.

“I believe that if the crew members were sufficiently responsible and if there had been more of them to ensure better surveillance and adequate security measures during these parties, my son could have been spared from his tragic death,” she declared in her affidavit forming part of the records of the case.

Captain Morgan Submarine denies all accusations.

It pointed out that the boat had been chartered to the party organiser, Lazy Pirate, though it had earlier declined to pass a copy of the charter agreement to the family’s lawyers.

The company said the incident was due to the victim’s negligence, recklessness and his failure to follow regulations.

The legal team representing the family is headed by lawyer Cedric Mifsud.