By Courtney Brook
The widow of one of the tourists who drowned when a giant wave overturned a shark-diving boat on Sunday spent frantic hours trying to find out if her husband had survived.
Sarah, who married Chris Tallman, 34, in November, became worried when her husband did not e-mail her. He had said he would do so after returning from the trip on Sunday.
She looked for Cape Town news on-line, and found a story about the accident in Kleinbaai, near Gansbaai.
She immediately called the National Sea Rescue Institute and police, praying her husband was not involved.
They told her she had to get the names of the victims from the American embassy, which was closed.
She was told someone would call her at 9am South African time - midnight in San Francisco, where she lives.
The embassy did not call. Friends of Mrs Tallman's who are US government officials were able to establish that her husband and his best friend, Casey LaJeunesse, 35, had drowned.
On Monday morning police released the victims' names to the media.
American consulate-general spokesperson Mark Canning told the Cape Times that the consulate had trouble finding contact information for Tallman's wife, and as far as he knew no one had communicated with the police about releasing the names.
"My investigating officer assured me that next-of-kin had been notified," said police spokesperson Andre Traut.
Charmaine Beukes, owner of White Shark Projects, which owned the boat involved, Shark Team, confirmed that the company did not ask for numbers for next-of-kin in cases of emergency.
Mrs Tallman said embassy and consulate-general officials had called her on Monday to apologise for the way in which the situation had been handled.
"It's just a really bad nightmare. I'm finally starting to realise I'm not waking up."
Her husband had a great heart and was genuinely kind.
"He had a dynamic sense of humour, he could make anybody laugh. I will never ever stop loving him."
Meanwhile, Beukes and friends of the skippers of Shark Team have denied a tabloid report that a skipper known only as Gerald had been fired for refusing to go out on Sunday because of rough weather.
Beukes said that it was Gerald's weekend off, and a second skipper had been scheduled to do the trip.
Christina Rutzen, whose husband is a skipper for Shark Diving Unlimited, also rejected the reports as "completely untrue".
She and her husband, who helped with the rescue but didn't wish to comment, were friends of both the White Shark Projects skippers.
A booking agent for all eight diving companies, who asked not to be named, said that as far as she knew no companies had stayed ashore because of conditions and no skippers had instructed the passengers to wear life jackets.
Kenneth Roque, 37, of Norway, also drowned in the accident.