During his time as a hostage Mr Chandler had repeatedly voiced fears for his father, Alfred, who reached the age of 99 in June but did not live to see his son released.
On an internet blog on which they charted their adventures travelling in their yacht the Lynn Rival, they described spending much of the time at Mr Chandler’s home which they described as a “lovely place to relax by the sea.”
In one of the last updates before their disappearance while sailing from the Seychelles to Tanzania, they posted a photograph of the sea view from Mr Chandler’s home labelled as “a reminder of Dartmouth”.
Another photograph shows the couple strolling along the seafront at Torcross with Mr Chandler senior, dressed in a coat and hat, resting contentedly on the sea wall, his walking stick loosely in one hand.
A caption read affectionately: “Torcross, after fish and chips with Pa.”
The former civil engineer, he continued to live independently following the death of his wife, despite suffering deafness.
But he passed away in late July, after a spell of ill health, only a few weeks after turning 99.
Although there was some contact between the Chandlers and their family through intermediaries, it was feared it could worsen their anxiety if they were told about the death.
Instead they were given the news shortly after their release on Sunday. In a statement they said they were coming to terms with their loss.
A video sent to relatives in Britain by the family during the summer as proof that they were still alive makes clear the level of Mr Chandler’s concern for his father while in captivity.
“They don’t care about our families whatsoever,” he is heard saying at one point.
“My father – I hope he is still alive I have no idea, he would have been 99 in June theses fellows don’t give a damn.
“They really don’t think we deserve to have a family.”
In a statement issued through the Foreign Office yesterday the couple said: “We have just learned that Paul’s father died in late July, and we obviously need to come to terms with that.
“We will return to the UK very soon.”
Relatives in Britain disclosed that one of the main hurdles they faced in their efforts to secure the Chandlers’ release was the refusal of some pirates to accept that they were not millionaires.
Ransom negotiations broke down several times during the Kent couple’s 388 ordeal because pirate leaders refused to believe that more money could not be raised.
“Throughout the protracted discussions…it has been a difficult task for the family to get across the message that these were two retired people on a sailing trip on a small private yacht,” the couple’s relatives said in a statement.
“[They are] not part of a major commercial enterprise involving tens of millions of pounds of assets.
“Thankfully, common sense finally prevailed and a solution was obtained for their release.”
Pirates who hijack large commercial ships can expect insurance companies swiftly to arrange negotiated payouts averaging £2 million.
But Mr and Mrs Chandler had ploughed their lifesavings into their 38ft yacht, Lynn Rival, and had even sold their house in Tunbridge Wells to fund their retirement on the ocean.
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Somali Labour Minister Mohamed Abdi Hayir, who is from Suleiman sub-clan of the Habar-gidir, and reported to be a relative of the clan who have kidnapped Paul and Rachel Chandler, said yesterday: ‘We urge the pirates to release the old British couple unconditionally.’
He made the demand during a news conference at the Presidential palace.
‘We also urge the British government and all Somalis to participate in releasing the couple by whatever the means. They are innocent Britons in the hands of criminals,’ he added. However, he refused to elucidate further on what he meant by the reference to the British Government.
Cruising sailors Paul Chandler, 60, and his wife Rachel, 56, from Tunbridge Wells in Britain, were kidnapped at sea in October while a British ship stood by helplessly for fear the couple would be harmed if they attacked. The pirates have threatened to kill them if they are not paid £4.4million, although it is anticipated that a much lower figure would release the couple.
Images released recently, such as the one above, showed the couple, who are being held separately, looking gaunt and distressed.
The UK government says it will not pay ransoms because that would encourage further kidnaps of Britons.
The development came as Danish special forces dramatically recaptured a hijacked cargo ship. The troops, from a Danish warship, scaled the sides of the Ariella, whose 25 crew had locked themselves into a secure room. The pirates had already left, apparently scared off when the Danish ship’s helicopter fired warning shots at one of their boats.
It was the first time the EU naval task force off Somalia had intervened in a hijacking.
Last week the Chandlers were briefly reunited. ‘We brought them together a few days ago,’ said Abdullahi Dhagaweyne, a commander of the pirate gang holding the Chandlers in a phone call to British press. ‘I think they had some kindhearted meeting and enjoyable moments after more days of separation. We are going to bring them together again soon.
‘When we separated them again the woman was shrieking.’
Mr Dhagaweyne, who spoke from Haradheere, the pirate town on the central Somali coast where the couple have been kept, warned the gang was ‘losing patience’ and could sell them to al-Qaeda-linked factions.
He said: ‘I cannot confirm that they will forever be in our hands if no ransom is paid, there might be another decision in the future.’
A sale to Somalia’s radical al-Shabaab militia, which has been linked to al-Qaeda, is a potential alternative to a ransom payment which the Chandlers relatives and friends cannot afford.
‘There are negotiations by phone these days, but no tangible developments yet,’ he said. ‘No government has called us, only families and other so-called negotiators.
‘We may sell [the Chandlers] to anyone who pays us the money we want, if we don’t get ransom in the future.’
Since the kidnapping, Sail-World has been contacted by cruising sailors who were with the Chandlers before they set off for Tanzania. The sailors, who did not want to be named, said that the dangers were well known to all cruising sailors in the Seychelles and that they had been warned repeatedly that they should not hazard a voyage to Tanzania.
Now, the manager of the Seychelles Yacht Club, Andre Hoarau, has confirmed this, and that he also warned the couple.
‘I told them again and again, we all told them, that they should not go to Tanzania,’ he told British newspapers.
He said that he had passed on the multiple reports of pirate activity in the area.
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