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Woman reveals how drunk captain’s mistake left her friends being eaten by sharks one by one
A woman has spoken about a drunk captain's mistake that led to her friends being eaten by sharks one by one.
Deborah Scaling-Kiley was only 24 years old when she watched in horror as killer sharks pulled her friends apart during their sailing trip from Maine to Florida in 1982.
The young woman was aboard the luxury yacht Trashman with Captain John Lippoth, his girlfriend Meg Mooney, yachtsman Brad Cavanagh, and Englishman Mark Adams.
The group of five began their journey in perfect sailing conditions, but just two days into the voyage, the weather took a turn for the worse and capsized the boat in the Atlantic Ocean.
A terrifying storm left the crew stranded at sea
As the terrifying waves slammed against the mast and winds of 112 km/h battered the sails, the captain, who had been drinking heavily, fell asleep at the helm.
Deborah, who had been sleeping below deck, was suddenly awakened by panicked voices as freezing seawater poured into the cabin.
A massive wave had smashed through the yacht's windows, causing the vessel to rapidly fill with water.
With the boat sinking beneath them, the five crew members scrambled into the ocean and managed to reach an 11-foot inflatable dinghy.
However, their nightmare ordeal was just beginning as Meg cut her leg in the struggle, turning the group into a magnet for great white sharks, who came from all around when they detected blood in the water.
"The minute we got in there were fins surrounding the dinghy," she said. "They were everywhere."
Two crew members were killed by sharks
After hours stretched to days, conditions aboard the tiny raft deteriorated.
With no food, fresh water, or medical supplies, the group battled dehydration, exhaustion, and exposure to the elements.
Meg’s leg would become severely infected, while the filthy conditions inside the dinghy left other crew members suffering from painful sores.
With no water, the crew became delirious as well. John and Mark started drinking seawater out of desperation, and eventually John started hallucinating and jumped overboard, thinking he could see land.
"All of a sudden, we just hear this shrill scream. Blood-curdling. Then it was over, silence. There was no crying, nothing. There was no doubt what got him. The sharks got him," Deborah said.
Mark, who was also delusional, was the next to go overboard, allegedly believing he was off to buy beer and cigarettes at a nearby store. The sharks got him, too.
Survivors were forced to bury their friend at sea
Meg continued to worsen as the infection from her injuries spread. Despite Deborah and Cavanagh's efforts to keep her alive, she was found dead, lying in the "fetid mess of seaweed, blood, urine, and pus" on the floor.
Cavanagh later admitted that he thought about eating her body in a desperate bid for survival, but Deborah warned him Meg was too infected and insisted they had to throw her off the boat. They took off her shirt and jewellery to give to her family on their return.
"It was such a sad moment because we laid her naked body on the side of the raft and then we decided we couldn’t just roll her off. She needed some sort of funeral," Deborah explained.
"So we said the Lord’s Prayer and Psalm 23 and we gently pushed her body overboard. Then we decided to go back to sleep so when the sharks attacked we wouldn’t have to see it," she added.
With three of their friends dead, Deborah and Cavanagh were growing weaker by the hour.
At one point, Cavanagh fell into the water while trying to clean out the boat, and Deborah broke down as he struggled to find the strength to get back in. However, he managed to climb back onto the raft and escaped death.
Then, just as their hope of survival was fading, a cargo ship appeared, and the pair were saved.
"I didn’t care who these people were or where we were going," she said. "I was there and Brad was there and we were alive.”
Deborah went on to become a motivational speaker and penned a novel titled Albatross: The True Story of a Woman’s Survival at Sea in 1994. She sadly passed away at the age of 54 from unknown causes in 2012 at her home in Mexico.
Brad continues to work as a mariner in Massachusetts, but he said the traumatizing ordeal has left him a changed man.
"It’s not something that you turn off once you’ve been through it," he says. "You keep living in survival mode. I don’t know if you’re shell-shocked but it’s impossible to just turn it off and live the way you did before."