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Woman who survived five days adrift in shark-infested sea says one mistake cost the others their lives
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A woman who survived for five days adrift at sea revealed the one key mistake those trapped with her made that meant they died while she lived.
Deborah Scaling-Kiley lived to tell the tale, while her crewmates were eaten alive by sharks.
Disaster at sea led to death at the teeth of sharks
It all starts back in 1982.
Then 24, Deborah was on a sailing trip from Maine to Florida aboard the luxury yacht Trashman when a tropical storm hit and capsized the boat in the Atlantic Ocean.
One thing to note about that eastern side of the USA is that those waters are home to a lot of great white sharks and other dangerous creatures.
There were originally five on board the boat, sailing in millpond perfect conditions, but just two days into their voyage they were cast over when the storm hit.
During the struggle, one of Deborah’s shipmates Meg cut her leg, and you know what happens when blood gets into the water.
As soon as that happened, a timer was set and the sharks were attracted from all over.
The five managed to get into a life raft, but the sharks were circling and even ramming against the boat to attempt to get to their prey.
The terrified crew were safe, but only so long as they stayed on their flimsy craft.
Over the next five days, three of them would end up being eaten.
The key mistake made by Deborah’s crewmates
The crew was made up of Deborah, Captain John Lippoth, his girlfriend Meg Mooney, a yachtsman called Brad and an English national, Mark Adams.
They were supposed to sail the yacht around the coast to a new owner, but things went badly wrong.
On the show I Shouldn’t Be Alive, Deborah explained what happened after the capsizing.
"The minute we got in there were fins surrounding the dinghy,” she said.
"They were everywhere.”
After hours became days, Meg’s wound was causing all of the crew to develop infections from being around the blood and pus in the dinghy.
With no water, the crew became delirious as well.
John and Mark started drinking sea water out of desperation, and eventually John started hallucinating and jumped overboard thinking he could see land.
That was the first mistake.
"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 - 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.
More despair as more people die
Meg was struggling with her wound still, and in no good shape - she dided one night in the dinghy from her infection.
Sadly, in an attempt to save themselves, Brad and Deborah had to take the horrific decision to throw her body overboard.
"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.”
What’s more, at one stage Brad fell overboard.
However, he managed to scramble back onto the raft and was spared death at the teeth of the sharks.
Then, moments later 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.”
After her ordeal, Deborah became a motivational speaker and wrote a book about the experience.
Brad continued to work at sea, but he was never the same.
He said: "It’s not something that you turn off once you’ve been through it,
"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.”
What’s more - despite their predicaments, the other members of the crew could have survived if they had just never gone overboard.
It’s easy to say with a clear mind, but it might have all been different.