Word: raft
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...Bradley snapped like a stick. A few minutes later, as seamen in the forward part of the vessel pulled on their jackets and fought toward the rails, the stricken craft rolled over. First Mate Fleming and Deck Watchman Frank Mays pulled themselves onto a 4-by-8-ft. raft, began shouting to the others. "The sea was so great that men were hidden," said Fleming later. "We saw someone near and shouted him over to us." It was Deck Watchman Gary Strzelecki...
...Bradley died in the mad sea. Cries of struggling sailors grew fainter; the buoy flares were snuffed out. The three men on the raft spotted Deck Hand Dennis Meredith and pulled him aboard. They found five flares and a sea anchor inside the hatch of the raft. It was more than an hour later that they saw a rescue ship, the German motor vessel Christian Sartori. Fleming shot four flares, but the Sartori did not see them. Still the rescue ship, rolling as much as 50°, plunged toward the raft...
...gigantic wave swept the men into the water. They fought their way back aboard. The Sartori's searchlight swept over the raft, but flashed away again. As the ship came closer, Fleming frantically tore at his last flare. At first, he could not get through the protective casing. He chewed at it, got it open-but it would not ignite. The Sartori moved...
They were indeed mere minutes. It was about 11:30 p.m. when the biggest wave crested. Straight up into the air went the raft, and into the sea once more the men were flung. Mays got back first, then Strzelecki, and then Fleming. They called for Meredith, but they heard nothing, saw nothing...
...waves began to subside, and the men lay face down. Fleming felt ice in his eyes, on his back, in his hair. The three exchanged nonsensical gibberish. Then Mays prayed. But Strzelecki slipped from the raft, clinging weakly to the side. The others, too spent to pull him aboard, held him for more than an hour. Strzelecki sobbed...