Word: sefton
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...fury had apparently subsided. "For some reason I stayed up on deck," he recalled later. "The boat was sailing along really well and fast, and it was a nice feeling to be up there." That decision probably saved his life. "Those below did not stand a chance," said Philip Sefton, 22, also from Britain, who was at the helm. He described the deathly blow that struck the Marques 80 miles north of Bermuda: "It was totally unexpected. It was incredible in its velocity. It was a freak hurricane. The ship was on its side in less than ten seconds...
Everyone on deck was catapulted into the dark, heaving sea. "As she went under I levered myself onto the rail and was swept clear as she went under me," Sefton remembers. "As I stood on the poop rail I thought, 'Jump!' I went under water for a few seconds. A life raft was 30 ft. away. I thought, 'Oh God, swim!' " The orange rafts were designed to eject and inflate automatically in an emergency, and they did. Clifton McMillan, 16, of Fairfield, Conn., who had just finished his watch when the squall hit, managed to jump...