Word: squall
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...fact as well as name the Pride of Baltimore. A 136-ft. replica of a 19th century schooner, she was slated to be a major ornament of the July 4th celebrations in New York Harbor. Then she ran into a "white squall," a killer blast of 90-m.p.h. wind and water...
...superfit, the whites of their eyes blue white, calves plumped out like loving cups, dazzling teeth set in gums that probably will never know the heartbreak of gingivitis. Skoko had the look of a man grown weary with this age, and the knit of his brow suggested an approaching squall line...
...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. She started to go under in 30 seconds. The squall knocked the ship over like a day sailer." According to Mark Litchfield, one of the British owners of the Marques, who was in Bermuda, "it seems incredible that she was driven under like that. It would have to have been a wind of absolutely phenomenal proportions...
...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 into a raft. He saw Bill Earnhardt, 24, of Wycombe, Pa., in the water near by, reached out, and yanked him by the arm 'into the raft. They were among the lucky ones. The Marques went down in less than a minute. "I can guarantee...
...horrible, exhausting struggle, like a long bout of some painful illness. One would never undertake such a thing if one were not driven on by some demon whom one can neither resist nor understand. For all one knows that demon is simply the same instinct that makes a baby squall for attention. And yet it is also true that one can write nothing readable unless one constantly struggles to efface one's own personality. Good prose is like a windowpane...