Albatross [Hardcover]

Deborah Scaling Kiley (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 2, 1994

One late summer's day, the yacht Trashman set sail from Annapolis to Florida. On board were five young people: John, the captain; Meg, Mark, Brad, and Debbie Scaling. When the boat sailed into a gale, the eighty-knot winds shredded the sails. Forty-foot seas crashed through the cabin windows, and Trashman sank, leaving the crew adrift in a rubber dinghy. Albatross tells the story of how Debbie and Brad survived and how the tragedy changed Debbie Scaling's life forever.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

It was an ill-assorted crew that set out in October, 1982, to deliver a 58-foot yacht, Trashman , to Florida. John, the captain, his friend Meg and the author first sailed from Maine to Annapolis, where they picked up two more crew members, Brad and Mark. Sailing without charts, they encountered gale winds and high seas off the North Carolina coast on the second day out. A freak wave crashed through the cabin windows, and Trashman sank in minutes, leaving the crew adrift in a rubber dinghy without food and water, each one hanging onto his or her own survival. Meg had been severely injured in a fall; she developed blood poisoning and died. The second day in the dinghy, John and Mark, both delirious, went overboard. Debbie and Brad managed to hang on to their belief that they would be rescued. Four days after the sinking, they were picked up by a Russian freighter and brought to shore at Morehead City, N.C. This is a harrowing story of endurance and survival. Author tour.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

In 1982, experienced sailor Kiley, then 24, agreed to crew a sailboat from Maine to Florida. After a fierce storm sank the boat off the coast of North Carolina, the crew of five struggled onto an ill-equipped rubber dinghy to face hunger, cold, thirst, sharks, festering sores, and hostile relations with each other. Telling her story is Kiley's way of overcoming the horrible memories of her ordeal. The survival tale is told so vividly that the reader nearly feels the sharks bumping the bottom of the dinghy, and shares in the crew's hallucinations as their fear and suffering mount. However, the author's overall insights are not especially perceptive. Public libraries should consider purchasing where there is an interest in sailing.
Kathy Ruffle, Coll. of New Caledonia Lib., Prince George, B.C.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin; 1St Edition edition (May 2, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0395655730
• ISBN-13: 978-0395655733
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,021,534 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating and very scary, October 21, 2002

By 

Stephen Schwartz (Ithaca, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Albatross: The True Story of a Woman's Survival at Sea (Hardcover)

ALBATROSS is a gripping story of survival and agonizing death at sea--the sinking with the loss of three lives of the yacht TRASHMAN off the Carolina coast. The author pulls no punches and tells a tale of human suffering, weakness, and malice that left this reader shaken by its bluntness, realism, and intensity.

The story is told in a direct and clear manner that inescapably draws one in to its nightmarish hell. Besides a sea story it is also a story of a young person's stuggle with her own demons.

Why read such a painful book? One important life lesson that we must learn from this account is not to leave port unprepared. In some ways, I would urge all boaters to read this book just to have that lesson hammered in. As a boater I came away with the deep conviction that I don't ever want to come anywhere near going through anything like what the crew of TRASHMAN went through.

As presented by the author, the tragedy was entirely the result of the incompetence, alcoholism, and carelessness of the captain and other crew members. I must confess, however, that when I reflected on the author's tale I could not help wondering how objective it was. She is so unremittingly critical--bitterly critical--of John and Mark that I began to doubt the clarity of her vision. I would love to get the account of the other survivor. There are several mysteries about the tragic sinking of TRASHMAN that remain troubling and unresolved.

Nevertheless Debby's tale is one that will move in and rearrange your mental furniture, especially if you are a boater or have ever been to sea in a small boat.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Nightmare to be Sure!, November 27, 2005

By 

Connie L. Tonsgard (Juneau, Alaska United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Albatross (Hardcover)

I couldn't wait to get my hands on this book. I had seen Deborah and Brad's story on "I Shouldn't Be Alive" series, where they showed re-enactments and now and then broke away to the two actual survivors telling their story. I just knew she had written about this, so I looked it up on Amazon.

The story is told in very colorful prose. I could hear the sailboat slicing through the water, could see the pewter waves and dark sky. I could almost feel the sharks bumping the underside of the rubber raft with their rough skin.

Debbie is brutally honest, which adds to the credibility and interest of her story. She opens up and really lets us into her ordeal, and adds extra bits of information and impressions, like when she had her head under water looking for sharks and saw the beauty of the school of doradoes. So descriptive, I could see it.

This is also a story of triumph, as Debbie deals with strong emotions in the months and years after the tragedy. I'm glad she pulled through it all and wrote the book. I recommend this book for teens as well as adults.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Interesting sea survival story written by a woman, March 1, 2005

By 

Blaine Greenfield "eclectic reader" (Belle Meade, NJ) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Albatross (Hardcover)

Heard ALBATROSS: THE TRUE STORY OF A WOMAN'S SURVIVAL AT SEA by Deborah Scaling Kiley and Meg Noonan . . . it is the tragic tale of what was supposed to be a simple boat trip that wound up as a nightmare . . . several of the crew members perished; what was more interesting to me was the story of how the survivors made it.

I've read other "how I survived at sea" books before . . . this was the first one, though, that I've come across written by a woman . . . what I'll remember: when your instincts tell you something, listen . . . Scaling Kiley, unfortunately, did not.

I liked her special introduction at the beginning of the cassette tapes . . . I also liked the work of Karen Allen--a talented actress that I don't see nearly enough--who did an excellent job with the narration.