Deborah Scaling Kiley

Deborah Scaling Kiley (January 21, 1958 – August 13, 2012)[1] was an American sailor, author, motivational speaker, and businesswoman. She was the first American woman to complete the Whitbread Round the World Race and famously survived a boating accident in 1982 off the coast of North Carolina, which became the subject of TV shows, books and films.[2][3]

Deborah Scaling Kiley
Deborah Scaling Kiley from Albatross
Born(1958-01-21)January 21, 1958
Throckmorton, Texas, U.S.
DiedAugust 13, 2012(2012-08-13) (aged 54)
San Miguel de Allende, Mexico
NationalityAmerican
Occupation
  • Sailor
  • author
Spouse(s)
Greg Blackmon
​
​
(m. 2005; div. 2008)​

John Coleman Kiley III
(divorced)
Children2

Biography

Deborah Scaling Kiley was born January 21, 1958, in Throckmorton, Texas. She took up sailing at an early age and began working as a crew member on yachts. In 1981, she became the first American woman to complete the Whitbread Round the World Race, working as a cook on the South African Xargo.[4] In October, 1982, she was hired to crew a 58-foot sailing yacht called the Trashman for a routine Maine to Florida transfer.[5] From Maine, they stopped over in Annapolis, Maryland and left for the next leg when the boat was overtaken by unexpected heavy weather in the Gulf Stream off the coast of North Carolina. The Trashman foundered in 40–50' seas and sank. The five crew members gathered on an 11-foot Zodiac and began to die: two drank sea-water, became delusional, left the Zodiac, and were eaten by sharks; and the third had an agonizing death from infected wounds suffered during the sinking. Five days after the sinking, Kiley and the other surviving crew member were rescued by a passing Soviet cargo ship "Olenegorsk" and presented to US authorities.

The shipwreck was transformative for Kiley who went on to write a popular account of the incident called Albatross: The True Story of a Woman's Survival at Sea (1994) which was made into a TV film, Two Came Back; and profiled in the episode "Shark Survivor" on the Discovery channel series I Shouldn't Be Alive (Ep. 1, Se. 1, 2005-08-10); and in the episode "Danielle/Deborah/Gordy & Betty" of the series I Survived... (Ep. 17, Se. 3, 2010-09-12). She became a motivational speaker, appeared on Larry King Live (CNN), and published another book No Victims Only Survivors in 2006 about lessons for surviving.[2] In 2019, Discovery Channel released a made-for-TV movie lightly based on the events of the shipwreck titled Capsized: Blood in the Water.[6]

Personal life

Deborah Scaling was married to John Coleman Kiley III, and was later married to Greg Blackmon from 2005–2008. Both marriages concluded in divorces and in the case of Blackmon there were charges of domestic violence.[7] She had two children: her daughter, Marka Kiley, and son, John "Quatro" Kiley IV, who died in a drowning accident in 2009. Deborah Scaling Kiley died August 13, 2012 in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, where she had recently moved.

Works
  • Albatross: The True Story of a Woman's Survival at Sea (1994)
  • No Victims Only Survivors: Ten Lessons for Survival (2006)
Further reading
  • Laurence Gonzales, Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies, and Why, Chapter 11 "We're All Going To Fucking Die!", W. W. Norton & Company, 2004

References
  1. "Obituary". Star-Telegram. August 21, 2012. Archived from the original on August 15, 2013. Retrieved August 15, 2013.
  2. Larry King (April 27, 2006). "CNN Larry King Live: "I Shouldn't Be Alive"". CNN. Retrieved August 14, 2013.
  3. John Blake (September 8, 2008). "Miraculous survivors: Why they live while others die". CNN. Archived from the original on August 15, 2013. Retrieved August 15, 2013.
  4. Laurence Gonzales, Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies, and Why, Chapter 11 "We're All Going To Fucking Die!", W. W. Norton & Company, 2004
  5. Deborah Scaling Kiley (November–December 2001). "Lost at Sea". National Geographic Adventure. Archived from the original on August 2, 2013. Retrieved August 14, 2013.
  6. "The Shark Week Flick 'Capsized: Blood in the Water' Is Based on Terrifying True Events". Retrieved 10 August 2019.
  7. Dan McGraw (October 15, 2008). "A Violent Mess". Fort Worth Weekly. Retrieved July 30, 2019.
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