It Meant to Kill Us

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Captain Sauer, who diverted the Zawisza Czarny from the race, arrived on the scene four hours later. He found only eight mates of the Marques alive to tell the tale. A ninth was rescued by another ship. It seems doubtful that any trace of the others will turn up; a Canadian-American air and sea search that ranged over 3,600 square miles of the Atlantic found nothing and was called off four days after the sinking. The rescued sailors called the fatal force that capsized their ship "a rogue wind." "It meant to kill us," asserted John Ash, 24, of Newtown, Pa. "There was nothing we could do." The proud vessel brought to the bottom the silver cup it had captured by winning a previous leg of the tall ships race. But the Marques bequeathed a legacy to future seafarers: the race's organizers hope to raise $50,000 for a Marques Foundation that will train other young sailors to brave and conquer the realm that Lord Byron called "the image of Eternity."

—By Richard Stengel.

Reported by Kevin Stevenson/Hamilton