When the sea finally closed over the stern, an enormous whirlpool sucked down debris and swimmers. Men wearing life vests were lifted back to the surface, where they filled their lungs in relief, but many were quickly pulled down again by this implacable suction, and then surfaced again—and so on, repeatedly, as if the ghosts of dead shipmates were reaching up to clutch their ankles. The farther they swam from the sinking colossus, the greater their odds of survival. A few prevailed and lived to tell the tale. Many others were lost, dragged down into the abyss with their beloved Musashi as she
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