Buckshot Wrecks Tall Ships' Battle Reenactment

A pair of tall ships staged a mock battle Saturday night that could have used a little more "mock" and a little less "battle." Their cannons were supposed to be using blanks, which somehow got lost in execution when an Amazing Grace crew member accidentally loaded one with buckshot. The result: injuries to a passenger and a deckhand, the Los Angeles Times reports. The too-real battle took place off California's Dana Point.

"It was like a scene from The Exorcist," says a woman aboard the Bill of Rights. "I started to bleed in several different areas." Her lower body was hit five times, and the wounds were so deep that doctors advised simply leaving the buckshot there. But she harbors no ill will toward the other ship's crew, she says. "They're really nice people. They never would have wanted to harm anyone." (More ship stories.)