Donald Crowhurst.

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davidfox

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Reading the news that a play has been written about the tragic Donald Crowhurst reminds me that back in about 1996 I was walking along a quiet beach on Cayman Brac in the BWI. I noticed a wreck of a Catamaran overgrown with trees above the high water mark, I wandered over and noticed with a start it was called 'Teignmouth electron' this name stirred a strong memory, after about a hour I recalled the story, the boats end looked almost as tragic as Crowhurst's, a very sad moment, anyone know what happened to her, or is she still lying there?
 
Found this on the web:

"The Teignmouth Electron was taken to Jamaica and sold to one Bunnie Francis, who repaired the boat and offered pleasure cruises aboard her. The boat was then sold on to Canadian Winston McDermott, who sailed her to Grand Cayman to use in his scuba diving business. McDermott claimed that the Teignmouth Electron was haunted. He moved the boat to the island of Cayman Brac, where it was damaged in a hurricane. She was laid up out of the water, but the repairs were never carried out, and the boat remains, steadily decaying, in the dunes."

Here:

http://www.answers.com/topic/donald-crowhurst
 
Memory lane is telling me that Teignmouth Electron was
found floating at sea,and poor Donald missing
I thought she was recovered and returned to a shore
after that i have a blank re her future travails.
Prepare for the avalanche of replies
 
That was really interesting, I forgot, it was a tri not a cat, but it was in a lot better condition when I saw it, a least it was whole not broken up, think that answers the question as the photo appears to have been taken in 2005.
 
crowhursts bogus position reports made other contestants push their boats harder than needed thinking he was way out in front. I think it was Tetley(if my memory serves )whos boat broke up on the final leg up the Atlantic costing him first place.If he had known he was in front he would have taken it easy and possibly still won the race.

I have heard that Tetley (Who had a very stressfull war as a submarine commander) died soon after and RKJ offered the prize money to his widow who wouldnt accept it.
 
I think it was Crowhurst's widow to whom RKJ offered the prize money. Not sure if it was accepted, or if it was offered before or after the eventual exposure of the deceit.
 
Deceit / tragedy ??

Most definitely deceit ... but let's face it ..... to sail alone and with all that in front of you etc. must be a hell of a mental strain.
If he was under such pressure financially etc. that would add to the whole affair ... possibly pushing him over the egde.

I honestly believe that it takes a real shove to get someone to kill themselves etc. and this has the bizarre tragic part of the deciet about his positions etc. - so something deadly was going on in his head ....
We will never know the real state of mind he was in .. never know the real truth - just the fragments that can be pieced together ....

Cutting from an Online news site :



After weeks of relatively slow progress in the Golden Globe yacht race, Crowhurst radioed in his position saying that he had covered 391 kilometres in a single day – a new world record. The announcement made front page news. The underdog fighting back, Crowhurst instantly became a hero. But the fame was unwarranted – he had lied about his position.

Crowhurst had decided to cheat. Knowing that his boat would never survive the rough Southern Ocean, he had contrived to sail across the Atlantic to the coast of South America where he would lay low and wait for the other eight competitors to catch up. Meticulously, he kept two log books, one recording his actual journey and the other his fabricated one. He spent hours each day carrying out complex mathematical calculations to maintain the deception.

He ceased all radio communications for 111 days and waited until he was sure the other competitors had cleared Cape Horn. In mid-April 1969 he learnt that Robin Knox-Johnston had completed the race, earning himself first prize – the Golden Globe trophy. But the second prize of £5000 was still up for grabs.

Crowhurst knew that he couldn't afford to win even the second prize because this would expose his log books to the scrutiny of the judges and the world's press and he would be found out.

By now, Nigel Tetley was the only other competitor besides Crowhurst in the running for second place. When Tetley learned that Crowhurst was just three days behind him, Tetley pulled out all the stops to ensure he won the second prize. But on 21 May, to Crowhurst's horror, he heard that Tetley had pushed his boat too far and had sunk. Crowhurst's strategy had been blown apart, he was now in the lead.

After spending months in solitude working on his log books, Crowhurst's sanity gave way as he faced the certain prospect of being found out and disgraced. He stopped racing and spent 150 hours in a writing frenzy, poring out his soul in a 25,000-word revelation of angry gibberish. By the time he finished he'd lost all touch with reality. 'I am what I am. I see the nature of my offence. It is finished. It is finished,' he wrote. Then, taking his ship's clock, he stepped into the Atlantic and disappeared.

On 10 July 1969, Donald Crowhurst's Teignmouth Electron was found drifting aimlessly by a cargo ship. The cabin was a squalid mess, but carefully laid out on the chart table were Crowhurst's log books. As a confessionary final act, Crowhurst had deliberately left proof of his deception for the world to find.

In the end, Knox-Johnston was awarded the £5000 second prize as well as the first prize trophy. Tetley, who was picked up by the US navy, was given a consolation prize of £1000. He used the money to begin building a new boat. But the burden of defeat in the Golden Globe became overwhelming for him and he too committed suicide, hanging himself less than a year after the race.
 
Re: Deceit / tragedy ??

If Shakespere had written the play he could not have done better.The video I have is haunting ,terrible breakdown of his mind leading sadly to his own death.
 
Re: Deceit / tragedy ??

Yes I entirely accept that he tried to deceive others in the fabrication of his log - but overwhelming the whole project was a tragedy and not a deception. I do not believe his intent when setting out was to deceive - it simply built in to a deception once he was in the race.

I read of the night before he departed on the race when he slept with his wife in a hotel room in Plymouth (?) when apparently he was in tears all night. His wife thought it nerves and tried to be strong to support him - but the subsequent analysis was that he was aware at how inadequately both he and the boat were prepared for what he was about to take on - and that he wanted his wife to tell him not to go. Bearing in mind what subsequently happened I reckon that's pretty hard to bear.
 
The hole sad story of Donanld Crowhurst and others that took part in that fateful round the world non-race is covered in the book "A Voyage for Madmen". Well worth a read, unless you are planning a trip into the South Seas, in which case wait until you return before reading!
 
Re: Deceit / tragedy ??

[ QUOTE ]
I do not believe his intent when setting out was to deceive - it simply built in to a deception once he was in the race.

I read of the night before he departed on the race when he slept with his wife in a hotel room in Plymouth (?) when apparently he was in tears all night. His wife thought it nerves and tried to be strong to support him - but the subsequent analysis was that he was aware at how inadequately both he and the boat were prepared for what he was about to take on - and that he wanted his wife to tell him not to go. Bearing in mind what subsequently happened I reckon that's pretty hard to bear.

[/ QUOTE ]

Absolutely - I have ' The Strange Voyage of Donald Crowhurst' at home and it makes very compelling reading. He was in a very poor mental and emotional state when he left...he'd left himself no way out and for me his story truly reflects the classical meaning of tragedy.
 
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