The Mercy

[DownWest]

A question.. If it was based on a Piver design, why was it so slow? Wasn't Tetley's one similar? Or was it just so badly prepared?

 

[Poignard]

A question.. If it was based on a Piver design, why was it so slow? Wasn't Tetley's one similar? Or was it just so badly prepared?

One of the hulls was leaking annd also the poor beggar was probably an emotional wreck, trying to sort out numerous problems with the boat, worried sick by financial problems etc. He can't have been in a good mental state to get the best out of her.

 

[LadyInBed]

Richard

According to Wiki he wasn't dressed like that when he set off!
File:DonaldCrowhurst250px.jpg - Wikipedia
Donald Crowhurst, pictured just before setting out in the Sunday Times Golden Globe Race in 1968

 

[DJE]

First time I’ve seen it though I read a book on the story a couple of years ago and was very familiar with it

I found it very upsetting, I think because the way the film captured the impact on his family

my wife asked me what happened to his family so I googled and found a story and interview with his widow from 2009?

Robert McCrum meets the family of the infamous 'lone sailor, Donald Crowhurst

the tragedy stayed with his wife and she clearly never recovered from it, nor did his children apparently

Thanks for that link. Very moving.

 

[RichardS]

According to Wiki he wasn't dressed like that when he set off!
File:DonaldCrowhurst250px.jpg - Wikipedia
Donald Crowhurst, pictured just before setting out in the Sunday Times Golden Globe Race in 1968

His tie is under his pullover.

Richard

 

[oldmanofthehills]

Its a film about a bankrupt man on the edge of a nervous breakdown. It was his final desperate roll of the dice. He left half his kit ashore. He deserves some compassion. His family even more so.

The film is a drama about his inner turmoil not a technical exposition about boats, and intended to make you think rather than be a cinematic popcorn accessory. I found it haunting.

 

[Sharky34]

I worked on a farm in the late 70’s. All the tractor and combine drivers wore jacket and tie whilst operating the machinery. To be honest I prefer that to folks walking about these days with jeans intentionally ripped apart. That I just don’t understand.

Bloody dangerous near machinery with a tie.

 

[Humblebee]

Its a film about a bankrupt man on the edge of a nervous breakdown. It was his final desperate roll of the dice. He left half his kit ashore. He deserves some compassion. His family even more so.

The film is a drama about his inner turmoil not a technical exposition about boats, and intended to make you think rather than be a cinematic popcorn accessory. I found it haunting.

Good post, Oldman, I quite agree.

 

[mjcoon]

Bloody dangerous near machinery with a tie.

I believe that professions such as police were required to wear a tie to denote serious intent. Though machinery was not involved, the tie must not be a hazard, so was designed to detach if pulled. Not suggesting that Crowhurst's was that design, but it is not a massive problem...

 

[PetiteFleur]

Slightly off topic - about ties - years ago during my apprenticeship, I was chatting to another apprentice as he was using a lathe. I was leaning over the back when suddenly his tie dropped out of his overalls and wrapped around the turning and I leaned over and hit the clutch to stop the lathe. It stopped as his throat was an inch away from disaster. All the apprentices were then banned from wearing ties. From memory it was a Colchester Lathe.

 

[C08]

I found the film too painful a watch so had to turn it off.

 

[Sharky34]

Slightly off topic - about ties - years ago during my apprenticeship, I was chatting to another apprentice as he was using a lathe. I was leaning over the back when suddenly his tie dropped out of his overalls and wrapped around the turning and I leaned over and hit the clutch to stop the lathe. It stopped as his throat was an inch away from disaster. All the apprentices were then banned from wearing ties. From memory it was a Colchester Lathe.

So #29 is incorrect, it is "a massive problem".

 

[mjcoon]

So #29 is incorrect, it is "a massive problem".

How do you work that out? Do you have inside knowledge that the tie in question failed to detach as designed?

 

[Sharky34]

How do you work that out? Do you have inside knowledge that the tie in question failed to detach as designed?

Wearing a tie near machinery is dangerous, even detachable ties can fail.

 

[LouisBrowne]

I found the film too painful a watch so had to turn it off.

Me too. Reading about the Crowhurst story in books I never felt a great deal of sympathy for the man but the film was different perhaps because you saw much more of him with his family.

 

[bedouin]

Me too. Reading about the Crowhurst story in books I never felt a great deal of sympathy for the man but the film was different perhaps because you saw much more of him with his family.

I thought in the film he was portrayed as a much more sympathetic character than I have thought from the reading I have done about the man himself.

However it was a "Holywood" movies and they don't normally let the facts get in the way of a good story.

One thing I hadn't fully appreciated was that he had actually sailed 13,000 miles himself - which is no mean feat given his experience and the state of the boat when he set off.

 

[AntarcticPilot]

Me too. Reading about the Crowhurst story in books I never felt a great deal of sympathy for the man but the film was different perhaps because you saw much more of him with his family.

I'm the other way round - reading the book was almost painful as it showed just how far from reality his thought processes were becoming towards the end, using quotations from his journals. The slow slide from a brazen attempt to bluff his way out of an impossible situation to outright insanity is horrible to read; you can see the man becoming more and more deeply entangled in his own warped reasoning. I do find it interesting that Crowhurst made no real attempt to hide the one thing that would have immediately disqualified him, his landing in South America, which was well known to the locals and customs officials and would undoubtedly have come out no matter what. The film couldn't really depict the psychological slide from sanity to insanity very well - it showed how he became trapped in a situation he couldn't cope with and the human tragedy of the effect on his wife and family, but the internal turmoil simply couldn't be shown adequately.

Another thing the book does which the film can't - his use of radio transmissions to fake his location was clever - he only transmitted when he was on a bearing that corresponded to his supposed location. It's really difficult to understand how he could be so clever about some things and so deluded about others.

 

[Barnacle Bill]

Thanks for the Robert McCrum link.

What a story. And what a story of the whole race. Moitessier, for example, was the opposite end of the spectrum from Crowhurst: nothing to prove, massively experienced, shunned the fame (which would have corrupted his ideals) and carried on round the world 'to save his soul' and because he had found his spiritual home on the ocean.

Crowhurst - a tragic victim of his whole life saga, never quite succeeding at any venture but always moving on to something bigger and better.

And all so recent (within our lifetimes) but so utterly different to top level ocean racing today.

 

[oldmanofthehills]

deleted

 

[MartyB]

Also watch the much overlooked film Crowhurst. Also released last year, weird in some parts but the better film, cast better, more accurate IMO.