The Strange Last Voyage of Donald CrowhurstIn early 1968, desperate entrepreneur Donald Crowhurst was trying to sell a nautical navigation device he had developed when he saw that the Sunday Times would be sponsoring the Golden Globe Race, the first ever solo, round-the-world sailing competition. An avid amateur sailor, Crowhurst sensed a marketing opportunity and shocked the world by entering the competition using an untested trimaran of his own design. Shock soon turned to amazement when he quickly took the lead, checking in by radio message from locations far ahead of his seasoned competitors. But on July 10, 1969, roughly eight months after he had sailed from England--and less than two weeks from his expected triumphant return--his wife was informed that his boat, the Teignmouth Electron, had been discovered drifting quietly, abandoned in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. Crowhurst was missing, assumed drowned. How did he come to such an end when his race had begun with such incredible promise? In this masterpiece of investigative journalism, Nicholas Tomalin and Ron Hall reconstruct one of the greatest modern stories of one man's descent into self-delusion, public deception, and madness. Based on in-depth interviews with Crowhurst's family and friends, combined with gripping excerpts from his logbooks that revealed (among other things) he had been falsifying his locations all along, Tomalin and Hall paint an unforgettable, haunting portrait of a complex, deeply troubled man and his final fateful journey. |
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The Strange Last Voyage of Donald Crowhurst: Now Filmed As The Mercy Nicholas Tomalin,Ron Hall Limited preview - 2016 |
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aboard arrived Atlantic Australia boat Bridgwater Buenos Aires cabin cable Cape Cape Horn Capetown Chichester Chichester’s Christmas chronometer circumnavigation Clare Crowhurst coastguard cockpit cosmic course decided deck Donald Crowhurst Donald Kerr Eastwood Electron Utilisation fake float Franchessi Gipsy Moth Gipsy Moth IV going Golden Globe Gough Island Hasler hatch Horn idea intelligence John Elliot knew Knox-Johnston later Logbook looked mast matey miles mind Moitessier months Navicator navigational never Peter Beard Picardy Portishead position problems race Radio Log radio-telephone realised Rio Salado Roaring Forties Robin Knox-Johnston Rodney Hallworth round the world route sail screws seemed self-steering single-handed South Southern Ocean speed Stanley Best started story Sunday tape recordings Teignmouth Electron telegram telephone Tetley there’s things thought told took transmitter trimaran trying Victress voyage wanted week wife wind words worried writing yacht