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The Strange Last Voyage of Donald Crowhurst
The Sailor's Classics library introduces a new generation of readers to the best books ever written about small boats under sail In the autumn of 1968, Donald Crowhurst set sail from England to participate in the first single-handed nonstop around-the-world sailboat race. Eight months later, his boat was found in the mid-Atlantic, intact but with no one on board. In this gripping reconstruction, journalists Nicholas Tomalin and Ron Hall tell the story of Crowhurst's ill-fated voyage.
275 pages, Paperback
First published January 28, 1970
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August 21, 2020
Spoilers below, although being a non-fiction book which describes events from 1968, it is really just the general gist of the book.
In 1968, the British newspaper the Sunday Times sponsored a 'round the world' sailing race - for solo yachtsmen, to travel non-stop from the UK south then around the Cape of Good Hope, east below Australia and New Zealand, below Cape Horn then back up through the Atlantic to the UK. It was known as the Golden Globe Race, there were nine entrants, and it was a staggered start (meaning they were not travelling together). Four withdrew before leaving the Atlantic. Another four followed the route (for most of the race). The last man is the topic of this book. Donald Crowhurst.
Donald Crowhurst's life before the race and the origins of the race get a chapter each, then a chapter about the design and construction of his purpose build trimaran. Then, the race is on. However it is not the reader who is woefully unprepared for this, but Crowhurst. Without sufficient time to complete trials of his trimaran, and no time to develop the technology that Crowhurst has been telling everyone he is trialling on his journey. Probably a good time to drop in that he is an electronics engineer, with his own company which develops nautical electronics - although the sole product seems so be the Navicator, a radio direction finding device for yachting. Swept up in the moment he explained to the media various inventions (which he had though of, but not actually constructed) would be fitted to his yacht.
And so the authors, who spent a long time researching and examining he evidence now piece together what Crowhurst actually did for the duration of the race while his fellow competitors sailed around the world! I don't intend to spoil the book, but it is fairly well known that he didn't leave the Atlantic, and even made land once for materials to repair his yacht, having not adequately provisioned for this type of repair. He also ran a number of sailing logbooks. Three of the four were recovered. These were the mostly factual log, a radio log (again factual), and a third log in which he wrote various things, including poetry and other short stories, but also philosophized, and especially towards the end of his voyage demonstrated his slow shift towards insanity. At one point, he actually made a plan through which he may have been able to avoid being exposed for a fraud, although circumstances prevented that happening, and this seemed to put him over the edge. He wrote in riddles and wrote a lot of barely understandable passages, but progressively described the pressure on him to succeed.
The forth logbook, which it is believed contained his 'final version' of the falsified log was never recovered, and the authors believe it was taken with Crowhurst when he stepped off the stern of his yacht, sadly committing suicide. While some parts of the book are speculative (as supported by the evidence), those sections are clearly identified as such, and clear explanation is given as to how conclusions were drawn.
Much time goes into analyzing how Crowhurst ended up in the situation, as it is explained in the narrative that it was not a premeditated plan to falsify his journey. Crowhurst was actually a talented yachtsman and able navigator. A man doesn't single handedly sail 8000 miles and almost back, much of it within the southern Atlantic Ocean without ability, but he was certainly overconfident in his preparations and planning, and this proved to be insurmountable.
Not really my normal type of book, and in some respects it is a shame I read this before the well known A Voyage for Madmen published in 2002, which covers this race it its entirety. However this book is well written and it contains compelling explanations and research. It is an engrossing reconstruction of events, and I found it hard to put down at times.
4 Stars.
In 1968, the British newspaper the Sunday Times sponsored a 'round the world' sailing race - for solo yachtsmen, to travel non-stop from the UK south then around the Cape of Good Hope, east below Australia and New Zealand, below Cape Horn then back up through the Atlantic to the UK. It was known as the Golden Globe Race, there were nine entrants, and it was a staggered start (meaning they were not travelling together). Four withdrew before leaving the Atlantic. Another four followed the route (for most of the race). The last man is the topic of this book. Donald Crowhurst.
Donald Crowhurst's life before the race and the origins of the race get a chapter each, then a chapter about the design and construction of his purpose build trimaran. Then, the race is on. However it is not the reader who is woefully unprepared for this, but Crowhurst. Without sufficient time to complete trials of his trimaran, and no time to develop the technology that Crowhurst has been telling everyone he is trialling on his journey. Probably a good time to drop in that he is an electronics engineer, with his own company which develops nautical electronics - although the sole product seems so be the Navicator, a radio direction finding device for yachting. Swept up in the moment he explained to the media various inventions (which he had though of, but not actually constructed) would be fitted to his yacht.
And so the authors, who spent a long time researching and examining he evidence now piece together what Crowhurst actually did for the duration of the race while his fellow competitors sailed around the world! I don't intend to spoil the book, but it is fairly well known that he didn't leave the Atlantic, and even made land once for materials to repair his yacht, having not adequately provisioned for this type of repair. He also ran a number of sailing logbooks. Three of the four were recovered. These were the mostly factual log, a radio log (again factual), and a third log in which he wrote various things, including poetry and other short stories, but also philosophized, and especially towards the end of his voyage demonstrated his slow shift towards insanity. At one point, he actually made a plan through which he may have been able to avoid being exposed for a fraud, although circumstances prevented that happening, and this seemed to put him over the edge. He wrote in riddles and wrote a lot of barely understandable passages, but progressively described the pressure on him to succeed.
The forth logbook, which it is believed contained his 'final version' of the falsified log was never recovered, and the authors believe it was taken with Crowhurst when he stepped off the stern of his yacht, sadly committing suicide. While some parts of the book are speculative (as supported by the evidence), those sections are clearly identified as such, and clear explanation is given as to how conclusions were drawn.
Much time goes into analyzing how Crowhurst ended up in the situation, as it is explained in the narrative that it was not a premeditated plan to falsify his journey. Crowhurst was actually a talented yachtsman and able navigator. A man doesn't single handedly sail 8000 miles and almost back, much of it within the southern Atlantic Ocean without ability, but he was certainly overconfident in his preparations and planning, and this proved to be insurmountable.
Not really my normal type of book, and in some respects it is a shame I read this before the well known A Voyage for Madmen published in 2002, which covers this race it its entirety. However this book is well written and it contains compelling explanations and research. It is an engrossing reconstruction of events, and I found it hard to put down at times.
4 Stars.
February 14, 2009
The Strange Last Voyage of Donald Crowhurst is an extraordinary, moving, and harrowing book, haunting in every sense of the word, and a terrifying look at one man's descent into madness. Tomalin and Hall have done a brilliant job in recreating not only Crowhurst's voyage, but what led him to the position he found himself in: alone in a tiny boat in the middle of the Atlantic, facing two equally bleak choices: return home, admit defeat, and lose everything, or continue with his desperate voyage at the risk of almost certain death. The glimpses of Crowhurst's tortured mental state, taken from his log books, make for unsettling reading, and the authors have done such a good job interpreting and decoding them that readers will almost feel that they were there on the deck of the Teignmouth Electron as Crowhurst made his final, fateful decisions. Highly recommended.
February 18, 2018
The Strange Last Voyage of Donald Crowhurst tells the disturbing, darkly engrossing story of a yachtsman who entered a round-the-world race sponsored by the Sunday Times, gradually lost his mind, then disappeared, leaving his ship adrift in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. (This incident's occasionally lumped in with the Bermuda Triangle, since many readers find supernatural wackiness more compelling than human tragedy). Journalists Nicholas Tomalin and Ron Hall provide a detailed reconstruction of Crowhurst's voyage, showing him as a mild-mannered, slightly eccentric English businessman who lighted onto yachting as a hobby, then contrived a massive fraud with forged log books to puff up his reputation and save his floundering company. Unfortunately, swindle gave way to madness, with Crowhurst descending into rambling speculations about human nature, the meaning of Life and the Universe, leading the authors to conclude that he probably committed suicide in hopes of achieving actualization. They never quite settle on what drove Crowhurst mad - whether the seeds of personality prone to mild exaggeration matured into outright dementia under stress, whether loneliness at sea or the failure of his audacious hoax destroyed his mind - which makes the story even more unsettling than it already would be. A captivating read and cautionary tale, albeit one that raises more questions than answers.
November 22, 2013
I can't say enough good things about this book, which I've read three times and which is a desert-island treasure for me, along with only a handful of others. It is massively moving -- the poetry written by Crowhurst, found in his trimaran's logbook, is not only affecting (which is more important in poetry (like singing) than any kind of technical perfection), but is also especially important in revealing yet another facet of this riveting and beautifully told real-life drama. Crowhurst's moral dilemma is the dilemma of an essentially fine man, but a man that is not particularly privileged and finds himself hard up against certain realities: I like him. Very much. And I love the details, the by-now period feel of the time and of the book, and the 'players' that reacted to him and tried, with varying success, to bolster him up.
Once met, never forgotten.... He was not your ordinary sort of man, and this is not an ordinary sort of book.
Note about the co-authors: Ron Hall was directly involved in the Golden Globe single-handed sailboat circumnavigation race that led to Crowhurst's trouble; Nicholas Tomalin was a journalist, killed by a missile while covering the Yom Kippur War in 1973. His widow, Claire Tomalin, is also a writer, and has written a biography of Jane Austen.
Once met, never forgotten.... He was not your ordinary sort of man, and this is not an ordinary sort of book.
Note about the co-authors: Ron Hall was directly involved in the Golden Globe single-handed sailboat circumnavigation race that led to Crowhurst's trouble; Nicholas Tomalin was a journalist, killed by a missile while covering the Yom Kippur War in 1973. His widow, Claire Tomalin, is also a writer, and has written a biography of Jane Austen.
March 24, 2014
As the author of this book is a newspaper writer, I was a bit surprised at how difficult I found it to concentrate on it. British journalists are known for their vivid, not to say lurid, style (unless you're delving into the Financial Times or similar) and yet I found myself skim-reading large passages. Another reviewer discribes the text as "turgid", and I'll go along with that! The first section, describing Crowhurst's "Mr Toad" type personality as a child laid the groundwork for the coming disaster; the similarities between the young Crowhurst and Kenneth Grahame's young son (the original Toad, who firmly believed he could do anything, until he came a cropper) were striking. However, it takes almost 80 pages to get to the race itself, and even then there are pages and pages and pages of technical detail on boats, their building and maintenance, and the electronic bits and pieces.
If you're a seasoned sailor, you'll probably find this fascinating. If you're into engineering, also. But if like me you don't even know how to swim, it's a bit confusing and I wondered why they felt constrained to include it all. Then I realised that they really didn't have much to work with, beyond what others said about Crowhurst and the very sparse records of his logbooks, private papers and correspondence. The author had to pad the book out with something, and by providing all those technical details the reader may feel they have some superior knowledge that the hapless Crowhurst either lacked or ignored. I could have done without quite so much detail, however, or perhaps it could have been placed in an appendix for those interested.
There is, as others have mentioned, a great deal of conjecture regarding Crowhurst's actions and motivations, which goes to feed the mystery angle. The author describes Clare Crowhurst as "heroic" in the very beginning of the book, but over a hundred pages in, I failed to see much heroism aside from allowing her husband to make a venture she knew he was ill-prepared for and from which he might not (and in the end did not) return. If that's heroism, well then she was heroic; however, after many years of marriage and several failed business ventures on Crowhurst's dossier, I feel certain (being a wife myself) that she probably knew his weaknesses and tendency to evade the reality of his own limitations. She describes the last night they spent together, when she hinted that maybe he should give up. Only she didn't--she asked him if he thought he could give up having reached that point. Hardly a way to make a man back out after involving so much time, money and publicity. Not much heroism there, to my mind.
Having known various "adventurers" personally, of the type who seek funding to raise seventeenth-century Spanish wrecks etc, I found that aspect of the story interesting and realistic--not so much a "descent" into madness as the natural course when a self-hypnotised spellbinder finds the trap of real life inevitably closing on him. The madness was already there, waiting to manifest itself. It's unfortunate that no one intervened before Mr Crowhurst, in the words of the old saying, acquired enough rope to hang himself.
If you're a seasoned sailor, you'll probably find this fascinating. If you're into engineering, also. But if like me you don't even know how to swim, it's a bit confusing and I wondered why they felt constrained to include it all. Then I realised that they really didn't have much to work with, beyond what others said about Crowhurst and the very sparse records of his logbooks, private papers and correspondence. The author had to pad the book out with something, and by providing all those technical details the reader may feel they have some superior knowledge that the hapless Crowhurst either lacked or ignored. I could have done without quite so much detail, however, or perhaps it could have been placed in an appendix for those interested.
There is, as others have mentioned, a great deal of conjecture regarding Crowhurst's actions and motivations, which goes to feed the mystery angle. The author describes Clare Crowhurst as "heroic" in the very beginning of the book, but over a hundred pages in, I failed to see much heroism aside from allowing her husband to make a venture she knew he was ill-prepared for and from which he might not (and in the end did not) return. If that's heroism, well then she was heroic; however, after many years of marriage and several failed business ventures on Crowhurst's dossier, I feel certain (being a wife myself) that she probably knew his weaknesses and tendency to evade the reality of his own limitations. She describes the last night they spent together, when she hinted that maybe he should give up. Only she didn't--she asked him if he thought he could give up having reached that point. Hardly a way to make a man back out after involving so much time, money and publicity. Not much heroism there, to my mind.
Having known various "adventurers" personally, of the type who seek funding to raise seventeenth-century Spanish wrecks etc, I found that aspect of the story interesting and realistic--not so much a "descent" into madness as the natural course when a self-hypnotised spellbinder finds the trap of real life inevitably closing on him. The madness was already there, waiting to manifest itself. It's unfortunate that no one intervened before Mr Crowhurst, in the words of the old saying, acquired enough rope to hang himself.
March 11, 2024
We're currently reading Jay Shetty's Think Like a Monk in a spirituality reading group I belong to, and the author asks why we might chose to sail round the world alone. Many times in my sailing days I wondered about what such an adventure would be like. For myself, I doubt I possess the mental stability to face the loneliness and constant anxiety. The only single-handed sailor I had the pleasure of encountering was a very quiet and unassuming London solicitor named Mary Falk - you can find the obituary describing her accomplishments on Google. I sailed with her on a fully-crewed race. She was quite a stickler for safety and carefully steering the course. But single-handed round the world sailing also brought to mind another sailor who faked a round the world passage. Donald Crowhurst was a contestant in the Sunday Times Round-the-World nonstop single-handed race. As his trimaran Teignmouth Electron was supposed to be on her way to a triumphant final lap to the south coast of England, she was found by a passing motor vessel drifting calmly in the mid-Atlantic, abandoned. Examination of the log books revealed that the circumnavigation was faked. Crowhurst sent false radio reports of rounding the Cape of Good Hope and Cape Horn. His boat had never sailed beyond the South Atlantic and indeed, had made a secret landfall in South America that would have disqualified him. In addition to the log books and the recordings and video tapes he had made for the BBC, Crowhurst left behind thousands of words of delusional philosophical and theological ravings about God, Creation, and the meaning of human life. Apparently too fearful to face being exposed as a fraud, Crowhurst had jumped overboard. He had set sail on 31st October 1968, the deadline for starting, with an untested new boat that was barely completed, and had found a leak in the starboard hull that convinced him the boat couldn't survive a round-the-world voyage. But his marine electronics business faced failure, and so Crowhurst hit on the plan to win the prize money by faking his positions. Of course I asked myself what I might have done in his place. I have no doubt that I'd have radioed thar my boat was not seaworthy, sailed for the nearest port, and tried to sell the boat for enough to cover a plane ticket home. Honour would have been satisfied. But I realise that if I ever had attempted to sail alone round the world, it would have been to prove to myself that I was the kind of person who could do something like that. Crowhurst seems to have been both a Narcissist and what was then called a manic-depressive, though even allowing for his mental state it's hard to imagine how he could have tried to perpetrate such a fraud. But his voyage has earned its place amongst great stories of madness at sea.
April 10, 2013
Insanity in Lonely Places - The Dark Side of a Sailor's Mind
The Teignmouth Electron now lies abandoned, rotting on the beach near the Kidco Dock on the southwest shore of Cayman Brac. It was found ghosting alone in the North Atlantic near the end of the 1968 Golden Globe nonstop singlehanded sailboat race around the world. Its sole inhabitant for 243 days, captain Donald Crowhurst, was never found.
In the era before GPS and global satellite tracking, sailors' logbooks were relied upon for verification of routes travelled. Crowhurst, the dark horse darling of Teignmouth England, had two sets of logs - one for race officials carefully calculating his route around the world, and another showing his actual route, sailing in circles for months in remote areas of the Atlantic ocean. Thousands upon thousands of words in Crowhurst's personal journals were also found, documenting his slow spiral into insanity during the race.
To most of the public Donald Crowhurst was a successful businessman, loud and brash, highly intelligent and outwardly confident in all of his ventures. He had a wife and family in England and big plans. Privately, however, his business was failing. He was very familiar with Sir Francis Chichester and his world famous singlehanded trip around the world on Gypsy Moth IV (making one stop in Australia), and when the 1968 Golden Globe race was proposed, Crowhurst saw an opportunity. The singlehanded nonstop race around the world offered two prizes - one for the first to finish, and one for the fastest elapsed time. Since the beginning of the race was open for several months, two winners were possible. If Crowhurst could take one of the two prizes, probably the one for fastest elapsed time, the prize money could go towards propping up his business financially and the publicity, he was convinced, would make it a success. The only problem was that Crowhurst was just a marginal weekend sailor with no boat and no backing.
Through sheer force of will Crowhurst raced against the start deadline of the Golden Globe and somehow landed a sponsor. He helped design - in 1968 - a futuristic trimaran with an electronic "computer" that he was sure would break all records. The boat, christened the Teignmouth Electron, was built on a crash schedule and launched literally at the last minute without being fully tested and without Crowhurst's newly designed electronics in place. With his trademark confidence he said that he would finish it at sea.
Once the boat was in the water Crowhurst, sailing alone, discovered that the promised speed of the trimaran, a revolutionary design in the late 1960's, did not materialize. The hastily designed vessel performed poorly under Crowhurst's inexperienced hand, but he would not - or could not - admit defeat. If he quit the race he faced humiliation and financial ruin. Halfway down the Atlantic heading towards the tip of Africa he began plotting two courses. One course was his actual position, and the other was where he should be if he stayed on schedule. He radioed in cryptic reports, even claiming a new 24 hour sailing speed record. As he neared the southern ocean he claimed that he was having generator problems and would have to maintain radio silence to conserve his batteries. He then went silent for several months. His planned hoax seemed to be to sneak back into the rear of the field as it rounded the tip of South America and headed home to England. Crowhurst gave up hope of finishing in one of the two first place positions, but he believed that if he at least finished his race log books would not receive the scrutiny of the winners and he would gain the credibility to keep his creditors at bay and allow him to build a better boat for the next race. Meanwhile he made an illicit stop in a small town on the coast of Argentina for much needed supplies.
Robin Knox-Johnston was the first to finish the race in April 1969. Then problems for Crowhurst began mounting as other competitors began dropping out. Bernard Moitessier was having such a good time in the Roaring Forties that he decided to drop out and circle the globe again. He eventually did 45,000 miles solo and ended up in Tahiti. Crowhurst slipped in behind Nigel Tetley as he headed north from Cape Horn, the only other boat still in the race at this point, and re-established radio contact. Tetley's boat was failing but he pushed it to the breaking point as he neared the finish believing that Crowhurst was tight on his heels. Tetley drove his boat too hard and ended up having to abandon ship on May 30, leaving Crowhurst as the only sailor left in the race and the guaranteed winner of the prize for time elapsed. All he had to do now was finish.
Crowhurst was greatly conflicted about causing the end of Tetley's boat and the enormity of his hoax finally hit him. If he finished now, in first place for the elapsed time portion of the race, his logbooks would be heavily scrutinized. Although he had taken great pains to "reverse engineer" his celestial navigation fixes around the world, an extremely difficult process in itself, he realized that he would probably be found out and completely ruined. His sanity finally left him and he spent untold hours writing a religious and philosophical treatise of over 25,000 words that spiraled into incoherence and detailed his ultimate mental breakdown. He ceased radio communications again on June 29, 1969, made his last log entry on July 1, and the Teignmouth Electron was found abandoned on July 10th. It is believed Crowhurst jumped off the boat and drowned, taking with him a last log book and the ship's clock. Later as his death became apparent, sole finisher Robin Knox-Johnston donated his default winnings for the elapsed time portion of the race to Crowhurst's now destitute widow and family.
"The Strange Last Voyage of Donald Crowhurst" is fascinating reading. A true sailor's classic, it reveals the dark side of the mind of Crowhurst and the psychology of a mind disintegrating into madness. It reprints and analyzes Crowhurst's last writings in great detail, and even reprints his "Last Letter" to his widow Clare, with her permission, written before the voyage and to be opened only in the event of his being lost at sea. Several sections of photographs and charts are welcome additions to the text. This excellent, gripping book can be read as an intriguing companion piece to Sir Francis Chichester's "Gypsy Moth Circles the World," which I reviewed last year. Authors Nicholas Tomalin and Ron Hall handle a difficult subject with restraint, respect, and dignity. Highly recommended.
INTERESTING NOTE: The Teignmouth Electron can be located on Google Earth to this day at the coordinates 19°41'10.40"N 79°52'37.83"W.
The Teignmouth Electron now lies abandoned, rotting on the beach near the Kidco Dock on the southwest shore of Cayman Brac. It was found ghosting alone in the North Atlantic near the end of the 1968 Golden Globe nonstop singlehanded sailboat race around the world. Its sole inhabitant for 243 days, captain Donald Crowhurst, was never found.
In the era before GPS and global satellite tracking, sailors' logbooks were relied upon for verification of routes travelled. Crowhurst, the dark horse darling of Teignmouth England, had two sets of logs - one for race officials carefully calculating his route around the world, and another showing his actual route, sailing in circles for months in remote areas of the Atlantic ocean. Thousands upon thousands of words in Crowhurst's personal journals were also found, documenting his slow spiral into insanity during the race.
To most of the public Donald Crowhurst was a successful businessman, loud and brash, highly intelligent and outwardly confident in all of his ventures. He had a wife and family in England and big plans. Privately, however, his business was failing. He was very familiar with Sir Francis Chichester and his world famous singlehanded trip around the world on Gypsy Moth IV (making one stop in Australia), and when the 1968 Golden Globe race was proposed, Crowhurst saw an opportunity. The singlehanded nonstop race around the world offered two prizes - one for the first to finish, and one for the fastest elapsed time. Since the beginning of the race was open for several months, two winners were possible. If Crowhurst could take one of the two prizes, probably the one for fastest elapsed time, the prize money could go towards propping up his business financially and the publicity, he was convinced, would make it a success. The only problem was that Crowhurst was just a marginal weekend sailor with no boat and no backing.
Through sheer force of will Crowhurst raced against the start deadline of the Golden Globe and somehow landed a sponsor. He helped design - in 1968 - a futuristic trimaran with an electronic "computer" that he was sure would break all records. The boat, christened the Teignmouth Electron, was built on a crash schedule and launched literally at the last minute without being fully tested and without Crowhurst's newly designed electronics in place. With his trademark confidence he said that he would finish it at sea.
Once the boat was in the water Crowhurst, sailing alone, discovered that the promised speed of the trimaran, a revolutionary design in the late 1960's, did not materialize. The hastily designed vessel performed poorly under Crowhurst's inexperienced hand, but he would not - or could not - admit defeat. If he quit the race he faced humiliation and financial ruin. Halfway down the Atlantic heading towards the tip of Africa he began plotting two courses. One course was his actual position, and the other was where he should be if he stayed on schedule. He radioed in cryptic reports, even claiming a new 24 hour sailing speed record. As he neared the southern ocean he claimed that he was having generator problems and would have to maintain radio silence to conserve his batteries. He then went silent for several months. His planned hoax seemed to be to sneak back into the rear of the field as it rounded the tip of South America and headed home to England. Crowhurst gave up hope of finishing in one of the two first place positions, but he believed that if he at least finished his race log books would not receive the scrutiny of the winners and he would gain the credibility to keep his creditors at bay and allow him to build a better boat for the next race. Meanwhile he made an illicit stop in a small town on the coast of Argentina for much needed supplies.
Robin Knox-Johnston was the first to finish the race in April 1969. Then problems for Crowhurst began mounting as other competitors began dropping out. Bernard Moitessier was having such a good time in the Roaring Forties that he decided to drop out and circle the globe again. He eventually did 45,000 miles solo and ended up in Tahiti. Crowhurst slipped in behind Nigel Tetley as he headed north from Cape Horn, the only other boat still in the race at this point, and re-established radio contact. Tetley's boat was failing but he pushed it to the breaking point as he neared the finish believing that Crowhurst was tight on his heels. Tetley drove his boat too hard and ended up having to abandon ship on May 30, leaving Crowhurst as the only sailor left in the race and the guaranteed winner of the prize for time elapsed. All he had to do now was finish.
Crowhurst was greatly conflicted about causing the end of Tetley's boat and the enormity of his hoax finally hit him. If he finished now, in first place for the elapsed time portion of the race, his logbooks would be heavily scrutinized. Although he had taken great pains to "reverse engineer" his celestial navigation fixes around the world, an extremely difficult process in itself, he realized that he would probably be found out and completely ruined. His sanity finally left him and he spent untold hours writing a religious and philosophical treatise of over 25,000 words that spiraled into incoherence and detailed his ultimate mental breakdown. He ceased radio communications again on June 29, 1969, made his last log entry on July 1, and the Teignmouth Electron was found abandoned on July 10th. It is believed Crowhurst jumped off the boat and drowned, taking with him a last log book and the ship's clock. Later as his death became apparent, sole finisher Robin Knox-Johnston donated his default winnings for the elapsed time portion of the race to Crowhurst's now destitute widow and family.
"The Strange Last Voyage of Donald Crowhurst" is fascinating reading. A true sailor's classic, it reveals the dark side of the mind of Crowhurst and the psychology of a mind disintegrating into madness. It reprints and analyzes Crowhurst's last writings in great detail, and even reprints his "Last Letter" to his widow Clare, with her permission, written before the voyage and to be opened only in the event of his being lost at sea. Several sections of photographs and charts are welcome additions to the text. This excellent, gripping book can be read as an intriguing companion piece to Sir Francis Chichester's "Gypsy Moth Circles the World," which I reviewed last year. Authors Nicholas Tomalin and Ron Hall handle a difficult subject with restraint, respect, and dignity. Highly recommended.
INTERESTING NOTE: The Teignmouth Electron can be located on Google Earth to this day at the coordinates 19°41'10.40"N 79°52'37.83"W.
March 27, 2018
Fascinating, border line 'page turner'! Incredible research and work went into this account of Donald Crowhurst's attempt at sailing around the world in the first single handed solo competition for the Golden Globe in 1968.
I am not a 'sailor' or even particularly interested in books about the subject. This is a book about one man's pursuit of glory and fame and the 'prize', and to establish his place in the world as a hero of sorts. Although he is traveling alone, his conflicts with the voyage pale in comparison with his internal conflicts, and we watch his slow descent into madness.
Although you know his fate before you begin to read, you cannot help 'pulling for him'. I was wishing he could come to terms with his demons, and could have found a way to face his homecoming in spite of his reasons to the contrary (which I will not divulge here).
The author has reconstructed this man's experiences based on the logs Crowhurst kept (several versions) on his boat, and has done a masterful job taking us along on his internal as well as external journey.
There's to be a movie starring Colin Firth (one of my favorite actors) before long. You really should read this book, as I am sure the movie will be extraordinary, and you will be well prepared for this odyssey.
I am not a 'sailor' or even particularly interested in books about the subject. This is a book about one man's pursuit of glory and fame and the 'prize', and to establish his place in the world as a hero of sorts. Although he is traveling alone, his conflicts with the voyage pale in comparison with his internal conflicts, and we watch his slow descent into madness.
Although you know his fate before you begin to read, you cannot help 'pulling for him'. I was wishing he could come to terms with his demons, and could have found a way to face his homecoming in spite of his reasons to the contrary (which I will not divulge here).
The author has reconstructed this man's experiences based on the logs Crowhurst kept (several versions) on his boat, and has done a masterful job taking us along on his internal as well as external journey.
There's to be a movie starring Colin Firth (one of my favorite actors) before long. You really should read this book, as I am sure the movie will be extraordinary, and you will be well prepared for this odyssey.
December 13, 2018
Tomalin & Hall were both reporters who covered the story, and their book came out in 1970; give how close they were to the story, I think it's a very fair and even-handed account. They don't sympathize at all with Crowhurst's fraud, but they do empathize with the way he becomes more and more tightly trapped by the consequences of his own actions, and with the reasons he started down this terrible path in the first place. They do an excellent job of using their primary sources--Crowhurst's log books and associated papers and the abandoned Teignmouth Electron herself--to piece together the story of what happened while Crowhurst was pretending he was sailing 'round the world, and there's something brilliantly calm and rational about the way that they explore the written evidence of Crowhurst's psychotic break. I've read this book twice and probably need to own a copy so I can keep rereading it on occasion.
March 24, 2024
Beim Lesen habe ich mir schon früh die Frage gestellt, warum Donald Crowhurst das Rennen überhaupt angetreten hat, weil man meiner Meinung nach sehen konnte, dass sie zu keinem guten Ausgang führen würde. Das mag rückblickend einfacher zu erkennen sein. Aber auch damals waren die Bedingungen im besten Fall schwierig: ein Segler mit wenig bis keiner Erfahrung auf großen Strecken, will direkt um die Welt segeln. Dass sein Boot erst kurz vor dem Start fertig wurde, hatte Crowhurst keine echte Möglichkeit gehabt, es zu testen. Ich weiß allerdings nicht, ob er genug Erfahrung gehabt hätte, Mängel zu erkennen. In seinem Logbuch wirkt es auf mich so, als ob er nur reagierte, wenn es Schäden an seinem Boot gab und nicht proaktiv versuchte, diese zu verhindern. Allerdings weiß ich auch nicht, wie viel Wahrheit in seinen Zeilen steckt.
Aber nicht nur die Logbücher, auch das Verhalten von Thomas Crowhurst hat Fragen bei mir aufgeworfen. Er schien mir nicht der richtige Mann für ein solches Unternehmen. Crowhurst war ein Planer, der nicht damit umgehen konnte, wenn etwas nicht so lief, wie er es sich vorstellte. Gleichzeitig war er aber auch ein Träumer, dessen Träume zu groß für die Wirklichkeit waren.
Aber nicht nur die Logbücher, auch das Verhalten von Thomas Crowhurst hat Fragen bei mir aufgeworfen. Er schien mir nicht der richtige Mann für ein solches Unternehmen. Crowhurst war ein Planer, der nicht damit umgehen konnte, wenn etwas nicht so lief, wie er es sich vorstellte. Gleichzeitig war er aber auch ein Träumer, dessen Träume zu groß für die Wirklichkeit waren.
August 25, 2019
I read this book as follow-up to A Voyage for Madmen, the story of the 1968-1969 sailing race for the first solo circumnavigation of the globe. One of the sailors, Donald Crowhurst, didn't have his boat or gear in order, but finally had to start the race in order to make the cutoff start date. Long story short, he was in a high pressure situation with limited options and totally alone, no one to talk with to figure out a new plan. He ends up hanging out in the Atlantic ocean the whole time, faking his course. Tragically, he ultimately goes insane and steps off the boat into the water; his abandoned boat was later found drifting in the Atlantic . This book was written shortly after it happened and pulls together his story from his logbooks, radio transmissions, and people who were involved with him before and during the race.
The author publishes large sections of the thousands of words Crowhurst wrote during the last few days of his life as he was suffering his mental breakdown. I read the whole book with grace towards Donald Crowhurst; it's incomprehensible to me that anyone can be alone on a sailboat in the middle of the ocean for months and stay sane. I love being on the water, but I honestly think I would have a mental breakdown sometime in the first two weeks.
The author publishes large sections of the thousands of words Crowhurst wrote during the last few days of his life as he was suffering his mental breakdown. I read the whole book with grace towards Donald Crowhurst; it's incomprehensible to me that anyone can be alone on a sailboat in the middle of the ocean for months and stay sane. I love being on the water, but I honestly think I would have a mental breakdown sometime in the first two weeks.
August 29, 2017
A really interesting book , my edition was published in 1994 with all the original text from 1969. Donald Crowhurst a decent bloke but with slight Walter Mitty tendencies. he planned to sail around the world in a competition but it went very wrong and he pretended to have done it. I have no interest in sailing but found the story riveting. Of course today he wouldn't be able to get away with "going missing" for weeks on end so it certainly is a story of its time
September 17, 2019
It was the film ‘The Mercy’, released a couple of years ago, that piqued my interest in the Crowhurst story. Last year, I read Peter Nichols’ excellent account of the 1967/68 Golden Globe race, ‘A Voyage for Madmen’, and became convinced that ‘The Mercy’ only really scratched the surface. Having just finished Tomalin and Hall’s breath-taking ‘Strange Last Voyage’ - at once a rigorous example of investigative journalism, a psychological interrogation of its subject, and an attempt to piece together the unknowable final moments of Crowhurst’s tortured existence - I’m now dialling back my opinion of the film to “reductive to the point of infantilisation”. Read this book instead: it’s chilling, gripping and unforgettable.
September 19, 2016
What an excellent unravelling of an ocean mystery. A yachtsmen in a global race decides to hoax his success and the very success of that could contribute to the death of the rightful winner and catapulte the hoaxer to an uncomfortable first where his log books would be examined too closely. This all in the 1968 Sunday Times Golden Globe Race, the first round the world yacht race. Crowhurst's own log books reveal his trickery and philosophies and rantings that apparently led to his suicide after which is custom, experimental yacht was found ghosting the Atlantica as unmanned as his "computer" was incomplete.
On 14 June 1968 Robin Knox-Johnston left Falmouth in his 32-foot (9.8-metre) boat Suhaili, one of the smallest boats to enter the Sunday Times Golden Globe Race. Despite losing his self-steering gear off Australia, he rounded Cape Horn on 17 January 1969, 20 days before his closest competitor the mercurial Bernard Moitessier. Moitessier had sailed from Plymouth more than two months after Knox-Johnson, but he subsequently abandoned the race and instead sailed on to Tahiti. (In the book, it just says he started sailing around the world again in order to further dearly rejoining a modern world he despised. On on 18 March, Moitessier fired a slingshot message in a can onto a ship near the shore of Cape Town, announcing his new plans to a stunned world: "My intention is to continue the voyage, still nonstop, toward the Pacific Islands, where there is plenty of sun and more peace than in Europe. Please do not think I am trying to break a record. 'Record' is a very stupid word at sea. I am continuing nonstop because I am happy at sea, and perhaps because I want to save my soul.") The other seven competitors dropped out at various stages, leaving Knox-Johnston to win the race and become officially the first man to circumnavigate the globe non-stop and single-handed on 22 April 1969, the day he returned to Falmouth. Knox-Johnston donated his prize money for fastest competitor to the family of Donald Crowhurst.
Crowhurst's scheme left Tetley and Crowhurst apparently fighting for the £5,000 prize for fastest time. However, Tetley knew that he was pushing his boat too hard. On 20 May he ran into a storm near the Azores and began to worry about the boat's severely weakened state. Hoping that the storm would soon blow over, he lowered all sail and went to sleep with the boat lying ahull. In the early hours of the next day he was awoken by the sounds of tearing wood. Fearing that the bow of the port hull might have broken off, he went on deck to cut it loose, only to discover that in breaking away it had made a large hole in the main hull, from which Victress was now taking on water too rapidly to stop. He sent a Mayday, and luckily got an almost immediate reply. He abandoned ship just before Victress (upon whose design Crowhurst designed his own trimaran.) finally sank and was rescued from his liferaft that evening, having come to within 1,100 nautical miles of finishing what would have been the most significant voyage ever made in a multi-hulled boat. He may have just won if not for Crowhurst.
The tale of Crowhurst makes compelling reading and a book length treatment including Tetley, Knox-Johnston and Moitessier would be great, too, I think. Appendices cover much nautical tech.
On 14 June 1968 Robin Knox-Johnston left Falmouth in his 32-foot (9.8-metre) boat Suhaili, one of the smallest boats to enter the Sunday Times Golden Globe Race. Despite losing his self-steering gear off Australia, he rounded Cape Horn on 17 January 1969, 20 days before his closest competitor the mercurial Bernard Moitessier. Moitessier had sailed from Plymouth more than two months after Knox-Johnson, but he subsequently abandoned the race and instead sailed on to Tahiti. (In the book, it just says he started sailing around the world again in order to further dearly rejoining a modern world he despised. On on 18 March, Moitessier fired a slingshot message in a can onto a ship near the shore of Cape Town, announcing his new plans to a stunned world: "My intention is to continue the voyage, still nonstop, toward the Pacific Islands, where there is plenty of sun and more peace than in Europe. Please do not think I am trying to break a record. 'Record' is a very stupid word at sea. I am continuing nonstop because I am happy at sea, and perhaps because I want to save my soul.") The other seven competitors dropped out at various stages, leaving Knox-Johnston to win the race and become officially the first man to circumnavigate the globe non-stop and single-handed on 22 April 1969, the day he returned to Falmouth. Knox-Johnston donated his prize money for fastest competitor to the family of Donald Crowhurst.
Crowhurst's scheme left Tetley and Crowhurst apparently fighting for the £5,000 prize for fastest time. However, Tetley knew that he was pushing his boat too hard. On 20 May he ran into a storm near the Azores and began to worry about the boat's severely weakened state. Hoping that the storm would soon blow over, he lowered all sail and went to sleep with the boat lying ahull. In the early hours of the next day he was awoken by the sounds of tearing wood. Fearing that the bow of the port hull might have broken off, he went on deck to cut it loose, only to discover that in breaking away it had made a large hole in the main hull, from which Victress was now taking on water too rapidly to stop. He sent a Mayday, and luckily got an almost immediate reply. He abandoned ship just before Victress (upon whose design Crowhurst designed his own trimaran.) finally sank and was rescued from his liferaft that evening, having come to within 1,100 nautical miles of finishing what would have been the most significant voyage ever made in a multi-hulled boat. He may have just won if not for Crowhurst.
The tale of Crowhurst makes compelling reading and a book length treatment including Tetley, Knox-Johnston and Moitessier would be great, too, I think. Appendices cover much nautical tech.
September 12, 2016
„Die sonderbare letzte Reise des Donald Crowhurst“, das bei Malik erschienen ist, haben die beiden Autoren Ron Hall und Nicholas Tomalin versucht, diese anhand von Aufzeichnungen und Logbucheinträgen Crowhursts nachzustellen. Der Ingenieur bricht Ende 1968 zu einer von der Sunday Times ausgeschriebenen Weltumseglung auf, doch trotz der eigentlich siegreichen Berichte während der Fahrt wird das Segelboot acht Monate später verlassen aufgefunden, von Crowhurst fehlt jede Spur. Hall und Tomalin begeben sich auf Spurensuche und konstruieren so nach und nach einen riesigen Betrug, der Crowhurst das Leben kostete.
„Die sonderbare letzte Reise des Donald Crowhurst“ ist die wahre Geschichte eines Mannes, dessen Wille stärker war als sein Verstand. Donald Crowhurst will die Segelregatta um jeden Preis gewinnen und bricht trotz des schlechten Zustandes seines Bootes und seiner (für diese Strecke) mangelnden Segelerfahrung völlig überstürzt auf. Was denkt und fühlt jemand, der monatelang komplett auf sich alleine gestellt ist, noch dazu in einer nur wenige Quadratmeter großen Kajüte? Die beiden Autoren verweisen von Anfang an auf die Tatsache, dass diese Situation als Außenstehender nicht nachzuempfinden ist, wodurch die Geschichte mögliche Fiktion mit klaren Fakten mischt. Hierbei ist anzumerken, dass es von klarem Vorteil ist, sich ein wenig in der Segelsprache auszukennen. Durch mein fehlendes Fachwissen musste ich einige Passagen überspringen, in denen es um die Defekte an Bord ging, die mir leider gar nichts sagten. (Die Hauptaussage, dass das Segelboot beschädigt war, hat hier aber glücklicherweise als Information gereicht.)
Die langen Monate auf dem Meer werden für Crowhurst vom ersten Tag an zu einem Kampf – gegen sich selbst, seine Unterstützer, das Wetter und die Presse. Es ist der verzweifelte Versuch eines Selbstbetrugs, der Crowhurst dazu bringt, an seine Grenzen zu gehen, denn ihm ist klar, dass er nicht gewinnen kann. Alle lassen sich von ihm täuschen und fast niemand zweifelt an seinem Erfolg, wenn er tagelang Geschwindigkeitsrekorde bricht.
Es ist schwer, dieses Buch zu beschreiben, ohne zu viel über die Handlung zu verraten. „Die sonderbare letzte Reise des Donald Crowhurst“ vermittelt eine große Einsamkeit und Verzweiflung, die man während des Lesens spüren kann. Die Erzählung nahm allerdings für mich erst dann richtig an Fahrt auf, als Crowhurst sich passenderweise ebenfalls auf die offene See begeben hatte. Zogen sich die ersten hundert Seiten etwas, wurde ich anschließend schnell in die Geschehnisse und in den Wahnsinn Crowhursts gezogen.
Halls und Tomalins Buch ist definitiv nicht nur etwas für Fans des Segelns – sie schaffen eine tragische Erzählung, die mich überzeugen konnte und die ich gerne weiterempfehle. Von mir gibt es 4 von 5 Sternen und die Freude auf die für 2017 geplante Verfilmung von James Marsh mit Rachel Weisz und Colin Firth.
„Die sonderbare letzte Reise des Donald Crowhurst“ ist die wahre Geschichte eines Mannes, dessen Wille stärker war als sein Verstand. Donald Crowhurst will die Segelregatta um jeden Preis gewinnen und bricht trotz des schlechten Zustandes seines Bootes und seiner (für diese Strecke) mangelnden Segelerfahrung völlig überstürzt auf. Was denkt und fühlt jemand, der monatelang komplett auf sich alleine gestellt ist, noch dazu in einer nur wenige Quadratmeter großen Kajüte? Die beiden Autoren verweisen von Anfang an auf die Tatsache, dass diese Situation als Außenstehender nicht nachzuempfinden ist, wodurch die Geschichte mögliche Fiktion mit klaren Fakten mischt. Hierbei ist anzumerken, dass es von klarem Vorteil ist, sich ein wenig in der Segelsprache auszukennen. Durch mein fehlendes Fachwissen musste ich einige Passagen überspringen, in denen es um die Defekte an Bord ging, die mir leider gar nichts sagten. (Die Hauptaussage, dass das Segelboot beschädigt war, hat hier aber glücklicherweise als Information gereicht.)
Die langen Monate auf dem Meer werden für Crowhurst vom ersten Tag an zu einem Kampf – gegen sich selbst, seine Unterstützer, das Wetter und die Presse. Es ist der verzweifelte Versuch eines Selbstbetrugs, der Crowhurst dazu bringt, an seine Grenzen zu gehen, denn ihm ist klar, dass er nicht gewinnen kann. Alle lassen sich von ihm täuschen und fast niemand zweifelt an seinem Erfolg, wenn er tagelang Geschwindigkeitsrekorde bricht.
Es ist schwer, dieses Buch zu beschreiben, ohne zu viel über die Handlung zu verraten. „Die sonderbare letzte Reise des Donald Crowhurst“ vermittelt eine große Einsamkeit und Verzweiflung, die man während des Lesens spüren kann. Die Erzählung nahm allerdings für mich erst dann richtig an Fahrt auf, als Crowhurst sich passenderweise ebenfalls auf die offene See begeben hatte. Zogen sich die ersten hundert Seiten etwas, wurde ich anschließend schnell in die Geschehnisse und in den Wahnsinn Crowhursts gezogen.
Halls und Tomalins Buch ist definitiv nicht nur etwas für Fans des Segelns – sie schaffen eine tragische Erzählung, die mich überzeugen konnte und die ich gerne weiterempfehle. Von mir gibt es 4 von 5 Sternen und die Freude auf die für 2017 geplante Verfilmung von James Marsh mit Rachel Weisz und Colin Firth.
August 9, 2014
Donald Crowhurst war ein britischer Amateursegler, der im Jahr 1968 am Sunday Times Golden Globe Race teilnahm, einem Wettrennen, wer zuerst allein die Welt umsegelte. Sein Boot war ziemlicher Schrott und so blieb er stets hinter seinen im Voraus euphorisch berechneten Erwartungen zurück. Nach zwei Wochen lag er erst bei Portugal, während andere sich schon dem Kap Horn näherten. Aufzugeben war für Crowhurst, dessen finanzielle und gesellschaftliche Existenz an diesem Rennen hing, nicht möglich.
Die Lösung für das Dilemma fand er darin, ausgeklügelte Fälschungen seiner Position zu erstellen. Er versuchte also, den Anschein zu erwecken, er habe die Welt tatsächlich umrundet, während er in Wirklichkeit meist nur vor Südamerika herumdümpelte. Seine Lügen werden in England nicht hinterfragt und langsam kristalliert sich heraus, dass Crowhurst mit seiner vermeintlichen Weltumsegelung das Rennen gewinnen werde. Crowhurst verzweifelt immer mehr angesichts der Tatsache, dass seine Logbücher bei Ankunft genau untersucht werden würden. Als sein letzter Konkurrent kurz vor der Heimkehr sinkt, ist es klar: Crowhurst wird gewinnen. Das führt bei ihm zu einem Nervenzusammenbruch erster Güte.
In der letzten Woche seiner Fahrt verfällt Crowhurst dem Wahnsinn, schreibt 25.000 Wörter über die Relativitätstheorie, über Gott und den Menschen und über die Möglichkeit, die Welt durch den puren eigenen Willen bezwingen zu können. Im Glauben, dass er den Tod überwinden könne, springt er am 1. Juli 1969 von seinem Trimaran-Boot und landet im Wasser des Nordatlantiks. Zehn Tage später findet man das Boot unbemannt im Wasser treibend.
Was für eine Story! Der lange Wikipedia-Artikel, auf den ich neulich gestoßen bin, hat mich so faszniert, dass ich mir direkt die Biografie seiner Weltumsegelung geholt habe und in wirklich wenigen Tagen wirklich "verschlungen" habe (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_C...). Eine der ganz, ganz wenigen Geschichten, wo man ohne Übertreibung sagen kann: Stranger than fiction. Wahnsinn.
Die Lösung für das Dilemma fand er darin, ausgeklügelte Fälschungen seiner Position zu erstellen. Er versuchte also, den Anschein zu erwecken, er habe die Welt tatsächlich umrundet, während er in Wirklichkeit meist nur vor Südamerika herumdümpelte. Seine Lügen werden in England nicht hinterfragt und langsam kristalliert sich heraus, dass Crowhurst mit seiner vermeintlichen Weltumsegelung das Rennen gewinnen werde. Crowhurst verzweifelt immer mehr angesichts der Tatsache, dass seine Logbücher bei Ankunft genau untersucht werden würden. Als sein letzter Konkurrent kurz vor der Heimkehr sinkt, ist es klar: Crowhurst wird gewinnen. Das führt bei ihm zu einem Nervenzusammenbruch erster Güte.
In der letzten Woche seiner Fahrt verfällt Crowhurst dem Wahnsinn, schreibt 25.000 Wörter über die Relativitätstheorie, über Gott und den Menschen und über die Möglichkeit, die Welt durch den puren eigenen Willen bezwingen zu können. Im Glauben, dass er den Tod überwinden könne, springt er am 1. Juli 1969 von seinem Trimaran-Boot und landet im Wasser des Nordatlantiks. Zehn Tage später findet man das Boot unbemannt im Wasser treibend.
Was für eine Story! Der lange Wikipedia-Artikel, auf den ich neulich gestoßen bin, hat mich so faszniert, dass ich mir direkt die Biografie seiner Weltumsegelung geholt habe und in wirklich wenigen Tagen wirklich "verschlungen" habe (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_C...). Eine der ganz, ganz wenigen Geschichten, wo man ohne Übertreibung sagen kann: Stranger than fiction. Wahnsinn.
February 7, 2021
This book angered me so much that I had to bail out at 35% (so my Kindle tells me) which is just after the chapter detailing Crowhurst's disastrous first 11 days.
The man was a fool.
He wanted to be a hero, one of his own making, yet he begged and borrowed and skimped and penny pinched his way into getting a boat which needed months more prep to be properly seaworthy, all the while hugely overestimating his own abilities to sail.
This is no extraordinary tale of survival; no haunting story of one man against the sea. Crowhurst is no Shackleton. This is a book about an idiot who lost his life because he jumped in with two feet into a task he lacked the skills to compete in, using a boat that was not fit for purpose.
I have no sympathy for the man himself - he's a prime candidate for a Darwin Award, yet I feel extremely sorry for the wife and son he left behind. And for what.
I'm not wasting any more of my time reading about a fella I'd punch in the head.
The man was a fool.
He wanted to be a hero, one of his own making, yet he begged and borrowed and skimped and penny pinched his way into getting a boat which needed months more prep to be properly seaworthy, all the while hugely overestimating his own abilities to sail.
This is no extraordinary tale of survival; no haunting story of one man against the sea. Crowhurst is no Shackleton. This is a book about an idiot who lost his life because he jumped in with two feet into a task he lacked the skills to compete in, using a boat that was not fit for purpose.
I have no sympathy for the man himself - he's a prime candidate for a Darwin Award, yet I feel extremely sorry for the wife and son he left behind. And for what.
I'm not wasting any more of my time reading about a fella I'd punch in the head.
June 28, 2017
An utterly extraordinary tale of heroism, courage and despair, centred around the flawed genius of the title character – an entrepreneur, inventor and sailor whose ambitions run away with him.
The author’s build the picture of Donald Crowhurst’s life as one of confidence and dedication in the lead up the round the world race, expostulating grand designs for his yacht and equipment, and explore his emotions and deteriorating state of mind during the long solo voyage which eventually leads to a sad conclusion.
I was mesmerised by the story, his character, and the people involved and interwoven into the narrative.
This is the story of one of those points in real life where you can see what is happening and yet are powerless to do anything about – and this is the secret of the book’s readability.
The author’s build the picture of Donald Crowhurst’s life as one of confidence and dedication in the lead up the round the world race, expostulating grand designs for his yacht and equipment, and explore his emotions and deteriorating state of mind during the long solo voyage which eventually leads to a sad conclusion.
I was mesmerised by the story, his character, and the people involved and interwoven into the narrative.
This is the story of one of those points in real life where you can see what is happening and yet are powerless to do anything about – and this is the secret of the book’s readability.
January 13, 2013
I loved this book! I worked on a one-man opera years ago based on this story--the opera was awesome, BTW. But I've never read this book. I was reminded of it after reading _The Terrible Privacy of Maxwell Sim_, which was a book I also enjoyed. What a feat of investigation the authors undertook, and they really hit it out of the park with the writing. Page-turner.
I was really struck by their compassion for Crowhurst. They say it themselves, but it's true--this stoery could very easily been "Man overcomes all odd" if Crowhurst had succeeded. I highly recommend this book.
I'm going to watch _Deep Water_ tomorrow.
I was really struck by their compassion for Crowhurst. They say it themselves, but it's true--this stoery could very easily been "Man overcomes all odd" if Crowhurst had succeeded. I highly recommend this book.
I'm going to watch _Deep Water_ tomorrow.
June 10, 2013
This is a very interesting non-fiction accounting of Donald Crowhurst's attempt to win the prize for sailing around the world solo in 1967. When he realized his boat was so poorly constructed and outfitted and he would never make it, he decided to fake it and sailed around the southern Atlantic for several months before heading back to England to claim his prize. I won't give away the ending in case you don't know what happens. This is a very good psychological study as well as interesting accounting of these initial boat races. If you don't read the book, then at least rent the movie "Deep Water". It's a documentary about this same event. The book and the movie are both fascinating.
October 12, 2018
This book is very well researched and goes into a lot of depth. I found it interesting but I'm not that invested in the story so I felt there was a bit too much detail. It's not really criticism for the book itself, if you are interested in Crowhurst's story I think it's a great document. But for me as a casual reader who hadn't heared about the story before picking up the book (someone recommended it to me) the book drags on a bit too much.
October 5, 2013
Utterly fascinating account of one mans ultimately tragic attempt to be the first person to sail solo around the world non-stop and his eventual descent into madness. Superbly researched and detailed account that gives an insight into a trip that should never have been made.
March 3, 2017
What a curious story. Such a mysterious and sad ending. I wasn't sure about the first half of the book because of all the technical sections, and I just wanted to get on to the race part! I would read it again. I think I'd appreciate those sections more now that I know what happens.
April 10, 2018
A fascinating tale, which told us a lot more about the man and those he interacted with. It did get somewhat bogged down in the middle, analysing his logs and writings, but it did set out to be a record, not just a story I suppose.
January 15, 2023
In this book, authors Nicholas Tomalin and Ron Hall examine the eventful life and final voyage of yachtsman Donald Crowhurst, drawing on interviews with friends, family and business associates, as well as evidence found aboard Crowhurst's abandoned boat, to look for a reason why Crowhurst disappeared during his attempt at a voyage around the world in the 1969 Golden Globe yacht race.
While that summary of events may make this book seem a bit dull, I can assure you it's anything but. Crowhurst was a remarkably multifaceted character, and his equally remarkable voyage (both the genuine struggles he faced, alone in the Atlantic on a slowly disintegrating boat, and the elaborate fake circumnavigation he created to keep himself in the race) make for an interesting and thought-provoking story.
Tomalin and Hall's writing style, mixing biography, nautical adventure and tragedy, has done a great job of capturing Crowhurst's many sides in an engaging and very personal way. Despite how easy it might have been to paint Crowhurst as a lying con artist who faked a voyage to make money for his failing business, Tomalin and Hall go beyond such a simplistic conclusion and show that the real Donald Crowhurst was far more complex than that. They paint a picture of a man whose life reads almost like a classical tragedy. As they reveal, Crowhurst was brave and tenacious, refusing to admit defeat even in the face of impossible odds, but also overly ambitious and impulsive to the point of recklessness, which contributed greatly to his getting caught in a deception of his own making, suffering a mental breakdown and (presumably) taking his own life in a deluded attempt to transcend humanity.
Overall, I found this book really quite interesting, despite the somewhat dark subject matter and tragic ending. Tomalin and Hall have done a great job at delving into Crowhurst's mind, and their book serves as a memorial to Donald Crowhurst, and a reminder that, quite often, the difference between heroism and disaster lies in the final outcome.
While that summary of events may make this book seem a bit dull, I can assure you it's anything but. Crowhurst was a remarkably multifaceted character, and his equally remarkable voyage (both the genuine struggles he faced, alone in the Atlantic on a slowly disintegrating boat, and the elaborate fake circumnavigation he created to keep himself in the race) make for an interesting and thought-provoking story.
Tomalin and Hall's writing style, mixing biography, nautical adventure and tragedy, has done a great job of capturing Crowhurst's many sides in an engaging and very personal way. Despite how easy it might have been to paint Crowhurst as a lying con artist who faked a voyage to make money for his failing business, Tomalin and Hall go beyond such a simplistic conclusion and show that the real Donald Crowhurst was far more complex than that. They paint a picture of a man whose life reads almost like a classical tragedy. As they reveal, Crowhurst was brave and tenacious, refusing to admit defeat even in the face of impossible odds, but also overly ambitious and impulsive to the point of recklessness, which contributed greatly to his getting caught in a deception of his own making, suffering a mental breakdown and (presumably) taking his own life in a deluded attempt to transcend humanity.
Overall, I found this book really quite interesting, despite the somewhat dark subject matter and tragic ending. Tomalin and Hall have done a great job at delving into Crowhurst's mind, and their book serves as a memorial to Donald Crowhurst, and a reminder that, quite often, the difference between heroism and disaster lies in the final outcome.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 12, 2024
I first heard the name "Donald Crowhurst" sometime last fall, when i happened upon a video essay about his ill-fated participation in the Golden Globe race. Something about his story caught my interest, hard enough that here i am months later, just having finished this book about him.
It's difficult to judge what is the correct balance between honest reporting and interesting reading. Sensationalized versions are rarely as interesting as they claim to be, pushing the bounds of believability while a much less exciting, much more probable explanation remains visible under the glitzy sheen spread over them -- to say nothing of how disrespectful it is to those involved. At the same time, i often don't find a straightforward version of events all that interesting. For better or for worse, "The Strange Last Voyage of Donald Crowhurst" leans in the honest reporting direction, as far as i can tell, but in so doing the epithet of "strange" seems to me to be overstatement. There is nothing strange or unexpected about an inexperienced sailor with an unfinished, untested boat failing to sail around the world. Even his final descent into madness is as natural an outcome as it is tragic: what was the alternative, for a man isolated for months with nothing to think about but his home, his current situation, and the potential outcomes, the best options evaporating while the worst becomes inevitable?
In general i would recommend this book to anyone interested in the story. It does not get bogged down in technicalities, though i still felt a bit "at sea" with the descriptions and analysis of the finer details of boat construction and marine navigation, and the authors appeared to make good use of access to Crowhurst's boat, the supplies on it, and interviews with those who were directly involved and knew him best. But for me, it was a struggle to keep invested, as i already knew what had happened, and the version of the story i had previously experienced was both shorter and more appealing in its presentation, though perhaps not as balanced a take.
It's difficult to judge what is the correct balance between honest reporting and interesting reading. Sensationalized versions are rarely as interesting as they claim to be, pushing the bounds of believability while a much less exciting, much more probable explanation remains visible under the glitzy sheen spread over them -- to say nothing of how disrespectful it is to those involved. At the same time, i often don't find a straightforward version of events all that interesting. For better or for worse, "The Strange Last Voyage of Donald Crowhurst" leans in the honest reporting direction, as far as i can tell, but in so doing the epithet of "strange" seems to me to be overstatement. There is nothing strange or unexpected about an inexperienced sailor with an unfinished, untested boat failing to sail around the world. Even his final descent into madness is as natural an outcome as it is tragic: what was the alternative, for a man isolated for months with nothing to think about but his home, his current situation, and the potential outcomes, the best options evaporating while the worst becomes inevitable?
In general i would recommend this book to anyone interested in the story. It does not get bogged down in technicalities, though i still felt a bit "at sea" with the descriptions and analysis of the finer details of boat construction and marine navigation, and the authors appeared to make good use of access to Crowhurst's boat, the supplies on it, and interviews with those who were directly involved and knew him best. But for me, it was a struggle to keep invested, as i already knew what had happened, and the version of the story i had previously experienced was both shorter and more appealing in its presentation, though perhaps not as balanced a take.
December 17, 2020
The story of Donald Crowhurst who entered the Sunday Times Golden Globe Race (1968) - a single-handed, round-the-world yacht race. An energetic and resourceful individual, he expected that he could better previous records for round-the-world sailing journeys through the use of the trimaran. He had the Teignmouth Electron constructed based on the Victress-class trimarans. Unfortunately due to the timeline of having to start before Oct 31, he was unable to work the deficiencies out of his design and in the rush to start, ended up being inadequately provisioned. In his early travels down the Atlantic, the deficiencies of his boat became evident making it became clear that he would never be able to travel in the southern seas.
The book is largely about the time he spent in the southern Atlantic trying to come to grips with failing to complete the circuit. Crowhurst was paralyzed by his uncertainty as to how to proceed. Efforts to contact his wife Clare did not work out. However, he found that he could still present himself as a competitor, pretending that he had completed the circuit although he spent his time entirely in the southern Atlantic. To this end, he created Logbook 4 which presented an imaged track around the world.
By June, Crowhurst was losing touch with reality and developed a state of paranoia which he had assembled a view of life where the gods and men are involved in an elaborate game. He felt that his insights would move mankind beyond its present state and provide solutions to the worlds problems. He perceived that he had become god-like and his death was inevitable. He felt that he could not be deceptive, so he threw Logbook 4 into the ocean and committed suicide by jumping overboard.
The authors present an engaging analysis of Crowhursts final days and thoughts, based upon careful examination of the records that were left on the boat.
The book is largely about the time he spent in the southern Atlantic trying to come to grips with failing to complete the circuit. Crowhurst was paralyzed by his uncertainty as to how to proceed. Efforts to contact his wife Clare did not work out. However, he found that he could still present himself as a competitor, pretending that he had completed the circuit although he spent his time entirely in the southern Atlantic. To this end, he created Logbook 4 which presented an imaged track around the world.
By June, Crowhurst was losing touch with reality and developed a state of paranoia which he had assembled a view of life where the gods and men are involved in an elaborate game. He felt that his insights would move mankind beyond its present state and provide solutions to the worlds problems. He perceived that he had become god-like and his death was inevitable. He felt that he could not be deceptive, so he threw Logbook 4 into the ocean and committed suicide by jumping overboard.
The authors present an engaging analysis of Crowhursts final days and thoughts, based upon careful examination of the records that were left on the boat.
July 30, 2024
A totally engrossing read, made all the more worthwhile as its tragic story is probably rarely remembered today. There is an ocean of drama and personal reflection to get lost in, so long as one is comfortable among the considerable amount of sailing detail (seems a little ridiculous to mention this, but apparently some readers are shocked to find sailing in a book about a sailing race).
The book was presented at the time, and seems to have been interpreted since, as a fairly even account. But the authors Tomalin and Hall, both Fleet Street journalists, are clearly partisan and do not own up to this. The whole account feels just short of a fully honest investigation. And they carefully avoid almost any criticism even where it is due (Best and Halworth in particular), perhaps fearing litigation and/or ostracization. In fact, the only real criticism they give is of a dead man. They portray Crowhurst first and foremost as a fundamentally flawed individual, rather than assigning the majority of the blame to the doomed situation he found himself in (or any of those who sealed his fate, and later benefited from his downfall).
Their handling of Crowhurst's philosophical writings are also quite weak. A number of times they prove themselves to have totally misunderstood, and even contradict the passages they quote. This lack of willingness to understand only underlines a lackng respect for the man throughout the book. In finally putting the book down, you feel Donald Crowhurst remains for the authors just what he was for Best, Halworth, and the Sunday Times; merely a disposable pawn in their game. I wonder how drastically an account written today, with a sympathetic view of mental health, would differ.
They do, however, present a lot of the evidence directly (probably as much as is economical for a light/popular book), giving the reader some free movement to make up their own minds. Give it a read, and make up your own mind.
The book was presented at the time, and seems to have been interpreted since, as a fairly even account. But the authors Tomalin and Hall, both Fleet Street journalists, are clearly partisan and do not own up to this. The whole account feels just short of a fully honest investigation. And they carefully avoid almost any criticism even where it is due (Best and Halworth in particular), perhaps fearing litigation and/or ostracization. In fact, the only real criticism they give is of a dead man. They portray Crowhurst first and foremost as a fundamentally flawed individual, rather than assigning the majority of the blame to the doomed situation he found himself in (or any of those who sealed his fate, and later benefited from his downfall).
Their handling of Crowhurst's philosophical writings are also quite weak. A number of times they prove themselves to have totally misunderstood, and even contradict the passages they quote. This lack of willingness to understand only underlines a lackng respect for the man throughout the book. In finally putting the book down, you feel Donald Crowhurst remains for the authors just what he was for Best, Halworth, and the Sunday Times; merely a disposable pawn in their game. I wonder how drastically an account written today, with a sympathetic view of mental health, would differ.
They do, however, present a lot of the evidence directly (probably as much as is economical for a light/popular book), giving the reader some free movement to make up their own minds. Give it a read, and make up your own mind.
June 29, 2022
There lies a great difficulty in writing, when telling an account of events that happened in a factual manner while maintaining the genuine interest of the reader. All too often, stories are ruined through over-analysis and over-explanation, leading to an inevitable stall at around page 80 of 300 million. The Strange Last Voyage of Donald Crowhurst is a brilliant exception to this case.
The story of Donald Crowhurst and his doomed voyage into the Atlantic is desperately sad, and his inevitable demise - should the reader already be familiar with the tale - lingers at the back of one’s mind with every page read. The intricacies highlighted by Tomalin and Hall provide such delicate insights into the life and mind of Crowhurst, and allow the reader to delve into the decisions he made while on board the wretched trimaran. Decisions regarding failure, radio silence, coveting and cheating, all deeply calculated by a man who was slowly losing his mind.
The last few pages of the book made me genuinely breathless. They focused solely on the final few notes written by Crowhurst in his logbook, demonstrating perfectly his demise and gradual (or perhaps sudden) slump into total insanity. His philosophical ramblings of ‘the mercy’ and ‘the game’ were heartbreaking. Brutal, raw evidence of a man who had reached the edge, and it was only a matter of time (or matter of pages) before the ultimate act would be taken. Tragic does not even come close to describing the events. There was no happy ending. There was no redemption. There was no relief. Images of the wrecked and abandoned Teignmouth Electron laying desolate on the dunes of a Cayman Island brought home the realisation of total finality, and the collapse of a man from Devon who tried to cheat the system and lost.
I cannot recommend this book enough.
The story of Donald Crowhurst and his doomed voyage into the Atlantic is desperately sad, and his inevitable demise - should the reader already be familiar with the tale - lingers at the back of one’s mind with every page read. The intricacies highlighted by Tomalin and Hall provide such delicate insights into the life and mind of Crowhurst, and allow the reader to delve into the decisions he made while on board the wretched trimaran. Decisions regarding failure, radio silence, coveting and cheating, all deeply calculated by a man who was slowly losing his mind.
The last few pages of the book made me genuinely breathless. They focused solely on the final few notes written by Crowhurst in his logbook, demonstrating perfectly his demise and gradual (or perhaps sudden) slump into total insanity. His philosophical ramblings of ‘the mercy’ and ‘the game’ were heartbreaking. Brutal, raw evidence of a man who had reached the edge, and it was only a matter of time (or matter of pages) before the ultimate act would be taken. Tragic does not even come close to describing the events. There was no happy ending. There was no redemption. There was no relief. Images of the wrecked and abandoned Teignmouth Electron laying desolate on the dunes of a Cayman Island brought home the realisation of total finality, and the collapse of a man from Devon who tried to cheat the system and lost.
I cannot recommend this book enough.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 28, 2019
КОГДА ВСЕ ИДЕТ НЕ ТАК
“Гонка века” - это потрясающая история авантюрного плавания Дональда Кроухерста. Книга документальная, но читается не хуже приключенческого романа.
“В тысячу раз лучше попытаться и проиграть, чем лежать на диване, как сытый сонный кот. Только дураки смеются над неудачами других”.
Прослышав про соревновательное плавание яхтсменов вокруг света Кроухерст бросает все и отправляется в путешествие. Для него это возможность не только спастись от банкротства, но и прославиться, стать героем, как персонажи его любимых книг о морских плаваниях. В этом путешествии все идет не по плану: поломки преследуют и судно, и психику. Нагрузки, которым подвергается моряк-одиночка в течении полугода плавания не стоит недооценивать.
На что может пойти человек ради своей цели? Пойдет ли он на подлог? Будет рисковать жизнью?
Конец этой истории известен - судно Кроухерста нашли пустым в открытом море. Кроухерст - смелый и находчивый человек, но, похоже, в этот раз он переоценил себя и недооценил опасность.
Журналисты, проведя настоящее расследование, по судовым журналам и крупицам информации, восстанавливают, что происходило на яхте в ходе ее плавания. Благо Кроухерст оставил множество запи��ей. Авторам очень хорошо удается совместить технику романистка с журналистским стилем - сделать повествование достаточно художественным, но держаться фактов. Им удается нарисовать живую картину событий и залезть в голову героя.
Это документальная книга, но история обладает структурой и драматичностью хорошего художественного произведения. Поэтому читать ее очень интересно. Ореол таинственности и трагичности делает эту историю завораживающей - увлекательное повествование о настоящем морском приключении.
“Гонка века” - это потрясающая история авантюрного плавания Дональда Кроухерста. Книга документальная, но читается не хуже приключенческого романа.
“В тысячу раз лучше попытаться и проиграть, чем лежать на диване, как сытый сонный кот. Только дураки смеются над неудачами других”.
Прослышав про соревновательное плавание яхтсменов вокруг света Кроухерст бросает все и отправляется в путешествие. Для него это возможность не только спастись от банкротства, но и прославиться, стать героем, как персонажи его любимых книг о морских плаваниях. В этом путешествии все идет не по плану: поломки преследуют и судно, и психику. Нагрузки, которым подвергается моряк-одиночка в течении полугода плавания не стоит недооценивать.
На что может пойти человек ради своей цели? Пойдет ли он на подлог? Будет рисковать жизнью?
Конец этой истории известен - судно Кроухерста нашли пустым в открытом море. Кроухерст - смелый и находчивый человек, но, похоже, в этот раз он переоценил себя и недооценил опасность.
Журналисты, проведя настоящее расследование, по судовым журналам и крупицам информации, восстанавливают, что происходило на яхте в ходе ее плавания. Благо Кроухерст оставил множество запи��ей. Авторам очень хорошо удается совместить технику романистка с журналистским стилем - сделать повествование достаточно художественным, но держаться фактов. Им удается нарисовать живую картину событий и залезть в голову героя.
Это документальная книга, но история обладает структурой и драматичностью хорошего художественного произведения. Поэтому читать ее очень интересно. Ореол таинственности и трагичности делает эту историю завораживающей - увлекательное повествование о настоящем морском приключении.
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