The strange voyage of Donald Crowhurst began when he entered into the Sunday
Times Golden Globe single-handed, non-stop race around the world. The year was
1968 and, spurred on by friends and BBC cameras, he left Teignmouth on
Thursday the 31st of October in his yacht the Teignmouth Electron for the great
unknown. |
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| The boat was based on the standard Pivers Victress class trimaran hulls and
crossbeams which gave an overall length of 41 feet, a waterline length (centre
hull) of 38 feet and a beam of 22 feet. The remainder of the yacht was
designed specifically to Crowhurst’s requirements with extra cross-beams, bulkheads
and much internal strengthening and upgrading of vulnerable points to cope with
the difficult conditions he would meet in the Southern Ocean and around Cape
Horn. |
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| But Crowhurst was not to sail in these dangerous latitudes and his boat was
found abandoned in mid-Atlantic. On the 10th of July 1969 the Royal Mail vessel
Picardy, bound from London to the Caribbean, spotted a small craft ghosting
along with only its mizzen sail raised. The position was latitude 33 degrees 11
minutes north, longitude 40 degrees 28 minutes west, and about 1,800 miles
from England. It was the Teignmouth Electron but there was no sign of Donald
Crowhurst. |
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| The voyage of Donald Crowhurst is a tragic but fascinating story. Why did he
send radio messages giving fake positions and why did he keep two logs? (We
know he left with four logbooks.) Why did he land in South America when he knew
that it would disqualify him from the race? What was his state of mind during
the voyage and why did he think that he could hide his deception. But most of
all what became of him? We can reconstruct what probably happened but we can
never really know why. |
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| For more detailed information: |
| Monograph No. 8 - The Remarkable Journey of Donald Crowhurst
is available at £2.50 per copy (including Postage and Packaging). Please do
not send cash. Make cheques/money orders payable to ‘Teign Heritage’. All enquiries by mail only. Please ensure that your name and full postal
address are included with all correspondence. |
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