Donald Crowhurst (1932–1969) was an English businessman and amateur sailor who died while competing in the Sunday Times Golden Globe Race, a single-handed, round-the-world yacht race. Crowhurst had entered the race in hopes of winning a cash prize from the Sunday Times to aid his failing business. Instead, he encountered difficulty early in the voyage, and secretly abandoned the race while reporting false positions, in an attempt to appear to complete a circumnavigation without actually circling the world. Evidence found after his disappearance indicates that this attempt ended in insanity and suicide.
The Golden Globe Race was inspired by Francis Chichester's successful single-handed round-the-world voyage, stopping in Sydney. The considerable publicity to which his achievement gave rise led a number of sailors to plan the next logical step — a non-stop, single-handed, round-the-world sail.
Entrants were required to start between June 1 and October 31, in order to pass through the Southern Ocean in summer. The prizes offered were the Golden Globe trophy for the first single-handed circumnavigation, and a £5,000 cash prize for the fastest. This was a considerable sum then, equivalent to £58,100 in 2005.
The other contestants were Robin Knox-Johnston, Nigel Tetley, Bernard Moitessier, Chay Blyth, John Ridgway, Bill King, Alex Carozzo, and Loïck Fougeron
The boat Crowhurst built for the trip, Teignmouth Electron, was a 40 foot trimaran. At the time, this was an unproven type of sailing boat for a voyage of such length. Trimarans have the potential to sail much more quickly than monohulled sailboats, but early designs in particular could be very slow if overloaded, and had considerable difficulty sailing close to the wind. Trimarans are popular with many sailors for their stability; however, if capsized (for example by a rogue wave), they are virtually impossible to right, in contrast to monohulls.
However, Crowhurst had a very short time in which to build and equip his boat, while securing financing and sponsors for the race at the same time. In the end, all of his safety devices were left uncompleted; he planned to complete them while underway. Also, many of his spares and supplies were left behind in the confusion of the final preparations for leaving.
Crowhurst left from Teignmouth on the last day permitted by the rules: October 31, 1968. He encountered immediate problems with his boat and equipment, and in the first few weeks was making less than half of his planned speed. According to his logs, he gave himself only 50/50 odds of surviving the trip, assuming that he was able to complete some of the safety equipment before reaching the dangerous Southern Ocean.
Since leaving, Crowhurst had been deliberately ambiguous in his radio report of his location. Starting on December 6, he continued reporting further vague but false positions and possibly fabricating a log book; rather than continuing to the Southern Ocean, he sailed erratically in the southern Atlantic Ocean, and stopped once in South America (in violation of the rules) to make repairs to his boat. A great deal of the voyage was spent in radio silence, while his supposed position was inferred by extrapolation based on his earlier reports. By early December, based on his false reports, he was being cheered worldwide as the likely winner of the race, though Francis Chichester publicly expressed doubts about the plausibility of Crowhurst's progress.
On April 22, 1969, Robin Knox-Johnston was the first to complete the race, leaving Crowhurst supposedly in the running against Tetley for second to finish, and possibly still able to beat Knox-Johnston's time (due to his later starting date). In reality, Tetley was far in the lead, having long ago passed within 150 nautical miles of Crowhurst's hiding place; but believing himself to be in a hurry, Tetley pushed his failing boat to the breaking point, and had to abandon ship on May 30. The pressure on Crowhurst increased, since he now looked certain to win the "elapsed time" race. If he appeared to have completed the fastest circumnavigation, his log books would be closely examined by experienced sailors, including Chichester, and the deception in all probability would be exposed.
Crowhurst ended radio transmissions on June 29. Teignmouth Electron was found adrift, unoccupied, on July 10.
Crowhurst's behavior as recorded in his logs indicates a complex and conflicted psychological state. His commitment to faking the trip seemed incomplete and self-defeating, as he reported unrealistically fast progress that was sure to arouse suspicion. By contrast, he spent many hours meticulously constructing false log entries—often more difficult to complete than real entries, due to the celestial navigation research required.
The last several weeks of his log entries, once he was facing a real possibility of winning the prize, showed increasing irrationality. In the end, his writings during the voyage—poems, quotations, real and fake log entries, and random thoughts—amounted to more than 25,000 words. The log books include an attempt to construct a philosophical reinterpretation of the human condition that would provide an escape from his impossible situation. The number 243 shows up several times in these writings: he originally planned to finish the trip in 243 days, recorded a false distance of 243 nautical miles (450 km) in one day's sailing (which if valid would have been a record day's run at the time), and may have ended his life on the 243rd day
of his voyage.
His last log entry was on June 29, 1969; it is assumed that he then jumped overboard and drowned. The state of the boat gave no indication that it had been overrun by a rogue wave, or that any accident had occurred which might have caused Crowhurst to fall overboard. He may have taken with him a single deceptive log book and the ship's clock. Three log books (two navigational logs and a radio log) were left on his boat in order to communicate his philosophical ideas and to reveal his actual navigational course during the voyage.
Although his biographers, Tomalin and Hall, discounted the possibility that some sort of food poisoning contributed to his mental condition, they acknowledged the fact that there is insufficient evidence to rule that possibility out.
Robin Knox-Johnston donated his winnings to Donald Crowhurst's widow and children. Nigel Tetley was awarded a consolation prize and built a new trimaran, but committed suicide (for unknown reasons) in 1972.
Teignmouth Electron lies on the southwest shore of Cayman Brac, steadily decaying in the dunes.
American author Robert Stone based his critically acclaimed 1992 novel Outerbridge Reach on the Crowhurst tragedy.
UK based independent Darlow Smithson Productions produced a 2006 documentary film based on the affair, called Deep Water. The film reconstructs Crowhurst's voyage from his own audio tapes and cine film, interwoven with archive footage and interviews with his widow, his son, and others who knew him and were connected with his adventure. In 2007, the documentary was released theatrically in the United States.
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