The Strange Last Voyage of Donald Crowhurst - by Nicholas Tomalin, Ron Hall
Now filmed as "The Mercy" starring Colin Firth and Rachel Weisz, directed by James Marsh (The Theory of Everything).
In 1968, Donald Crowhurst was trying to market a nautical navigation device he had developed, and saw the Sunday Times Golden Globe round the world sailing race as the perfect opportunity to showcase his product.
Few people knew that he wasn't an experienced deep-water sailor. His progress was so slow that he decided to short-cut the journey, while falsifying his location through radio messages from his supposed course.
Everyone following the race thought that he was winning, and a hero's welcome awaited him at home in Britain. But on 10 July 1968, eight months after he set off, his wife was told that his boat had been discovered drifting in mid-Atlantic. Crowhurst was missing, assumed drowned, and there was much speculation that this was one of the great mysteries of the sea.
In this masterpiece of investigative journalism, Nicholas Tomalin and Ron Hall reconstruct one of the greatest hoaxes of our time. From in-depth interviews with Crowhurst's family and friends and telling excerpts from his logbooks, Tomalin and Hall develop a tale of tragic self-delusion and public deception, a haunting portrait of a complex, deeply troubled man and his journey into the heart of darkness.
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This account of Crowhurst's trip is both fascinating and haunting. It is heart wrenching to read about his passage from ambition to deception, and finally to uncertainty and madness. The authors do an exceptional job of supporting the passages from Crowhurst's detailed log books with thoughtful exposition.
Bas Jan Ader. In attempting a trans-Atlantic voyage for the completion of his project 'In Search of the Miraculous', conceptual artist Ader also tragically lost his life at sea. Among his possessions left behind at home was a copy of 'The Strange Last Voyage of Donald Crowhurst'.
