The Strange Last Voyage of Donald Crowhurst by Nicholas Tomalin and Ron Hall

The Strange Last Voyage of Donald Crowhurst by Nicholas Tomalin and Ron Hall

One of the best thrift-store finds of 2023 for me was a 303 page book about a man Hell bound for glory and his eventual mental health breakdown near the end of a race around the world in a small trimaran known as the Teignmouth Electron.

The race officially began in late 1968 and ended tragically in July of 1969 about eight months after Donald Crowhurst began his journey. The biography makes no attempt from the very beginning to hide the fact that he died on during the voyage most likely from suicide. Then ensuing investigative story attempts to piece together as much of the truth as possible from the beginning to the end. From the time the idea was conceived to the time he set sail it was fairly easy for the authors to deduce the land based events by using documents, photography, film and interviews. Once Crowhurst left the pier all bets were off as to what happened during the entire voyage.

Using radio message traffic maps and logbooks and some personal interviews in one foreign port they were able to piece together how Crowhurst duped everyone into believing he had in fact sailed nearly 30,000 miles around the globe and was on the return leg when he disappeared. The story shows how Crowhurst's ruse began very early in the voyage, and as he continued to sail and run into many issues due to the boat's untested design and hurried haphazard preparation his web of lies and search for glory led him to an ultimate mental health breakdown.

In the end Crowhurst likely committed suicide as all the log books, condition of the boat and missing items suggested. He was nearly out of the woods so to speak until one of his competitor's boat sunk and he was guaranteed to win as long as he finished the race. Ultimately he chose to end his life rather than to face the scrutiny of the press and some who had grown suspicious of his cheating. Even if he had chosen to quit the race and admit defeat he still would have had the respect of having had sailed the small trimaran some 16,000 miles on his own during his first and last solo long distance voyage.

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