Donald Crowhurst disappeared, presumed drowned, on 1st July 1969.
Crowhurst was born in the industrial Indian city of Ghaziabad, near Delhi, in 1932. His father was a railway superintendent, his mother a teacher. At the age of 8, Crowhurst was sent to boarding school, and at 10, his family moved to Multan in Western Pakistan.
He performed well at school, and led his friends in daring games. At the end of the Second World War, he was sent to Loughborough College in England, and his family joined him in the country in 1947, with India gaining independence and the creation of Pakistan. All of their savings had been invested in a sports goods factory in Pakistan, but during riots, this was burnt down. Crowhurst's father died of a heart attack shortly after, in 1948. With his family's new situation, Donald had to leave Loughborough College aged 16.
He went on to become an apprentice in electronic engineering at the Royal Aircraft Establishment Technical College in Farnborough, joining the RAF in 1953. He was asked to leave a few years later, and immediately enlisted in the Army. His military career was curtailed in 1956 following an incident when he was caught trying to borrow a car during a night on the town. Next, he spent his time in research at Reading University. He met Claire at a party in 1957, and on 5th October that year, they were married. Their first son soon followed. Crowhurst took on a series of jobs for electronics companies, but his ambition was to set up his own business, Electron Utilisation, to sell his own inventions, including the Navicator, a hand-held position finding device. Around this time, he bought his first boat.
In 1962, Crowhurst's mother, suffering from depression, swallowed a handful of sleeping pills in front of her son. She recovered, but lived from then on in a series of hospitals and rest-homes. She allowed Crowhurst to sell her house, and he used the money to launch his company. It started out well, but after a while, Electron Utilisation started to falter.
He persuaded a Taunton businessman, Stanley Best, to back him financially.
In May 1967, Francis Chichester, who Crowhurst admired, completed the first solo circumnavigation of the Earth. Crowhurst did not attend the national celebrations, but he stated his plan to sail non-stop around the world, as Chichester had spent time in Australia during his voyage. A number of hopeful sailors were now coming forward with the same ambition as Crowhurst. In early 1968, the Sunday Times became interested, and the Golden Globe race was conceived.
As there was not a set start date, there were two prizes, one for the first home, and one for the fastest voyage. The final date for a competitor to start, though, was set as the 31st October, so the sailors would not be facing the Southern Ocean at its most violent time of year.
Crowhurst now needed a boat. Stanley Best was pulling his funding from Electron Utilisation, but Crowhurst talked him into putting money towards the construction of a new trimaran. Boatyards in Norfolk and Essex were chosen for the job. Former crime writer Rodney Hallworth also came on board as public relations officer. He helped Crowhurst choose the name for his boat, Teignmouth Electron, to garner local support in the town from which he was to sail. The boat was launched from Norfolk on 23rd September, but there were problems from the outset. Time was short, and so were tempers. The journey round the coast finally started on 2nd October, but a three day journey took 3 weeks. The boat did not perform to expectations, especially into the wind. He finally reached Teignmouth on 15th October.
By the deadline for departure, the boat was still missing important equipment. The navigation computer that Crowhurst had been working on was little more than a tangle of unconnected wires, and the sails had been incorrectly fitted, but with hours to spare, he sailed across the harbour bar. He was immediately faced with more problems. He could not get his radio to work, and the self-steering system was losing screws at an alarming rate; then he discovered that the left float was leaking. He was sailing into headwinds so progress was very disappointing. On 13th November, he discovered that the hatch protecting the generator was also letting in water, threatening the highly sensitive equipment beneath. A boat in this state would never be able to handle the stormy southern seas.
From this point on, Crowhurst began to keep two records of his voyage, one log book containing his true progress, and one containing a fictitious account. He sent messages home claiming record-breaking distances travelled in a day, which found themselves into the national press. While the Trade Winds had certainly accelerated his progress, his claims were excessive.
By 12th December, he found himself struggling in the windless Doldrums, although according to his reports he was racing down the coast of Brazil. His starboard float was now also damaged. The race rules prohibited outside assistance, but in the rush of his preparations, Crowhurst had not taken on board the necessary supplies to carry out a repair. Across the Equator, he sailed gently down the coast of South America while he pondered his options, and then, in early February 1969, he drifted towards land. On 6th March, he dropped anchor at Rio Salado, a small Argentinean community. Coastguards came out to him, and, in setting foot on the Teignmouth Electron, officially disqualified Crowhurst from the race, if the news had got back to the race officials. They towed the boat to the jetty, and Crowhurst obtained the necessary materials. His boat fixed, he accepted a meal, and set sail again the next day.
From his landfall, he headed south to get a taste of the perilous seas of the Roaring Forties, and to shoot some video footage to support his deception. He had six weeks until the time that, according to official reports, he would be rounding Cape Horn, having traversed the Southern Ocean, so he headed for the Falkland Islands. He was hoping to shoot film of waves crashing against the rocks, but as he neared the islands, the storms died down, so he had to settle for shots of sunset over the land. From here, he turned north and made contact with Rodney Hallworth after weeks of silence.
As he sailed slowly on, Crowhurst started to meditate on the nature of Man and God, and on the nature of his deception, recording the thoughts in one of his logbooks. He also became fascinated with Einstein's 'Relativity', one of the few books he had taken with him..
Meanwhile, according to calculations back in England, Crowhurst was supposed to be favourite to win the prize for the fastest voyage, most competitors having withdrawn in the course of the race. It was essentially a contest between him and Nigel Tetley.
Crowhurst spent several days sailing aimlessly in the South Atlantic, waiting for his fake self to catch up with him. Here, however, he delayed, perhaps to sabotage his chance of victory and avoid having to have his logbooks put under too close scrutiny. On 4th May, he started racing again, making quick progress at first, before hitting headwinds again. The race took yet another twist on 21st May, when Tetley sank. Crowhurst could not now avoid winning the prize if he were to complete the journey. He crossed the Equator and met the Trade Winds which blew him into the Sargasso Sea by 23rd June.
On 24th June, Crowhurst started to write his revelation. Over the next week, becalmed, he scrawled 25,000 words in one of his logbooks. Starting with a critique on 'Relativity', he progressed to a mathematical/religious philosophy. He saw life as an evolutionary stage, whereby a Man who realised the Truth could ascend to the level of the Cosmic Beings, the Mind existing without the Body, and he displayed resentment at God's concealment of this Truth for so long. On 1st July, he had completed his work. He left his findings along with the log book with his true record of the voyage and the navigational charts on which he had plotted his false route. Finally, taking his fake log book, Crowhurst stepped from the boat, to meet his destiny.