Madness at Sea: A Horrifying True Story

this is the story of a sailboat race but more precisely it is the story of ambition gone horribly horribly wrong of a regular everyday man who had dreams grander than himself and indeed grander than his ability this is the story of donald crowhurst it was the 1960s world war ii had come and gone jacques cousteau's underwater exploits had crossed into the mainstream there was beatlemania the space race and sexual freedom it was a global era of imagination ambition and exploration sir francis charles chichester was proof of that in 1966 the english businessman sailor and aviator sailed from plymouth in the united kingdom all the way around the world by himself and that had become a big deal an international phenomenon even when he arrived back in the uk the streets were lined with thousands of people to greet him there was a parade celebrating his accomplishment perhaps unsurprisingly chichester had only got the ball rolling people began to ask what was next what could be bigger and better the sunday times newspaper had purchased the rights to promote chichester's journey very cheaply many other news outlets had passed on the event thinking that people wouldn't really care that much those outlets had been wrong and the sunday times made a whole lot of money on a very small investment so they wanted to dip back into that well they wanted to do something else involving a sailboat excursion but the newspaper had to up the ante chichester had stopped halfway through his trip he'd made port and australia to do some very serious maintenance on his boat this basically turned the journey into a two-legged affair and so the conclusion was simple to outdo chichester mankind would need to make a non-stop single-handed sailboat journey around the world the idea of a sailboat race was even more obvious considering that the paper's newly promoted editor had covered chichester's journey so the sunday times created the golden globe a non-stop single-handed race around the world in a sailboat [Music] the race would start in england and begin south through the atlantic this would be the easy part of the journey these waters were generally accepted as easygoing and enjoyable enough for sailors of a certain pedigree but once you got down to the cape of good hope things got much more difficult at that point you were in the roaring 40s these are strong westerly winds found in the southern hemisphere generally between the latitudes of 40 degrees south and 50 degrees south hence the name skilled sailors know how to use these winds to make their boats go a lot faster but these winds also create what is basically an endless inescapable band of terrible stormy seas if you manage to get past the roaring 40s you go thousands of miles past australia until you get to cape horn cape horn is the most dangerous place to sail in the entire world it has claimed more lives than any other sea route intense winds 100 foot rogue waves and brutal currents all make the area incredibly treacherous even professional sailors today with all their high-tech gizmos and gadgets still fear cape horn so you can imagine that 50 or 60 years ago it was a nearly unthinkable route if by some miracle you then made it past cape horn well you were on the home stretch only a few thousand miles more into the north atlantic and you were basically home there was no evidence that a boat could do this route without stopping you would need a vessel small enough to be crewed by one man but strong enough to sail around the world without repairs elite sailors and engineers both agreed that such a boat simply didn't exist there's also no evidence that a human could do it psychiatrists at the time weighed in and they all agreed that a person would simply go insane if they attempted the race after all it was 10 months of intense loneliness and not just hanging out on a boat loneliness the sailors would need to be dialed in and focused for virtually all of the trip sailing is hard work the extraordinary nature of this race meant it called for a very unique rule set you would leave whenever you wanted technically but if you wanted to have any chance of avoiding the worst winter storms you would need to get underway by october 31st you were not allowed any crew members nor assistants of any kind could not stop at any ports first person to finish would win the golden globe trophy however the fastest man to do it would get the grand prize of 5 000 pounds or about 70 000 us dollars in today's money one problem was that many sailors around the world were already planning solo round-the-world journeys that summer they'd been inspired by chichester and really had nothing to do with the sunday times race so the time said that any man in the world who completed that route that summer would automatically be eligible for the golden globe trophy it was a way to kind of artificially drum up entrance into the event if you happen to be sailing around the world you were in the race but this meant that the sunday times couldn't really vet all of their sailors one of the most serious competitors was a frenchman named bernard matissier motissier wasn't just highly experienced he had been sailing since he was a child he'd sailed through monsoons in the south pacific he'd been from the caribbean to france without any type of modern instrumentation matissier had also done much of these adventures in a boat he built himself like almost anyone else who would do the race motissier's motivations were simple he just wanted to prove that he could he loved sailing the frenchman actually rejected the idea of the competition as a commercial enterprise for him it was a spiritual experience money made it possible but he had no interest in prizes or recognition in fact before starting the race motissier said that any man in the race for fame or money would inevitably fail another entrant was robin knox johnston he was a former navy sailor having served in the royal navy and the merchant navy knox johnston had sailed from bombay to england in the same boat that he'd be using for the golden globe as far as sailors went he was the real deal a force to be reckoned with in total nine men entered the race despite the sunday times not being able to vet them properly they were world world-class sailors men who had lived and worked aboard sailboats for their entire lives well all of them except one donald crowhurst was a remarkable entrant in that he was a wholly unremarkable man he was just a guy he had a family he was an engineer by trade don sailed on the weekend but he was leagues away from being a professional sailor rather he had a business selling navigational devices for boats and airplanes they didn't sell very well and the business wasn't very profitable but it fed donald his wife and their four children that was it though as far as donald could tell that was going to be it he was approaching 40 and his life had been entirely unnoteworthy and that frustrated donald he felt that he had genuine talent and something to offer the world something that his life was not allowing him to utilize donald had a huge admiration for men like chichester men who had achieved grand things on grand scales and who had been recognized for their achievements these men had accomplished feats that everyone could see and that they would be remembered for donald had a vision for himself a vision to be one of these men but he just wasn't so when the chance to enter the golden globe came around donald knew it was his shot it was an opportunity that a man could either take or live the rest of his life wondering what if he'd taken the golden globe race had grabbed him and would not let go this was his chance of course there were problems first racing around the world was an expensive endeavor and donald didn't really have any money quite the opposite he had a failing company and an investor in that company who wanted his loan repaid that man was named stanley best donald was a pretty charismatic guy he was intelligent and knew how to handle adversity generally speaking so donald and stanley made a deal making this deal happen might have been the greatest achievement of donald's life so far donald told stanley that winning the golden globe would be the best chance he had to repay the loan he convinced stanley that as an engineer he could build a boat that was super fast and super safe stanley agreed to finance donald's boat and entry into the race on one condition if donald did not finish he was obligated to buy the sailboat back from stanley so for stanley it was a win-win he would either get paid off the winnings or get paid off donald not finishing for donald it was a high pressure bet in reality he could not afford to buy the boat back he had no savings and he had already taken out a second mortgage on his home if donald didn't finish the race he'd be bankrupt and financially ruined donald was genuinely gambling everything on this race and on himself the race deadline october 31st was only 5 months away so the competitors were outfitting and customizing their boats to suit the event construction was well underway but donald didn't even have a boat to outfit so he had to start from scratch his boat would need to be custom built as an engineer donald had all kinds of ideas about how to make the perfect boat he really did have a grand vision he believed that he could win the race he would build an innovative boat unlike any other this would give donald the upper hand and make up for what he lacked in seamanship with his engineering background donald knew how to incorporate the latest and greatest technology to make his boat faster and safer it was a reasonable if not optimistic idea in theory as construction started on the boat the other sailors got underway and in the days that followed as donald's boat was being constructed a feeding frenzy began to start rodney hallworth was a press agent and a serial money maker he was basically a hustler when he learned of donald halworth saw the potential to make a whole lot of money donald crowhurst was the hometown hero he was a charismatic unlikely competitor from england it was a great story and donald was a great person to sell to the public donald was originally going to set off from a town called paisons but rodney recognized that paisance didn't have the facilities hotels docks newspapers to accommodate the pr spectacle that he wanted to create rodney wanted to make a show so rodney convinced donald to start from ten method another town about 120 miles further back the distance added to donald's route would be negligible in the grand scheme of the journey so donald sailed from paisants to tenmuth as his maiden voyage to test his boat and to get the public excited that trip should have been three days long because of donald's inexperience and the boat not really being finished it took two weeks by this time the national media was watching donald crowhurst the situation was frankly embarrassing for rodney hallworth it became clear that donald was not a sailor hallworth learned that donald had done some weekend sailing here and there and could manage a small boat but he was not a sailor by this time though the public was rooting for him rodney had whipped everyone into a frenzy the machine had gotten going donald was the hometown hero and everyone wanted him to succeed so the show had to go on but donald was weeks behind schedule the boat was not finished it was not ready to sail the tech the tech that donald insisted would set him apart from the pack was missing altogether the safety features that donald had promised would complete the journey for him had not been installed yet even the men building donald's boat implored him to quit saying the entire idea and the boat itself was absolutely ridiculous nothing was in order for donald's journey and people would later describe the situation at this time as complete chaos day by day donald was getting increasingly rattled and increasingly anxious donald went to lunch with his wife the day before leaving tinmith during the lunch he was shaking uncontrollably and repeated himself over and over that it isn't ready the boat isn't ready later that night donald was sitting in bed with his wife he told her that he was disappointed with the boat donald asked her if she would be sick with worry if he set off in response his wife asked if he would live the rest of his life regretting his decision not to go donald did not respond instead he immediately broke down into tears and spent most of the night weeping in bed his wife would later realize that this was donald asking her to stop him pleading for her to give him a reason to stay but it was the last day before the october 31st deadline his investor had backed the entire enterprise rodney hallworth had whipped the media into a frenzy over donald crowhurst if he didn't go crowhurst would face public ridicule embarrassment and financial ruin but most of all what would become of donald in his own eyes this was his chance for greatness how could he not even try so the next day crowhurst got into his not quite finished trimaran as hundreds of excited spectators looked on the 36 year old engineer wearing a tie set off to sail around the world two weeks behind schedule near moments after crowhurst set off in front of thousands his ship failed a piece of equipment at the top of his mast had simply broken after some delay as donald fixed the sale he got underway in earnest donald's family and the adoring spectators watched his boat disappear over the horizon there was no gps no satellite tracking there was hardly even weather forecasting so as his boat crossed the horizon it truly disappeared by the time donald started the race from kenmoth he was two weeks behind schedule the other boats were far far ahead of him it seemed impossible that he would have any hope of finishing the race the fastest and by this time the stakes had already become immensely clear two of the other sailors had already been knocked out of the race by stormy seas around south africa [Music] in early november donald had been at sea for two weeks hallworth had given him a video camera to record his thoughts and experiences in these videos crowhurst appeared calm and confident he discussed how time alone at sea would be a great indicator of a man's character he meditated on his situation and he waxed poetic about the greatness of the journey itself but his logbooks reveal a man with significantly less confidence indeed it seems things were going horribly wrong right from the start november 5th hell of a morning i was feeling pleased with myself but then i noticed bubbles from the forward hatch the boat's compartment was full of water november 7th more screws have fallen out of the self-steering gear that's four gone now the cockpit has been leaking and has flooded the engine compartment and electrics this boat is falling to pieces donald's logbook revealed that just a few weeks into the race he had no working electronics no viable radio no way of telling the time and no type of lighting for night time his boat was leaking in one spot 30 gallons per day the cockpit meanwhile was letting in 75 gallons per night donald also discovered that his sails were not cut to the correct size he was only a few weeks into the journey and his boat was sinking while in the calm waters of the north atlantic he could bail water out of the yacht with a bucket but donald was headed south towards the heaviest seas in the world there he knew the boat would sink and he would probably die the idea of sailing around the world had been magnificent it would be a life's achievement a generational achievement donald saw it as a great adventure that would be celebrated for years to come but the reality was beginning to set in and the reality was not as magnificent as the picture he painted in his head donald began to have doubts his logbook reveals that he put his odds of survival at about 50 50. he was a smart man and he knew that it would be tough but if the seas were kind enough he may have stood a chance in the southern ocean and then news arrived to donald on the state of that ocean it was worse than anyone had predicted three sailors had quit the race one capsized one with a stress-induced stomach ulcer and the third dropped out after barely surviving 27 straight days of horrific weather already there were just four sailors remaining in the race donald relayed reports of his progress and position via morris code he was averaging 60 miles per day which was half the speed of the racist leader matissier donald's boat continued to sink and he continued to bail water out with a bucket there was no question if donald kept going in the race he would die but an immense amount of money had been invested in his journey if he bowed out he and his family would be financially ruined forever in addition dropping out meant he'd face embarrassment on a national level dead or ruined those were his two options donald began to wonder if he could himself create a third choice the next day donald reported that he was sailing at record speeds he'd gone from 60 miles a day to 243. the home crowd crowhurst's family included was reinvigorated with belief donald's reported position by mid-december was approaching the cape of good hope at this pace he was a contender for the fastest competitor it was tremendously exciting but it was also a lie donald crowhurst was reporting false positions he was telling england that he was hundreds of miles further along than his actual location he knew that should he finish judges would verify his journey through his logbooks so he was charting his actual positions for legitimate navigation in one logbook and fictional positions for reporting and another it seemed like a decent enough plan the idea was that he could give his family and the public and himself something to be proud of he would exaggerate his position for a while and then retire from the race with some pride intact for weeks he continued to send back these false reports of his position in the race but donald didn't realize that he had laid a trap for himself as he continued to report false locations his reported position became further and further from his actual position so if donald retired from the race to a port in say brazil when his boat was supposed to be off the coast of india he'd be found out immediately so what now donald could not go home he could not retire from the race and most certainly of all he could not go forward his boat was still taking in water the remaining sailors were now nearing cape horn donald's reported position put him off the coast of madagascar spectators back home including his family all believed donald to be firmly in the race they thought he was gaining ground quickly on the other sailors of course he was not his actual position was near the coast of brazil in two months the race route would take the other sailors around cape horn and they would arrive at donald's real position rather than be found out donald decided he could simply slip in behind them rejoin the race and sail home so for two months he would wait and drift about at sea he stopped all radio communication telling england that he was having trouble with his equipment but there was another issue one that donald could have never anticipated because he never sailed in this capacity he was now entirely alone and would be for the foreseeable future there was no direction no goal even just him drifting by himself with water as far as the eye could see the human mind does not cope well with isolation when faced with this circumstance prospect of mind breaking is a matter of when not if donald had a ticking time bomb on his hands and it was his own mind sure enough donald's log entries soon became more philosophical and abstract some may even say nonsensical the rigging sighs a sigh of cosmic sorrow for weeping doves that die maybe tomorrow on 12.7 by 10 to the five irradiated olive trees aside to fill man's soul with melancholy waves sweep away my melancholy not more than a couple of weeks later the whole of donald's boat split fractured right in two pieces this doomed the boat to a certain near immediate death donald needed help desperately the boat would not stay afloat like this for another couple months but if crowhurst radioed for help his transmitter would give away his true position the ruse would be discovered so in desperation donald sailed to a small naval outpost on the coast of argentina the naval officer who he met would later recall crowhurst looking emaciated distraught and nervous this was an interesting and revealing moment for donald it represented one last chance to come clean to get back to the safety of land the argentinians welcomed him with kindness and were more than happy to help repair his boat at this point donald could have simply said nope that's enough of the lie people are good everything will be okay i'm not going back out to sea but instead he set sail for the south atlantic once again donald did not just passively sit around in his lie but he actively chose to rejoin it he made the clear intentional decision to get back to this charade and so donald crowhurst continued to drift off the coast of brazil interestingly stopping in argentina probably made things much more difficult for donald chichester and robin knox johnston famously agreed that stopping halfway through a circumnavigation made it easier from a logistical standpoint you could resupply and refit your boat but the two sailors noted that it made the journey much more psychologically difficult being at sea you eventually became accustomed to life alone on the ocean it became tolerable you just didn't know anything else but when donald stopped in argentina he was reminded of regular life this would reinvigorate his sense of complete hopeless loneliness as donald would soon find out that was the last thing he needed it would only be a few days until the other sailors arrived at crowhurst's actual position he'd have to determine when and where to rejoin the race and when to break his radio silence most importantly crowhurst would need to falsify the charting for a trip around the world because again once he got back to england the judges would want to verify his journey by looking at his logbooks even for an engineer formally educated this was an incredibly difficult task donald would need to falsify a position for every single day that he was supposed to be at sea it was an incredibly huge task one that would have been easy to mess up indeed in some way these fake positions were probably the most impressive part of donald's trip to accurately chart these positions required extremely advanced mathematical and navigational skills many sailors would even argue that faking this journey is cognitively more difficult than actually doing it so donald decided he'd just come in quietly near the back of the pack he wouldn't win the race none of the judges would care to see the fourth place sailor's logbook he'd just be a runner-up so donald would likely avoid any significant scrutiny what's more he could rejoin the race significantly behind the other sailors so they would never actually see his boat in the south atlantic donald broke his radio silence and contacted england his family was overjoyed at the news after weeks and weeks they finally heard from donald he was safe and alive and he was coming home most excitingly he was still in the race he was fourth behind nigel tetley bernard matissier and robin knox johnston and then the frenchman turned around and began heading south he wanted to sail around the world again he told his family that he was content at sea and that he'd found himself so matissier bowed out of the race and just kept sailing describe the feeling as both simple and unexplainable it would be easy to chalk this up to loneliness driven insanity but leticia's logbooks indicate a perfectly stable sane state of mind the truth was motissier had an intense hatred for the modern commerce driven world further he thought the idea of sailing in a formal competition were basically incompatible he was disgusted by the whole thing and he rejected the race completely there were now three sailors left with donald in third place robin knox johnston finished the race shortly after earning himself the golden globe trophy as the first man to complete the trip that left nigel tetley and don crowhurst to battle it out it was all eyes on these two men whoever won would become the most famous man in england of course donald had no plans on beating tetley his plan was to finish behind ted lee so crowhurst telegramed his family and his press agent saying there was no chance of catching tetley and that he'd finished third crowd at home was disappointed but they were still immensely proud of their hometown hero as far as they knew he'd gone through some of the harshest seas on earth and managed to complete the race all in all it was a remarkable feat but then the unthinkable happened tetley sunk he pushed his boat too hard in pursuit of the best time and his boat sunk the man was rescued but he was out of the race and according to donald's reported progress crowhurst himself had sailed much faster than knox johnston so donald would win by default there would be no quiet entry into port and no fading away without judges looking at his logs instead every day of his charting would be scrutinized by navigators and race judges there would be a press conference upon his arrival reporters from all over the world would have questions about his journey they would want to know every last detail of every day as it was planned a hundred thousand people would be waiting to greet donald when he arrived at port it was going to be a big deal donald crowhurst was a smart man he knew that it would be impossible to keep up the sharad through all of this attention the truth would come out one way or another there had been a time on donald's voyage when he had the choice between humiliation and bankruptcy but now in a cruel trick of the universe donald crowhurst was doomed to both crowhurst tried desperately multiple times to contact his wife after being alone for so long donald needed to talk to her he knew that no matter what he said she would be there to aid and support him but now his radio transmitter was genuinely failing he could not contact her crowhurst now faced a horrific bizarre and cruel situation he'd set out on this journey to become a hero crowhurst wanted to achieve something truly grand and he wanted the world to know it and now a hundred thousand people and over a thousand reporters from around the world would be waiting to give him a hero's welcome the entire country was elated at his accomplishment he had achieved all that he wanted but it was all a lie crow hurst for all his intelligence had no idea what to do so he turned his boat around he began to drift west towards the sargasso sea it was at this point that donald's mind began to turn it's hard to say what happened exactly to donald's mind at this point the decision to falsify his documents and his increasingly scatter brained journal seemed to indicate that he was already reaching a precipice that donald's mind was already somewhat troubled by this point troubled but still sane but as he grappled with his options donald was no longer able to cope all of the roads that crowhurst could see for himself led to the same destination financial ruin and public embarrassment donald took out a journal and began writing something called his philosophy by the time he was done crowhurst would have written 25 000 words of something that seemed to be equal parts manifesto nonsense and religious text much of this writing is simply too mathematical and incoherent to even comprehend so we left to pick out what we can and piece together what was happening in crowhurst's mind throughout these writings there are suggestions that donald was a god or could be a god and he discusses integrating his mind with the gods or the cosmos [Music] mathematics is the language of god however possesses more poetry than abstract validity restated as perhaps mathematics is the only certain ground today man occupies in the kingdom of god more revealing than the words themselves are the nature in which they are written scrawled quickly heavily redacted and annotated jumbled and scrambled these writings are quite revealing as to donald's mindset they feel at times like the nonsensical ramblings of a madman and others they are an intimate disturbing picture of a man who has resigned himself to defeat in its most ultimate form cosmic beings are playing games with us each man plays cosmic chess against the devil god is playing with one set of rules and the devil with another there is no good or evil only the truth donald concludes the whole ordeal the whole race had been one big game between him and the cosmos from the very start one that was only now in his madness being revealed to him concealment it is a small sin for a man to commit but it is a terrible sin for a cosmic being donald's writing scrambled and rambling though they are seem to be directed towards the devil as donald himself concedes that he's lost this cosmic game i am what i am and i see the nature of my offense i will only resign this game if you agree that of the next time it is played it is played according to the rules devised by god who has revealed at last to his son not only the exact nature of the reason for games but has also revealed the truth the way of the ending of the next game that it is finished it is finished it is the mercy as donald continued to write his journal becomes riddled with spelling and grammatical errors errors that an educated man just wouldn't really make his writings became fragments of sentences of thoughts and even obscenities spilled onto a page without regard 10 14 30 my folly gone forward in imagination wrong decision not perfect time no longer computed had disorganized his clocks 10 15 40 clocks there is no need to worry about time plus or minus but only elapsed time plus or minus may be meaningless important reason for work is lost understand 11 15 it is the end of my game and it will be by done as my family require me to do it 11 17 it is the time for your move to begin i have not need to prolong the game it has been a good game that must be ended at the i will play the game when i choose i will resign the game 11 20 40. there is no reason for harmful crowhurst's boat was recovered but his body was never found the captain of the ship that discovered crowhurst's boat later met with rodney hallworth the press agent the captain gave hallworth the log books he'd found aboard crow hurst trimaran the two men agreed that no one should ever read these logs and that no one should ever know what happened during crowhurst's final days but by that time holworth had already sold the books to a london newspaper donald crowhurst was not a cheat a liar or a con man he was an engineer with a family and with a dream he was a man aiming to achieve something great who just got lost along the way you

Channel: Horses

Views: 1,434,886

Keywords:

Id: zhpYCxiI-4U

Length: 37min 18sec (2238 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 07 2022