LECTURE- "It is The MERCY" - Donald Crowhurst

SAILING AROUND THE WORLD SOLO (maybe Karen and I will do this together next time ... just the two of us)!

We heard the unbelievable story of disappearance of Donald Crowhurst. It is hard to tell if this was a story of sailing, or the sad mental breakdown of men. It is about Donald Crowhurst's tragic attempt to sail around the world single-handedly in the first race of its kind.

The Sunday Times Golden Globe sponsored the first solo non-stop round-the-world yacht race. Building on the international success of Francis Chichester’s one-stop circumnavigation in 1966-67 at the age of 65, the newspaper launched this sailing event to be the ultimate competition of skill and endurance, and open to anyone, those without the typical wealth to own a yacht but more importantly, amateurs (hmm)…

Although Sir Robin Knox-Johnston was the first person to sail solo, non-stop around the world in 1968-1969. Since then, nearly 200 people have achieved this feat, including notable record-breakers like Dame Ellen MacArthur, François Gabart, and record-setting Australian sailor Jon Sanders, who has done it eleven times.

Let’s go to the end, first. As we came to the end of the race, Robin Knox-Johnston was the first to circumnavigate the world alone. Nine sailors started but were dropping out quickly with 5 leaving due to mental stress and from not willing to take on the treacherous Southern Ocean (Drake Lake or possibly Drake Shake). The challenge was to know where everyone was located since there was no tracking at all. Another sailor, Nigel Tetley, looked as if he was going to come next and claim the prize for the fastest time (since there were different starting times and places from June to October, he did not leave first), but then his ship sank after taking in water for many hours (and was rescued). Suddenly, Donald Crowhurst, the only other competitor left in the race, was going to be fastest, and claim the Golden Globe and become a National hero (and his log books and reams of diary entries showing a collapsing mind would come under serious scrutiny…that may have been a problem).

What we learned today was that not only is solo sailing difficult from a physical standpoint but also from a mental point of view. Of course, performing the roles of a whole crew, you must be mentally alert all the time. A small change of sound on the boat might wake you up. Without anyone to talk to it is impossible to know how someone deals with emotional issues (frustration, anger, sadness, loneliness).

Donald was a sailing amateur and an inventor of maritime equipment and decided to do this race to earn the money his company needed. His trimaran, Teignmouth Electron, was not quite ready when he took off the last possible day to begin the race. He realized early on when his radio didn’t work that he was not ready and if he continued, he could die, but quitting would ruin him financially (he made some guarantees to sponsors with his house and business collateral).

He had the best of intentions and then either out of desperation or mental breakdown or both, the deception began. The deception ended when after weeks alone at sea he allegedly died by suicide. His guilt from his deception of hiding out, whether originally intended or not may have cause him to break. The ship was found drifting and abandoned 10 days later, with his raft and two sets of his log showing that he had made false claims (a real log and a fake one). Only thing missing was his chronometer timepiece. He had been reporting coordinates showing incredible gains in distance. His writings seemed to show his mental state was altered since there was lots of rambling. The last page contained the words: “I have no need to prolong the game”; and “It is finished – It is finished IT IS THE MERCY.”

In the end it seemed he never left the Atlantic the entire race after he realized he couldn’t possibly make it around and he just “hung out” waiting for everyone to come around and he would slip in at a later slot and just finish rather than give up. Interestingly, the Times and Knox Johnson gave Donald's family the winnings for his widow to take care of her 6 children.

His son Simon said “People can identify with a situation where they feel their options are closed and they’re led into a course of action they wouldn’t normally have anything to do with”.

If you research further (this was not in the lecture today) you find that if it was up to the family, no feature film or commercialism of any type would ever be made, because it tells the story of events that have affected them deeply, in a range of ways because it is disturbing to see the death of their father or husband portrayed. In particular, as his son said, “the way my father’s thoughts became very confused.”. Two books written about Robyn Knox-Johnson and Donald Crowhurst are: “A Voyage for Madman” and “The Mercy” and “The Long Way”. There have been books, documentaries, an art installation, an opera, and a feature film The Mercy, starring Colin Firth as Crowhurst.

In 2018 after 50 years, the events of 1968 continued to haunt and inspire the world’s imagination. So the race was restarted but once again with no modern satellite technology for navigation (use sextants). All are tracked 24/7 by satellite, but competitors are not be able to use this except in an emergency (breaking open their sealed safety box containing a GPS and satellite phone). Also, unlike the original race, entrants must show prior ocean sailing experience of at least 8,000 miles and another 2,000 miles solo. The race continued in 2018, 2022 (by 40-year-old Kirsten Neuschafer won as the first woman winner) and now in 2026.Baca selengkapnya