The Mercy - Donald Crowhurst

[Harry Biscuit]

A new film about Donald Crowhurst & his participation in the 1968 Sunday Times Golden Globe Race.

I caught a BBC radio programme last year called The Two Voyages of Donald Crowhurst. Both fascinating & tragic listening.

I hope this new film does his story justice.


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/films/the-mercy/ordinar...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Crowhurst

[Top Banana]

Looking forward to this, the story of Crowhurst and the 'Teignmouth Electron' is fascinating and heartbreaking at the same time

the documentary 'deep water' about the Sunday Times Golden Globe race and all the competitors including Crowhurst is well
worth a watch, but to really get into what must have been going on in his mind I would recommend a read of 'The Strange Last Voyage of Donald Crowhurst' by Nicholas Tomalin and Ron Hall..

[Eric Mc]

I read the book "The Strange Voyage of Donald Crowhurst" over 40 years ago. I also visited the small museum that used to be in Teignmouth that related his story.

A very interesting tale of what isolation can do to a person.

[DJFish]

I read his story in a yachting mag many years ago, very sad...

[Ayahuasca]

Apparently his boat is still abandoned on some Caribbean island somewhere.

[ecsrobin]

[Eric Mc]

Is the little museum in his memory still in Teignmouth?

[FindingMenno]

Yes, the remains of the boat are on Cayman Brac, one of the Cayman Islands.

I happened to be passing by on the Brac last month (I live and work on Grand Cayman), connecting flight got delayed, so had a chance to see the remains. It is pretty smashed up.

I had read the books ‘A Voyage for Mad Men' and ‘The Strange Last Voyage of Donald Crowhurst’ about two years ago, before I moved to this area, and found his story of ambition, pressure, and the descend into madness a gripping and fascinating story, one that hits you in the gut.
So it was quite special to stand between the remains of the boat where it all happened. I’m really looking forward to the film and how it shows the story.

Enclosed some pics from this January. Most taxi drivers know where to find the remains.

Edited by FindingMenno on Sunday 18th February 15:23

[ClaphamGT3]

A sad story indeed.

I always think that Robin Knox-Johnston's actions have never really been recognised for the generousity and good-sportsmanship they were, given that £5,000 was a great deal of money in 1969 and Robin was hardly a rich man at the time.

[NickCQ]

I saw the film the other day having been familiar with the story since I was a kid - brought up on a diet of Chichester's books and the Strange Voyage of Donald Crowhurst.

The acting is really great, as you'd expect from Firth/Weisz, but they could have spent a bit more time focusing on the nautical things for those of us sadacts that care about that sort of thing. Particularly anachronistic was seeing '1960s' Teignmouth harbour replete with a modern carbon fibre-masted light displacement racing yacht as well as hundreds of cabin cruisers in the background. As well as a 'storm' sequence where the sea state looked like no more than a F3-4 Solent chop!

[DJFish]

Another bearable boaty film is All is Lost, Robert Redford doesn't adhere to Rule 5 and hilarity ensues.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2017038/
Plenty of inconsistencies but not too bad as far as these things go.

[Flying Phil]

Sad to see those current pictures of the boat....But the film was also sad.

[Ayahuasca]

I read 'A Voyage for Madmen' a while ago too. Crowhurst was by no means the only one with issues: Bernard Moitessier, almost certain to win, chose not to finish but to do another lap of the world... Chay Blythe, zero sailing experience, learned to sail as he went along...

[Dr Jekyll]

Ayahuasca said:

I read 'A Voyage for Madmen' a while ago too. Crowhurst was by no means the only one with issues: Bernard Moitessier, almost certain to win, chose not to finish but to do another lap of the world... Chay Blythe, zero sailing experience, learned to sail as he went along...

I think only Moitessier and Knox Johnson had the kind of experience you'd expect for this kind of exercise. As it turned out the sailing was the easy bit, the real challenge was preventing the boat falling to bits around you.

[Ayahuasca]

Dr Jekyll said:

Ayahuasca said:

I read 'A Voyage for Madmen' a while ago too. Crowhurst was by no means the only one with issues: Bernard Moitessier, almost certain to win, chose not to finish but to do another lap of the world... Chay Blythe, zero sailing experience, learned to sail as he went along...

I think only Moitessier and Knox Johnson had the kind of experience you'd expect for this kind of exercise. As it turned out the sailing was the easy bit, the real challenge was preventing the boat falling to bits around you.

R K-J was a bit of a loony too - during the race he would dive off the bowsprit, effectively abandoning the boat, then swim as hard as he could to the stern to climb back aboard. One slip, one miscalculation, one gust of wind, and he was dead.

[Dr Jekyll]

Just got back from seeing this, excellent. The way Crowhurst cracked up and started wittering about cosmic beings would have seemed far fetched if I hadn't known he'd done exactly that and more, and I can understand anyone not familiar with the story finding the ending a bit lame. The film does make 1968 look very old fashioned, more like the 1950s in some ways.
Colin Firth does look uncannily like Donald Crowhurst despite being 20 years older. Not sure what Mrs Crowhurst looked like but Rachel Weisz does a terrific job, and looks amazing for 47.

I would have really liked to know how his mast top flotation bag was supposed to work. Apparently the idea was that in the event of a capsize it would be inflated automatically from a CO2 canister, but how a capsize was supposed to be detected in a boat that was going to be smothered by waves and no doubt experience some negative G even when upright I don't know.

[Top Banana]

Regarding the flotation bag, Crowhurst ran an electronics company and supposedly the Teignmouth Electron was going to be a showcase for all his wonderful inventions (part of his plans for the boat involved a complex wiring system that would link various sensors and systems within the boat)

As it was, due to the cost and time restraints in getting the boat ready it sailed with most of the system not even built (Crowhurst took with him many boxes of electronics components and wires, and planned to carry on the build during the journey)

I seem to remember that the plan was to trigger the flotation bag with a series of conductivity switches / sensors mounted at the top of the mast, so it would only trigger the flotation bag if the boat was submerged...

[Condi]

His company built all the self-steering mechanism as well, which wasnt ready before the race. Really interesting and sad tale, will have to go and see the film.

[Dr Jekyll]

There is also a documentary called Deep water which covers much the same ground as the film.