Donald Crowhurst

November 17, 2011 9:14 PM

Donald Crowhurst (1932–1969) was a British businessman and amateur sailor who died while competing in the Sunday Times Golden Globe Race, a single-handed, round-the-world yacht race. Crowhurst had entered the race in hopes of winning a cash prize from The Sunday Times to aid his failing business. Instead, he encountered difficulty early in the voyage, and secretly abandoned the race while reporting false positions, in an attempt to appear to complete a circumnavigation without actually circling the world. Evidence found after his disappearance indicates that this attempt ended in insanity and suicide. (previously: 1, 2)
posted by Trurl (11 comments total)

deep water is in my top ten movies all time. though, spoiler alert! j/k although I do think the impact of the movie was greater not knowing what was gonna happen. but good movie regardless.
posted by jcruelty at 9:30 PM on November 17, 2011 [1 favorite]

There's also the book The Strange Last Voyage of Donald Crowhurst
posted by stbalbach at 9:50 PM on November 17, 2011

"Deep Water" is streaming on Netflix. It really is a good film.
posted by twoleftfeet at 10:44 PM on November 17, 2011 [2 favorites]

wow. Kinda puts some perspective on things.
posted by Xoebe at 11:33 PM on November 17, 2011

nth-ing the brilliance of 'Deep Water' - kind of a drag to have the FPP SPOILERS; I had no idea about this story when I started watching the doc and was hammered by the events as they unfolded in the film.
posted by victors at 5:25 AM on November 18, 2011

about his boat previously.
posted by scruss at 6:58 AM on November 18, 2011

Cover-ups within cover-ups, my friends. This is what really happened.
posted by Zed at 10:05 AM on November 18, 2011

A Voyage for Madmen is a good book about the race in general, including Crowhurst's part in it.

Also, here's the remnants of his trimaran.
posted by rmd1023 at 1:46 PM on November 18, 2011 [1 favorite]

Also, there was an opera based on his story.
posted by rmd1023 at 1:47 PM on November 18, 2011 [1 favorite]

Also the novel Outerbridge Reach by Robert Stone is loosely based on the Crowhurst story.
posted by canoehead at 3:00 PM on November 18, 2011 [1 favorite]

Also also The Terrible Privacy of Maxwell Sim is loosely loosely based on the Crowhurst story.
posted by Creosote at 6:08 PM on November 18, 2011