"Donald Crowhurst sailed over the horizon and into oblivion..."
Watching Donald Crowhurst's sad demise in ‘Deep Water’ brought to mind memories of the 1969 Sydney Pollack film “They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?”. In both films (one fiction, one documentary) desperate people hope to solve their problems through the winning of a publicly viewed contest. Once on the treadmill they were unable to get off even though they surely realized that staying the course could only lead to self-destruction.
The stories of the other eight sailors who joined the London Sunday times single-handed, non stop, round the world yacht race were to me entirely different. Whatever their motivations they all appeared to have the ability to negotiate their lives and this contest with self-knowledge and the freedom of choice that comes with a relatively healthy mind. At least from what I saw Crowhurst had neither and was doomed from the start.
Most intriguing to me aside from the Crowhurst drama was the story of sailor Bernard Moitsessier and his wife Francoise. The interview with her and the footage of Bernard and Francoise revealed how different their situation was from that of Crowhurst and his family. This couple clearly made their choices with self-awareness and a grounded sense of reality.
Some quotes I found interesting:
The stories of the other eight sailors who joined the London Sunday times single-handed, non stop, round the world yacht race were to me entirely different. Whatever their motivations they all appeared to have the ability to negotiate their lives and this contest with self-knowledge and the freedom of choice that comes with a relatively healthy mind. At least from what I saw Crowhurst had neither and was doomed from the start.
Most intriguing to me aside from the Crowhurst drama was the story of sailor Bernard Moitsessier and his wife Francoise. The interview with her and the footage of Bernard and Francoise revealed how different their situation was from that of Crowhurst and his family. This couple clearly made their choices with self-awareness and a grounded sense of reality.
Some quotes I found interesting:
* “Single handed sailing has this element of deliberately risking death which makes it intriguing to people who are not running that risK themselves.” (Murray Sayles, Sunday Times)
* "This was the “start of adventure journalism. …..You were inventing the story; you were not just reporting it.” (Harold Evans, Sunday Times editor))
* “The breakthrough was the Marconi single side band radio, which was just coming onto the market in the middle sixties. Small enough to go into a yacht, it turned single handed racing into a spectator sport.” (Sunday Times journalist)
* “The thought of someone suffering, being so alone in such extraordinary solitude when he had a loving family waiting for him back home…How did this situation get so out of control?” (Daughter of Donald Crowhurst))
* “Most of us don’t have big dreams that we care about so I think it’s up to us ordinary mortals to support the ones who do have big dreams.” (Eve Tetley, wife of sailor Nigel Tetley)
* “It’s human to fail, it’s human to try and cover up your failings and he did it in a quite spectacular and disastrous way.” (Son of Donald Crowhurst)
* "Poor Crowhurst, he was caught in a kind of reality trap….offering him fame…fortune…to put temptation in peoples way, as I understand it from my religious friends, is sinful. And we put temptation in his way, innocently perhaps, but we did.” (Murray Sayles, Sunday Times)
Nine men doing the same thing for nine different reasons. What drives any of us to do what we do? And how many of us are driven enough to do what we love?
EOS, BMH, LLI (see KEY on right side)
Nine men doing the same thing for nine different reasons. What drives any of us to do what we do? And how many of us are driven enough to do what we love?
EOS, BMH, LLI (see KEY on right side)
11 comments:
HAVING BEEN A "PLEASURE BOATER" FOR MANY YEARS I CAN UNDERSTAND THE LURE OF THE SEA ND ITS DANGERS, HOWEVER, NEVER COULD I DO WHAT THESE MEN HAVE DONE. WHEN I SEE THESE TALES OF ADVENTURE ALL I FEEL IS ENVY. NOT OF THE JOURNEY ITSELF , BUT THE PASSION AND DETERMINATION TO TAKE THE JOURNEY---NO MATTER THE REASON
I know exactly how you feel Bitsie, my family had a small but comfortable sail boat when I was a kid and those are some of my favorite memories. I had my dream of living on a boat 'when i grew up' and here i am, fifty years later and of course that is not how my life turned out. So i experienced a lot of envy while watching this. But i know that i made my choices as we all do.
As to Crowhurst, it was apparent to me that he was not quite 'all there' when he made the initial descision to gamble away his family's home (and future) by making a deal that would not allow him to get out if the situation warranted it. And he was not an experienced sailor so the chances of needing to get out were high. Wow, I mean how could he have taken such a huge risk. It was not made clear or maybe i missed it, as to whether his wife knew about that deal before he left?
Thanks for reminding me just how great Documentary films can be. I tend to forget about them when making my choices of which movies to see. I'm looking forward to watching some of the others as they come up on the blog.
BMM, EOS, LEM, HAH, LLI, FAH, WWW, TTTI five seconds.
I'll be thinking twice when I get into my sea kayak this weekend......
Hello, thanks for stopping by. please feel free to use that comment I'd left on the sailing site!
I had no idea when I went to see this that it was a documentary - I'd just heard it was about Donald Crowhurst & as a sometimes sailor I knew who that was. I was somehow expecting a dramatization.
Somehow I think that what I saw was more chilling than any dramatization.
Loved that movie. I'd been familiar with the story but I thought they did such a good job of bringing it back to life. Gave me shivers and not of the me-timbers arrr variety.
With all the extreme expedition madness that seems to be so prevalent these days, I actually thought there were some really relevant lessons for today in there. Sometimes look at all the crazy people out there doing things that just don't look like fun & wonder whether any of them found themselves backed into something that on second, third or fourth thought they might really rather not do because they'd accepted sponsorship.
Once a person is somebody else's dime, seems like they might start feeling obligated.
I was stunned that there was so much actual footage of everything available to make this. Bonnie had a good point about 'extreme expedition madness'. Look at all the mountain climbing disasters.Good question Sue, did Crowhurst's wife know the actual deal her husband had made at the time? If so, How the hell could she have agreed to it? My guess is she didn't know those details.
Wow, what a story!!! LEM
Does anyone agree with me that the guy who 'gave' Crowhurst the boat should be shot? I mean, let's face it, it was this unconscionable deal that lead to the devestation of the Crowhurst family. Talk about a deal with the DEVIL!!!Not surprising that there was so little footage of him and no interviews. What a dickhead. BMM.
I couldn't have said it better myself, CRAFT. Though come to think of it, Dickhead is an UNDERSTATEMENT. Onibaba perhaps? Oh yes, that means Demon Woman. Whatever the word is for Demon Man...Bonnie has it right, the story is "chilling."
It would be interesting to have a panel of shrinks discuss this film with the focus on Lee's question,"What drives any of us to do what we do?" Certainly many of the other sailors in the race were driven by the "love" of it, but there must be all kinds of theories as to why some are so deeply driven that they will risk so much.
Great documentary Lee.
I would love to read Crowhurst's entire log, at least the "My Philosophy" part. Did he find a true spirituality, or was it just a reflection of his guilt and fear?
And the irony! Crowhurst seems to have killed himself on July 1. As the headline (Well Done Donald! Around the moon, over the earth, around the seas!) reminds us: Apollo 11 would take off 15 days later, Neil Armstrong would do his thing in less than 21 days. Another First was happening. Did Crowhurst know or even care?
And since we've been bashing Stanley Best, the investor who sponsored Crowhurst (he was also heavily invested in Crowhurst's failing business), lets give a cheer to Robin Knox-Jhonston, who gave his prize money to Crowhurst's family. Well Done Robin!
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