Donald Crowhurst

Donald Charles Alfred Crowhurst (1932 – July 1969) was a British electronics engineer, businessman, and amateur sailor who disappeared while competing in the Sunday Times Golden Globe Race, a single-handed, round-the-world yacht race held in 1968–1969. He secretly abandoned the race some weeks or months after departing, remaining in the Atlantic Ocean for seven months while reporting false positions. Contemporary reporting focused on his fraudulent reports and emphasised his actions as a hoaxer or "con man". However, with the passage of time, his story has tended to be reappraised as more of a maritime tragedy that, according to one recent author, "raises essential questions about the ethics of competition, solitude at sea and the psychological limits of sailors". Crowhurst's participation in the race, together with its ultimately tragic end, has exerted a fascination over many commentators and artists. It has inspired a number of books, stage plays and films, including a documentary, Deep Water (2006), and two feature films, Crowhurst and The Mercy (both 2017), in which Crowhurst is played by the actors Justin Salinger and Colin Firth, respectively. Teignmouth Electron ended its days as a dive boat in the Caribbean and its decaying remains can still be found in the dunes above a beach in the Cayman Islands.