Last Voyages: The Lives and Tragic Loss of Remarkable Sailors Who Never Returned

by Nicholas Gray

Overview

Looking back at the lives and sailing careers of some of our lifetime's finest yachtsmen, this collection of eleven original, moving accounts is just as much a celebration of the good – tales of hope, achievement and courageous spirit – as it is an account of their tragic final voyages. Included are world-renowned racers, like Eric Tabarly and Rob James, highly experienced cruisers and adventurers, like Peter Tangvald and Bill Tilman, and the notoriously ill-prepared Donald Crowhurst, as well as other famous and some less well-known sailors. Starting with the sad loss of Frank Davison and Reliance in 1949, the book concludes with the amazing last voyage of Philip Walwyn in 2015 – crossing the Atlantic single-handed in his 12 Metre yacht Kate. All of the men and women described were friends with or known to the author, Nicholas Gray, who himself competed in several short-handed long distance races, where he met and raced against many of these fascinating characters. Peppered with photographs showcasing the sailors and their yachts, this is a refreshing look at those who have helped to shape this sport's history, honouring their lives and accomplishments before detailing their tragic last voyages.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781909911932
Publisher:	Fernhurst Books Limited
Publication date:	01/06/2017
Series:	Making Waves , #3
Sold by:	Bookwire
Format:	eBook
Pages:	240
Sales rank:	683,592
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Nicholas Gray has sailed all his life and owned 14 boats. He raced trimarans short-handed and has competed in the Round Britain & Ireland and Azores and Back races, winning his class in both. During this time he competed against many of the sailors featured in this book. He has worked in Merchant Banking, as a solicitor and in the petroleum industry. He has also had an interest in a sailmaking company and owned a boatyard specialising in the restoration of classic wooden boats.

Read an Excerpt

Introduction

Some years ago whilst on a climbing trip in North Wales, one member of our party said that he was giving up climbing as he knew too many people who had died on the mountains.

I mulled this over during the rest of that weekend. Whilst I had never climbed outside the United Kingdom, I had met or come across several famous climbers in the hills of Scotland and North Wales and I knew that some of them were no longer with us. This was perhaps inevitable as, with every passing year, climbers were taking more and more risks on more and more extreme climbs in more and more severe weather.

Later, lying comfortably in my sleeping bag with rain hammering on the tent and a cold wind swirling around outside, my thoughts turned to those friends and acquaintances I knew in the sailing world who had been lost at sea and who had never returned from their last voyage. Some had been lost whilst alone, some had left a shocked crew behind to endeavour to continue the voyage and bring their vessel home and some had gone down with the loss of the boat and all its crew. Many of these people were household names who had achieved great success on the oceans of the world, others were merely doing what they liked best – sailing a small boat without fuss across the world’s oceans.

Soon after that trip to North Wales I decided to write about some of the sailors who I had known and who had been lost at sea. Some had been good friends. Others I had met in passing or whilst taking part in races or regattas.

I have been sailing all my life and in 1977 I first got involved in the world of fast racing multihulls. I took part in the 1978 Two Handed Round Britain and Ireland Race on a 35-foot trimaran, where I first met several of the people who feature in this book. Rob James was sailing with Chay Blyth in the monstrous trimaran Great Britain IV (which I later campaigned for a season) and I renewed a childhood friendship with Philip Walwyn who raced in his trimaran Whisky Jack, which he sold to me after the race.

Two years before that another friend, Mike McMullen, had been lost in his trimaran Three Cheers whilst taking part in the 1976 Observer Single-Handed Transatlantic Race, the OSTAR. The next year, 1977, the famous mountaineer / explorer / sailor Bill Tilman, with whom I had nearly sailed to Greenland in my university ‘gap’ year, was lost in the South Atlantic. He was on board the converted tug En Avant which disappeared, along with its entire crew, on passage to the Falkland Islands. Tilman was celebrating his 80th birthday by sailing to the South Atlantic on an expedition aiming to climb a mountain on Smith Island.

In 1979 I was the last person to see off the trimaran Bucks Fizz as it set sail to take part in that year’s ill-fated Fastnet Race. Bucks Fizz, a near sister ship to the famous Three Cheers, was owned and sailed by another friend, Richard Pendred, and he and his crew were amongst the many fatalities of that race.

The next year, 1980, the British yacht designer Angus Primrose and his boat Demon of Hamble were lost off the South East coast of the USA. A year before, I had had discussions with him about the possibility of my building a yacht to one of his designs.

Over the years I have sailed to France to take part in several of their multihull races and regattas, most noticeably the ‘Trophee des Multicoques’ held annually at La Trinité-sur-Mer in Brittany. There I met many of the illustrious Frenchmen who had developed this sport and who had achieved near ‘rock star’ status in their own country. Amongst these were Alain Colas, who was lost at sea on board his world girdling trimaran Manureva whilst taking part in one of the Route de Rhum single handed races and Eric Tabarly, the most famous of them all, who fell overboard from his beloved yacht Pen Duick in 1998 and was lost whilst sailing up the Irish Sea on passage to Scotland.

I also write about the double tragedy of Peter Tangvald, a Norwegian yachtsman whom I first met in 1959, and his son Thomas. Peter spent his whole life wandering the world’s oceans and was lost when his yacht hit a reef in the Caribbean in 1991. In 2014 his son, Thomas, was also lost at sea whilst alone on passage from French Guiana to Brazil.

I start the book with a description of the tragic first and last voyage, in 1949, of Frank and Ann Davison in their yacht Reliance, during which Frank was lost and the boat wrecked. Ann was a friend of an old aunt of mine who, many years ago now, told me about these events.

I also recount the strange last voyage of Donald Crowhurst in his trimaran Teignmouth Electron. He wandered the waters of the South Atlantic whilst pretending he was hurtling around the world via Cape Horn in pursuit of the Golden Globe Trophy for the first person to sail alone around the world non-stop. A film of this story, The Mercy, staring Colin Firth was released the day this book was published.

I end the book by describing the extraordinary life of an old childhood friend, Philip Walwyn, who tragically lost his life in 2015 only 10 miles from his destination at the end of a solo transatlantic voyage on his 12 Metre yacht Kate.

For obvious reasons there are few accounts of such last voyages. Often there have been no survivors to tell the story and such accounts as do exist are often mere conjecture. Whilst nowadays few sea passages end in disaster there is a poignancy about those that do, especially when a sailor is alone on the high seas and is overwhelmed by accident or stress of bad weather. The wide ocean can be a very lonely place, as can the narrow sea when tragedy strikes close to land at the end of a long voyage.

Table of Contents

Foreword: Sir Chay Blyth; Introduction; 1: The last voyage of Ann and Frank Davison and the loss of the Reliance (1949); 2: The strange last voyage of Donald Crowhurst and the trimaran Teignmouth Electron (1969); 3: The life and last voyage of Mike McMullen and the loss of the trimaran Three Cheers (1976); 4: The last voyage of Simon Richardson and Bill Tilman and the loss of En Avant in the South Atlantic (1977); 5: The life and loss of Alain Colas and his trimaran Manureva (1978); 6: The last voyage and loss of the trimaran Bucks Fizz and her entire crew in the Fastnet Race of 1979; 7: The life, last voyage and loss of Angus Primrose and Demon of Hamble (1980); 8: The life and last voyage of Rob James on board his trimaran Colt Cars GB (1983); 9: The life, loves and last voyages of Peter Tangvald on board L'Artemis and his son Thomas on board Oasis (1991 and 2014); 10: The life and last voyage of Eric Tabarly on board his yacht Pen Duick (1998); 11: The extraordinary life and last voyage of Philip Walwyn on board his 12 Metre yacht Kate (2015); Afterword

Editorial Reviews

"This is an unusual and absorbing book. The subject matter is not as depressing as it sounds. Nicholas Gray has succeeded in making it more of a celebration of the lives and achievements of these remarkable people. They all lived life to the full, and Last Voyages is a very fitting tribute." (Royal Cruising Club)
“Breath-taking accounts of events that led to the tragic seafaring deaths of seventeen people….in a captivating easy-to-read style, each page crammed with information and insights… a ‘must-read’ for anyone contemplating a serious sea voyage or offshore race.” (Cruising Association)
“These memoirs are just as much a celebration of the good – tales of hope, achievement and courageous spirit – as they are an account of the tragic final voyages.” (All At Sea)
“I really enjoyed Last Voyages. At first glance the subject matter might sound depressing or even morbid… The tone is calm and factual, avoiding any hint of sensationalism to be found in other books on similar themes... He is also an outstandingly good writer… In each case the author tells us first about the person’s life and, in many cases, their very significant achievements in the world of sailing. Only then does he lead into the voyage which led to their death… Very highly recommended.” (Flying Fish)
“He progresses beyond an account of a voyage to a much richer character portrait, allowing the reader to share both the challenges of these ambitious voyages and what the sailor was going through. The sailors are a remarkable collection.” (Yachting Life)

From the Publisher

These memoirs are just as much a celebration of the good – tales of hope, achievement and courageous spirit – as they are an account of the tragic final voyages.

All At Sea

"He progresses beyond an account of a voyage to a much richer character portrait, allowing the reader to share both the challenges of these ambitious voyages and what the sailor was going through. The sailors are a remarkable collection."

Yachting Life

"An unusual and absorbing book."

Royal Cruising Club