It says something about diverging post-war fortunes that in 1969, while America fêted Neil Armstrong, Britain was crossing its fingers for the amateur yachtsman Donald Crowhurst.
A 36-year-old father-of-four, Donald was the antithesis of a buzzcut adventurer. Brow furrowed, baggy-jumpered, he was better known in Bridgwater, Somerset, as a struggling inventor who knocked up marine navigation equipment in his shed.
Yet that April, there he was, breaking radio silence to announce that his trimaran, Teignmouth Electron, had successfully rounded Cape Horn and was steering a course for home. He didn’t know it yet, but he looked set to complete the fastest non-stop solo circumnavigation of the Earth.
A “weekend sailor” with no ocean-going experience, Donald had been an unlikely entrant in The Sunday Times’ round-the-world yacht race. But in a…
