Nicholas Tomalin

In early 1968, desperate entrepreneur Donald Crowhurst was trying to sell a nautical navigation device he had developed when he saw that the Sunday Times would be sponsoring the Golden Globe Race, the first ever solo, round-the-world sailing competition. An avid amateur sailor, Crowhurst sensed a marketing opportunity and shocked the world by entering the competition using an untested trimaran of his own design. Shock soon turned to amazement when he quickly took the lead, checking in by radio message from locations far ahead of his seasoned competitors.But on July 10, 1969, roughly eight months after he had sailed from England--and less than two weeks from his expected triumphant return--his wife was informed that his boat, the Teignmouth Electron, had been discovered drifting quietly, abandoned in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. Crowhurst was missing, assumed drowned. How did he come to such an end when his race had begun with such incredible promise?In this masterpiece of investigative journalism, Nicholas Tomalin and Ron Hall reconstruct one of the greatest modern stories of one man's descent into self-delusion, public deception, and madness. Based on in-depth interviews with Crowhurst's family and friends, combined with gripping excerpts from his logbooks that revealed (among other things) he had been falsifying his locations all along, Tomalin and Hall paint an unforgettable, haunting portrait of a complex, deeply troubled man and his final fateful journey.

In 1968 besloot Donald Crowhurst mee te doen aan de allereerste solozeilrace rond de wereld. Afgaand op zijn enthousiaste radioberichten dacht iedereen in Engeland dat hij zou winnen. Het land maakte zich al op voor een heldenontvangst. Maar acht maanden na zijn vertrek werd zijn boot gevonden, midden op de Atlantische Oceaan, zonder Crowhurst aan boord. Van hem is nooit meer iets vernomen.In 'De wonderbaarlijke laatste reis' van Donald Crowhurst reconstrueren Nicholas Tomalin en Ron Hall deze fatale tocht over de oceaan. Op basis van de logboeken aan boord en vele gesprekken met Crowhursts familie en vrienden ontdekken ze hoe hij iedereen om de tuin wist te leiden. De stoere oceaanzeiler die velen in Crowhurst zagen, bleek een eersteklas oplichter en fantast.'Een van de meest bijzondere verhalen over de zee die ooit zijn geschreven.' - Washington Post / 'Een virtuoze weergave van de anatomie van de ziel.' - New York Times Book Review / 'Het zeedrama van de eeuw.' - Sir Francis Chichester

Sailor's Classics Three-book bundle The Sailor's Classics library introduces a new generation of readers to the best books ever written about small boats under sail. These three books in the collection reveal ins and outs of incredible voyages—the men who made them, the dangers they faced, and the amazing feats they accomplished as they pursued that dream to conquer the ocean. This limited-time offer includes the titles Strange Last Voyage of Donald Crowhurst, Gipsy Moth Circles the World, and Saga of Cimba.