The Teignmouth Electron was a 41-foot three-hulled boat built specifically for Donald Crowhurst’s attempt to sail around the world in the Golden Globe Race of 1968. After Crowhurst sent incorrect location reports, the boat became abandoned and is believed to have been involved in his death by suicide at sea. Crowhurst’s detailed journal, discovered later, recorded his journey, personal reflections, and his mental struggles. After being recovered, the boat was sold and used for different purposes, including as a cruise ship and a boat for diving. Eventually, it was left on the shore in Cayman Brac, a small island in the Caribbean. As of 2019, the boat’s remains were still visible but in a very old and damaged condition.
Design and construction
Construction of the Teignmouth Electron began in June 1968 after Crowhurst could not purchase the Gipsy Moth IV, a boat previously used by Sir Francis Chichester during his 1967 journey around the world. The boat’s construction cost about £6,000 at the time (equivalent to roughly £90,000 in 2025, though the final cost was nearly double this amount). A local businessman named Stanley Best funded the project. Best had already invested £1,000 in Crowhurst’s company, Electron Utilisation, and hoped to recover his money and gain publicity for his business if Crowhurst completed the race. However, if Crowhurst failed to finish, Best’s agreement included a clause that required Electron Utilisation to buy the boat from him. This clause could have caused the company to go bankrupt, so it did not provide the safety Best intended.
The boat was named after the town of Teignmouth, Devon, England, as part of a deal with Crowhurst’s publicist, Rodney Hallworth. Hallworth, who worked for Teignmouth Town Council, wanted to use the boat’s name to attract local sponsors. The name “Electron” came from Crowhurst’s business.
Crowhurst believed a trimaran—a boat with three hulls—would be the fastest option for the race. The Electron was based on designs for Arthur Piver’s Victress-class trimaran. However, Crowhurst requested many changes to the original plans to make the boat better suited for rough seas. Because of the short time available for construction, the hulls were built by Cox Marine Ltd. in Brightlingsea, which had the official license to make Piver trimarans in the UK. Cox Marine could not complete the boat on time, so the hulls were sent to L.J. Eastwood Ltd. in Brundall, Norfolk, for finishing.
The Brundall shipyard was run by John Eastwood and John Elliot. Eastwood was the main builder and engineer. He explained that many changes were made to add technology and electronics to help the boat avoid capsizing in rough waves. A trimaran is stable because its weight is spread across three hulls, but it cannot right itself if it tips over like a single-hulled boat can. Crowhurst planned to install a buoyancy bag on the main mast. This bag would inflate if the boat’s computer detected it was tipping, keeping it upright at a 90-degree angle. However, due to time and money limits, the computer was never installed.
The buoyancy bag’s weight required the main mast to be shortened by four feet compared to the original Victress model. The masts were made of aluminum alloy and supplied by International Yacht Equipment Ltd. Extra bulkheads were added to the boat’s floats and hulls, resulting in many hatches on the deck. These hatches were not properly sealed because the correct soft rubber material was unavailable. A harder, less flexible material was used instead, increasing the risk of leaks.
The deck used two layers of 3⁄8-inch marine plywood instead of the usual single layer. This helped spread stress evenly across the deck. The design included four reinforced crossarms connected to the boat’s hulls and floats. The main mast was placed on the front crossarm.
Against Crowhurst’s wishes and the original Victress design, the deck was painted with double layers of polyurethane paint instead of being covered in fiberglass like the hulls. This did not affect the boat’s structure but made it look different from the Victress model. The boat was completed just days before the race’s deadline, leaving many details unfinished and costing about twice as much as planned. On October 31, 1968, the last possible day to start the race, the Teignmouth Electron was towed from Teignmouth Harbour and set sail into the Atlantic.
The Electron was designed to be very simple, with much less living space than usual to reduce weight and resistance from wind and water. The original plans included a large enclosed wheelhouse, but Crowhurst replaced it with a flat deck that only had a small rounded “doghouse” for shelter.
Onboard and exterior equipment
The Electron’s sail setup included the main sail, the mizzen sail, a working staysail, and a working jib. On the outside deck, there was an inflatable raft, a rubber dinghy, an anchor attached to the starboard bow, and a stainless steel tube pulpit at the front of the boat. The boat also had a Hasler self-steering system with a wind vane and a servo blade, as well as a Hengist-Horsa wind speed and direction indicator.
Below deck, the living space included a built-in table for writing and eating, with a small red cushioned seat. This seat covered a mess of wires that were colored but not connected. On the starboard side was a built-in chart table with a vise attached. On the port side, near the middle, was a small kitchen with a stainless steel sink, a small faucet, and a water tank inside the boat. Wood cabinets were above the sink and cooking stove. Toward the back was a small single bed. Overall, the living area was much smaller than those of Crowhurst’s competitors.
For communication, Crowhurst had a Marconi Kestrel radio-telephone, a Racal RA 6217 communications receiver, a Shannon Mar 3 transmitter/receiver, headsets, Morse keys, switch panels, and many spare parts for the radio. A gasoline-powered Onan generator provided power for the boat’s electronics. It was placed under the cockpit, where it could get wet in rough weather. The kitchen had a small stove, a pot, and a sink with freshwater from eight Plysu containers connected to four large fixed water tanks inside the port and starboard floats. The typical “Victress” cabin had built-in cabinets. Crowhurst kept a few shelves in the kitchen but replaced most with lightweight Tupperware containers for storing food, electronic parts, and a second-hand Bell and Howell 16 mm camera and a Uher tape recorder given by the BBC to document the journey. Crowhurst brought five books: Albert Einstein’s book on Relativity, including the Special and General Theory; Shanties from the Seven Seas; Servomechanisms; The Gypsy Moth Circles the World; and Mathematics of Engineering Systems.
For supplies, Crowhurst had dried vegetables, powdered milk, tea, porridge, butter, powdered eggs, bread, jam, champagne, mustard, a few tins of beer, rum, barley wine, and various tinned or dehydrated meals.
Sailing history
The attempted launch of the Teignmouth Electron occurred on 23 September in the river at Brundall. Crowhurst’s wife, Clare, tried to officially name the boat by breaking a champagne bottle against its hull. However, the bottle did not break and instead bounced off. John Eastwood then took the bottle and properly broke it against the boat, completing the launch.
The Electron was tested in open water, traveling down the River Yare and then out to sea toward Teignmouth. The voyage was planned to take three days but instead lasted two weeks. During this trip, Crowhurst suddenly stopped to avoid a ferry, causing the boat to hit the riverbank and damage the starboard float. It was also discovered that the boat could not sail directly into the wind, a problem that would later occur again during the race.
On 13 October, an experienced sailor named Lieutenant Commander Peter Eden volunteered to join Crowhurst for the final leg of the journey from Cowes to Teignmouth. Crowhurst had fallen into the water multiple times in Cowes, and when he and Eden boarded the boat, he slipped again while climbing into the rubber dinghy. Eden’s observations of the boat and Crowhurst provide the most detailed independent account before the race began. He noted that the trimaran sailed quickly but could not sail closer to the wind than 60 degrees. The boat often reached speeds of 12 knots, but vibrations caused the screws on the steering gear to loosen. Eden advised Crowhurst to weld the screws for longer trips. He also said the boat was "nippy" but noted that Crowhurst’s navigation was careless, as he relied on rough notes instead of precise tracking. After battling strong winds and two difficult turns into the Channel, they arrived at Teignmouth at 2:30 pm on 15 October. A BBC film crew mistakenly filmed Eden, thinking he was Crowhurst. There were 16 days left before the race’s deadline on 31 October.
The Electron departed Teignmouth Harbour at 4:52 pm on 31 October 1968. Based on Crowhurst’s logs, his journey lasted 243 days, with his last entry dated 24 June 1969. The boat was at sea for 252 days before being found drifting in a shipping lane.
At the start of the race, the boat faced immediate problems. Three days in, the steering gear lost two screws, and Crowhurst had no spare parts. He removed screws from other equipment, but more loss would mean losing control. His logline, used to measure distance, became tangled with the rudder, and his radio stopped working due to a blown fuse. On 5 November, water began leaking into the boat’s port bow compartment. When Crowhurst tried to remove the water, waves pushed it back in. On 13 November, a leak in the cockpit flooded the engine room. The boat’s design flaws made it hard to steer, causing it to zigzag unpredictably. On 15 November, Crowhurst decided to continue the race, believing he could fix problems later. On 16 November, he sent a report saying he was heading toward Madeira, even though he was near the Azores. His logs accurately recorded his location until 1 December. From 6 December onward, he began creating false records, claiming he traveled 243 miles daily, though his real distance was much less.
On 21 December, Crowhurst reported a split in the starboard float, caused by poor workmanship at the Eastwood shipyard. The damage worsened over time, and he needed supplies to repair it. He spent nearly a month near the coast of South America, considering his options. On 6 March 1969, he anchored at Rio Salado, Argentina, to fix the hole. He stayed for two days and left on 8 March.
On 21 May 1969, Lieutenant-Commander Nigel Tetley, the only other competitor still racing, watched as his boat, the “Victress,” sank 1,200 miles from England. At this point, Crowhurst realized his fake location could match his real position, allowing him to contact the race organizers safely. He learned that most other competitors had dropped out or their boats had failed, leaving the Teignmouth Electron as the only one still in the race. Crowhurst had expected to finish the race but not win it, avoiding the attention that would come with victory. After hearing about Tetley’s sinking, Crowhurst’s mindset changed dramatically.
Final days
On June 23, he recorded his final sun-sight in his logbook and did not write any more navigational information after that. In the hours before his final mental breakdown, he tried many times to call his wife, Clare, but could not because the equipment stopped working. On June 24, Crowhurst began writing a 25,000-word document about life, escape, time-space, and how to change from “first order differentials” to “second order differentials.” At times, his writing was clear, but near the end, it became hard to understand.
His last log entry was dated June 24, 1969. The final radio message was sent on June 29, 1969. On July 1 at 10:29 a.m. British Standard Time, Crowhurst wrote his final confession, ending with “It is finished—it is finished IT IS THE MERCY” at 11:20 and 40 seconds. He wrote, “It has been a good game that must be ended at the // I will play this game when I choose I will resign the game // There is no reason for harmful.” It is believed that shortly after this, Crowhurst, his chronometer, and his falsified logbook were thrown overboard while the Electron continued sailing at about two knots.
The abandoned boat was found on July 10, 1969, at 7:50 a.m. by the Royal Mail Ship Picardy, commanded by Richard Box, at latitude 33° 11’ North and longitude 40° 28’ West, about 1,800 miles from England. This location was very close to where the famous ghost ship Mary Celeste was discovered nearly 100 years earlier near the Azores. Following maritime tradition, the Picardy sounded three foghorn blasts. When no response came from flares, flags, or horns, sailors boarded the trimaran. They found the boat untidy and showed signs of life, work, and cooking, but nothing clearly suspicious.
It was clear that the boat had no people on it and had been left behind many days earlier. In plain sight were detailed logbooks showing fake coordinates, another logbook with true coordinates, and the 25,000-word manifesto Crowhurst considered his life’s work, which included “instructions” about achieving transcendence. After studying the logbooks, it was determined the boat had been abandoned nine days before it was found.
Aftermath
After the Teignmouth Electron was discovered by the RMS Picardy, it was taken to Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic and then sent to Jamaica for assessment by the Receiver of Wrecks. The Electron’s British owner wanted to recover some of his money and avoid the embarrassment of the event, so he sold the boat at auction without seeing it. In Jamaica, the boat was bought by Larry Wirth, a hotelier and businessman from Kingston who had previously worked as a choreographer in New York. Wirth used the boat as a private pleasure craft until 1973, when he sold it to Roderick "Bunny" Francis, a young entrepreneur with a small trawling company. Francis made changes to the boat to improve living conditions and make it easier to sail.
To convert the boat into a leisure craft, Francis expanded the doghouse, added larger windows, and redesigned the main cabin to sleep up to 10 people. He also modified the stern by removing the fin keep and adding a skeg with a propeller shaft for a trolling motor. Two seating blocks were added near the stern for the helmsman. Deck hatches were altered, with circular covers replaced by square ones for easier access. The boat was then covered with fiberglass and repainted. At this time, the port of registration (Bridgwater) was painted below the boat’s name.
Francis also made changes to improve the boat’s sailing stability. He removed the daggerboards on both sides of the floats and built a new keel on the main hull, which was 12 feet long, 4 inches wide, and had a 6-inch protrusion attached to the hull and covered with fiberglass. During this time, the boat was mostly kept moored and used for short trips in Montego Bay.
Because of Jamaica’s economic challenges in the 1970s, Francis sold the boat in 1975 for $12,000 to George McDermot, who used it for sailing in what is now Morgan’s Harbour. In 1977, McDermot moved his family to Miami and sold the boat to his brother, Winston McDermot. Winston later moved his scuba diving business, along with the boat, to Cayman Brac, a small island near Grand Cayman. The boat was used as a diving vessel until 1983, when it hit the ocean floor and suffered minor damage. Repairs were attempted, but the boat was damaged further when it dropped during lifting with a crane. McDermot planned to restore the boat to its original design but only began by removing the large cabin and discovered sealed compartments containing Crowhurst’s emergency rations. However, due to other business demands, the restoration was not completed. The boat was later damaged by Hurricane Gilbert in 1988, and restoration plans were abandoned.
Over time, many parts of the boat were removed, including the aluminum mast, rigging, and valuable metal fittings, leaving the hull mostly empty. In 1998, the hull was still intact, but it has continued to deteriorate since then. In 2007, McDermot sold the boat to American artist Michael Jones McKean, who planned to create a replica of the boat in its damaged state as an art piece. In 2017, McKean led a team to scan the remaining parts of the boat and its surroundings digitally. By 2018, the boat’s name plates were removed, and the words “Dream Boat” were painted on the transom.
The boat has remained a source of interest for visitors due to its connection to Donald Crowhurst, its original designer and sailor. McKean, the boat’s current owner, wrote in 2007 that the boat represents “a desperate belief in something bigger than any of us individually” and serves as a reminder of the power of dreams to inspire and challenge people.
Replica
In 2015, Heritage Marine in England started building a detailed, life-sized copy of the Teignmouth Electron. They used photos and original diagrams to create a very accurate version. The project was paid for by StudioCanal and the BBC to make a movie called The Mercy, which stars Colin Firth and came out in February 2018. Today, the copy is owned by Michael Jones McKean and is stored in a dry dock on the island of Malta.
Another copy of the main cabin was made for the 2006 documentary Deep Water. This version no longer exists.