Fifty years on, Campbell’s Bluebird flies again
Daughter’s bittersweet feelings over the return of the iconic speedboat in which her father died
CLUTCHING her father’s mascot teddy, Gina Campbell yesterday watched as the speedboat in which he was killed returned to the water for the first time since his death half a century ago.
She was just 17 when she was told Donald Campbell’s Bluebird K7 had crashed and sunk in Coniston Water while attempting to set a daring new speed record.
So it was with mixed emotions that Ms Campbell looked on as the hydrofoil slid into Loch Fad, on the Isle of Bute in Scotland, following a painstaking restoration programme. With her was Mr Whoppit, the teddy bear Campbell took with him for his record attempt and which was later found floating among the debris.
After a series of false starts, during which Bluebird got stuck on the uneven jetty and the wrong fuel was used, the hydrofoil was driven across Loch Fan for a series of initial test runs to see how it handles.
“It’s unbelievable. She looks absolutely wonderful. My father would have loved this,” Ms Campbell told The Sunday Telegraph. “Of course it’s bittersweet for me seeing someone else in my daddy’s seat, but everything good is worth sharing.”
The unveiling of Bluebird K7 was the latest chapter in a story that has continued to fascinate the British public since 1967, when it flipped over while travelling at more than 300mph when Campbell, 45, was attempting to beat his own water speed record of 276.33mph set three years earlier. The badly damaged craft lay on the bed of the Lake District’s Coniston Water until it was raised in 2001 by Bill Smith, an engineer who has lovingly restored the boat to her former glory.
Ms Campbell has made it clear there are no plans to take it to the sort of velocity achieved by her father.
“Bluebird looks wonderful, but nothing would be worse than something going wrong again and somebody being hurt. Things happen when young men get hold of some- thing that can go very very fast, but I hope good sense prevails. It’s just not worth risk to machine or man.”
Campbell remains the only person to set both world land and water speed records in the same year – 1964. From 1955 he set seven world water speed records in K7.
Mr Smith was inspired to recover and restore Bluebird K7 at his yard in Newcastle after hearing the Marillion track Out of This World, an ode to Donald Campbell’s bravery.
After 17 years of painstaking work on the boat, yesterday’s events were emotional for him too.
“Every part has been cleaned, repaired, put back together. It has been completely without compromise,” he said. “Wouldn’t use the wrong screw, wouldn’t use the wrong gauge, it is absolutely how its supposed to be.”
Additional reporting by Gabriel Day ments following complaints that tax office personnel colluded with accountants and insolvency practitioners to ruin the US businessman.
At the time of his arrest, Mr Dowling was working with accountants to restructure his business in order to refinance and pay off debts. The three leases he owned in the O2 are believed to have been worth around £18million.
Following his arrest, administrators working with HMRC seized his company and placed it into liquidation. In addition to the venues at the O2 – Union Square, American Bar & Grill and Inc Club – Mr Dowling’s company, Greenwich Inc Trading Ltd, ran several other pubs, bars and restaurants.
Mr Dowling was charged with three counts of cheating the public purse, but investigators were unable to provide evidence to support any of the charges and a judge threw the case out on the grounds of abuse of process.
It is expected that the scope of the inquiry by HMRC’s Internal Governance department will look at links between senior tax office investigators and several accountancy service businesses involved in the case.