NO MERCY
IT HAS inspired an opera, a stage play and now a starstudded Hollywood movie – proving the extraordinary dramatic power of the Donald Crowhurst story: how a weekend sailor enthralled the nation with his plucky attempt to win The Golden Globe roundthe-world yacht race in 1968.
Braving mountainous seas single- handed, it was a perilous endeavour even for t he most expert yachtsman – which is why he perpetrated one of the most notorious frauds in maritime history. Realising that he had no chance of even completing the race, log books found in the abandoned vessel show he had falsified entries, hoping to cheat his way to a lucrative financial payout.
The Mercy, a new movie starring Colin Firth and Rachel Weisz, is a heart-rending account of how greed and desperation combined to send the struggling businessman to a tragic yet ultimately mysterious fate in the freezing waters of the South Atlantic. Whether he was swept overboard or perhaps commit suicide with disgrace around the corner, the answer will never be known.
There is, however, one man who, whatever the quality of t he acting, holds nothing but contempt for the bigscreen adaptation. He is Austyn Hallworth, who watched aghast as his ebullient journalist father, Rodney Hallworth, was cast as t he manipulative villain of the piece.
Instead of blaming Crowhurst for his own recklessness, the film claims that it was Rodney Hallworth who had orchestrated the doomed mission. And that it was Hallworth’s hunger for a lucrative story that eventually drove Crowhurst to mount his notorious campaign of deception on the ocean.
Today, Austyn is determined to clear his father’s name. While The Mercy continues to portray Rodney Hallworth as a greedy schemer, Austyn says, the truth is quite the opposite: that his father not only attempted to dissuade Crowhurst from setting sail, but then played a key part in unmasking the extraordinary deception.
‘When the full extent of Crowhurst’s duplicity was exposed, many people were quick to stick the knife in my father,’ he explains.
‘They accused him of bullying this obviously unprepared weekend sailor to embark on a potentially fatal marathon voyage and of being part of the subterfuge.
‘Yet he was a highly respected journalist and an honourable man, who certainly didn’t push Donald to do anything he didn’t want to do.
‘In fact, my father was taken in by Crowhurst’s duplicity.’
There is a personal element to his anger, also: Austyn is scathing about the part in real life played by Crowhurst’s widow Clare who, he believes, has allowed the film to proceed despite the obvious calumny at its heart. Today, he urges her to set the record straight.
‘It is grossly unfair that his memory is being denigrated in this way,’ he says.
Crowhurst had never sail ed beyond the Bay of Biscay when in 1968, to the astonishment of more seasoned mariners, he entered The Golden Globe. At stake were a trophy and £5,000 offered to the first sailor to single- handedly circumnavigate the Earth non-stop. Crowhurst’s announcement captivated the nation – and its press.
Hallworth, meanwhile, had left his career in Fleet Street to set up Devon News Agency. He also took a role as PR man for the resort of Teignmouth, which is how the amateur yachtsman and the journalist first met.
Hallworth offered to broker film, newspaper and publishing deals if Crowhurst, who ran a navigation equipment firm in the area, named his boat after the town.
Few realised, however, that, for all the bravado, Crowhurst’s involvement was risky in t he extreme. His company was failing, he was desperate for money, and he was effectively gambling his future on the race and the income that it might generate.
Indeed, he risked making hi s wife Clare and their four children homeless if he failed to finish. His house in Bridgwater, Somerset, was mortgaged as collateral for the costly adventure and he had signed contracts that obliged him to complete the expedition. No wonder that Crowhurst was consumed by anxiety as the day of his departure on Teignmouth Electron drew near.
In the film, just hours before he is due to set out, his character, played by Firth, is shown confessing his rising panic to Hallworth, played by Harry Potter actor David Thewlis. Yet Hallworth urges him onwards all the same, and says: ‘Leave your doubts with us here on shore. Take your dreams out to sea.’
According to the film, Hallworth stands to make a fortune from the venture .
This dramatic encounter between the two did take place in real life, says Austyn, yet the role played by his father was entirely different.
He explains: ‘Dad told me how, on the eve of departure, he had arranged a photo shoot in St Michael’s Church on the seafront, with Crowhurst praying in a pew before the altar.
‘When Donald finished, he broke down and wept in front of Dad. He admitted that deep down, he knew he was ill-prepared and that the voyage was an almost impossible task. Dad told him it was never too late to back out, even at the 11th hour. There was no disgrace in defeat. He was adamant that
The Mercy stuck the knife into Dad. They say he bullied Crowhurst . . . but he tried to put him off AUSTYN HALLWORTH, SON OF RODNEY HALLWORTH, ABOVE
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Crowhurst’s duty was to place himself first and protect his family.
‘Teignmouth and everybody else involved would have to get over it. Obviously, it would have been a tough decision, but he could at least get on with his life.’
As history records, however, Crowhurst decided to compete nonetheless – apparently with the backing of his wife, Clare.
Austyn continues: ‘ Clare later admitted in a newspaper interview that her husband had cried in her arms in their hotel bed that same night and only needed her approval to stay behind. Despite her own doubts, she never gave him that nod and he sailed off into disgrace and, ultimately, tragedy.’
She was quoted as saying: ‘That last night together was frightful. We were both in a terrible state. I had never seen Donald crying before… but he was really weeping. I held him in my arms and comforted him. Neither of us slept at all. I still feel so incredibly guilty about it. I think if I had just said, “This is barmy! Stop it!” he would have listened.
‘ But I was scared that, in five years’ time, he’d have regretted not going, and I would have stopped him fulfilling his dream.’
And so Crowhurst set sail, faking his log books when it became clear to him that he was bound to fail and sending cryptic telegraphs about his whereabouts – even cabling his agent one day to say that he had sailed a record 243 miles.
His plan to hang around in the Atlantic and rejoin the race at the end to present himself as a plucky loser began to unravel, however, as his rivals dropped out.
In his last log entry, dated July 1, 1969, he wrote: ‘It is finished. It is the mercy. It is the end of my game. The truth has been revealed.’
TEN days l at er, hi s abandoned yacht was found 600 miles west of the Azores. His body was never found.
I t was only aft er Robin Knox-Johnston won the race – magnanimously donating his winnings to Crowhurst’s widow – and Teignmouth Electron was discovered that the subterfuge became clear.
The fraudulent log and real books were laid out neatly side by side in the cabin. Devon journalist Ted Hynds, who had been the first to interview Crowhurst about his proposed voyage, said: ‘ It must have been obvious from the outset that this whole enterprise was heading for catastrophe. Both man and boat were painfully unprepared, yet we were carried on a wave of optimism.
‘Don blithely calculated making 200-plus miles a day and the press ran stories of the “gallant, plucky dark horse” who would turn the race on its head.
‘ A cold dose of reality finally came on the day of departure. I’ll never forget Don in his yellow allweather gear over a business suit, scrabbling among the dozens of loose supplies lining the deck. It was a shambles.
‘ I believe he realised within weeks that his race was doomed to failure and he began that phantom voyage instead. His plan was to come in behind the runner- up, Nigel Tetley. He thought nobody would scrutinise the voyage of a gallant loser.’
As would eventually become clear, Crowhurst had made a terrible misjudgment. Fearful of being overtaken, Tetley pushed his boat too hard and sank. Now Crowhurst was too near the front. He realised his log would be pored over and his deception revealed.
For Hallworth, the consequences of the race were serious. He found himself blamed locally and in print as the ‘money-grubbing’ PR man who fed Crowhurst’s fantasy.
Austyn says: ‘ The Mercy perpetrates the image of Dad as a man of dodgy ethics. But there was nothing overtly sly, slippery or deceitful about him. He was a man of huge integrity.’
A former crime reporter for both the Daily Express and the Daily Mail, says Austyn, he had been one of the most highly respected journalists of his time.
‘ His primary objective was to generate publicity for Teignmouth and subsequently for this yachtsman. However, he was severely handicapped by Crowhurst’s secretive agenda. When Teignmouth Electron was found drifting in mid-Atlantic, my father was visibly devastated.’
Hallworth was employed by the Daily Express to fly to the Caribbean to meet the skipper of the Picardy, the boat that had picked up Teignmouth Electron. He quickly discovered the bogus log book and the true extent of the deceit. Austyn says: ‘Within days he handed the log books over to The Sunday Times, which quickly produced its own book on the whole sorry mess.
‘ He gave his Express fee to Clare, plus half a minimal payment he received from another paper. To my knowledge this was never admitted by the family and he never received any thanks. In fact, Clare was critical of him.
‘Dad was seen as a Svengali type who manipulated Don, when in reality it was the other way round. He was just as much a victim of the hoax and now, 50 years later, his name is being blackened.
‘While I sympathise with Clare and her children for losing a loving husband and father, I have never forgiven her bitter attitude towards my own father.
‘I just wish she would come forward and set the record straight.’
The Crowhurst family declined to comment last night.