Deep Water

Deep Water is an engrossing documentary about the tragic Donald Crowhurst, the nautical instrument-maker who entered the Sunday Times-sponsored non-stop, single-handed round-the-world yacht race in 1968. His innovative boat was inadequate and he was an inexperienced sailor, but he had a family to support, and was desperate for money and fame. A Fleet Street hungry for human interest stories was persuaded to turn him into a popular hero even before he set off. Rather than turn back and confront bankruptcy, Crowhurst faked his log and sent bogus messages about his speed and position. But he never left the Atlantic. Deranged after months alone at sea, unable to face exposure and humiliation, he jumped overboard, leaving a diary of the real voyage alongside the fake log. His body was never found.


It's a fascinating story, well and sympathetically told. It is a pity, however, that the co-directors make no mention of the role played by the late Nicholas Tomalin in discovering and interpreting the log and diary, or the definitive book, The Strange Last Voyage of Donald Crowhurst, that Tomalin and Ron Hall published in 1970. Their book inspired Robert Stone's remarkable novel Outerbridge Reach.


The story is dramatised in 'Crowhurst' (2016) and 'The Mercy' (2017),


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