Teignmouth Electron

This is a story that proves that when you bring a history nut with you on vacation, you never know what you may find.

Once apon a time (1968), in a land far far away (England), the Sunday Times sponsored a single-handed, around the world yacht race called the Sunday Times Golden Globe Race. There was a British man named Donald Crowhurst that believed he could build a new, innovative yacht that would win the race. He named it the Teignmouth Electron. This boat was a trimaran, which was untested for such long voyages and difficult to right, if capsized. Crowhurst added a special buoyancy bag to the top of the mast, just in case, and set off from Teignmouth, Devon at the last possible minute.

It turns out the boat is on Cayman Brac! Here is a photo of the boat today:

As you might suspect, things did not go so well for Crowhurst or the Electron. He had no prior experience on this type of yacht, hadn't taken the boat through any tests and left a lot of supplies behind. To sum up, he fell behind early, started radioing in false positions (making him sound in the lead), possibly was being poisoned by his food supply or water filtration system and then committed suicide by drowning in the ocean. His boat was found abandoned and was sold multiple times before it wound up decaying on the south shore of Cayman Brac. Go here and here for the full story.

It is weird. The story is really interesting and yet, there is no mention of it in Cayman Brac. No plaque at the site, no mention on any map. Just a pile of garbage between the beach and a road. The local girl at the hotel had never heard of it and the boat is located less than a mile away!

Here is our "history nut" with the Electron. Thanks James for telling us this interesting story, I can't believe the Brac doesn't take advantage of such a great tale!