On July 10th 1969 in the middle of the Atlantic, the MV Picardy came across a trimaran floating in the sea. The cabin had been left in a state of disarray. The boat was the Teignmouth Electron, and her captain was the round-the-world yachtsman Donald Crowhurst, of whom there was no sign.
There might seem to be no connection between Crowhurst and Jason Arday, and indeed there were many differences, but their stories were both manifestations of the same phenomenon. Now 57 years later, it is easier to look back at Crowhurst without the added baggage of race and wokery to understand how his tragedies like his come to pass.
Childhood and early career
Crowhurst was born in India in 1932, an only child to his mother and much older father, though she had had a son by a previous husband. Mrs Crowhurst had wanted a girl and dressed Donald as one for several years. The family came ‘home’ to England in 1947 after Indian independence and having invested in a sports goods factory in the new Pakistan as a source of income. The factory was destroyed in riots and in spring 1948 Crowhurst’s father died, leaving the boy and his mother in straitened circumstances.
Crowhurst was highly intelligent, quick-witted and did well at school, mainly in arts subjects but was more interested in electronic engineering. By 1953 he had joined the RAF and become a pilot officer. He was a dynamic individual who raced around taking
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I think that Andrews is far worse than Arday. The latter seems quite clearly to me to have had the greatest dificulty in distinguishing reality from his own fantasies, the former to distort reality consciously and deliberately in order to promulgate a false view of the world. He is shameless, as with his claim that Arday was not a plagiarist, which he bases on Arday’s doctoral thesis being supposedly investigated by the university (Liverpool John Moores) that awarded his PhD, and cleared, even though there is overwheming evidence of plagiarism in it provided for all to see on the internet whereas Liverpool JM say it conducted “a confidential process” in reviewing the plagiarism allegations and has accordingly disclosed absolutely nothing about that process apart from its conclusion that the doctorate was correctly awarded!
There should be no place for such fake academics as Andrews in our universities but the existing sector is so corrupted that probably only the growth of new institutions of higher education could possibly redeem it.
The “Emperor’s New Clothes”. Jason Arday was guilty of plagiarism.Their words not his.
A fascinating and cautionary life story. I had never heard of Mr Crowhurst or his exploits, so thank you.
I was in my teens at the time. As well as spanning the Race to the Moon the 1960s were a time of Chichester Fever, and The Sunday Times plugged into that. I remembered the outline of the case but not the fine detail, especially the problems caused to Donald Crowhurst by the way that nearly all the experienced sailors had dropped out, and the erratic notes, and his complete absence of experience of oceanic sailing. I can appreciate the parallels with the Arday case: becoming the plucky adventurer, the focus of attention, surrounded by well-wishers who have financial interest in your success, and then realising there is a fundamental flaw in the whole enterprise. I am also reminded of Elizabeth Holmes (who claimed miraculous blood tests) and the judge in Gilbert and Sullivan’s “Trial By Jury” who, in the closing chorus following chaos, admits that he knows nothing of Law and got his job fraudulently. (Spoiler: he marries the plaintiff, and everyone is happy.)
I don’t see any parallels at all. No one is responsible for the downfall of those men except themselves and their own evil corruption.
Arday is most likely sunning himself in disguise on a Jamaican beach, gloating and reading all the news articles about himself, while waiting for his family to sneak away and join him. All arranged by the Globalists who MADE ARDAY RICH.
Crowhurst’s wife could have easily prevented his death by acquiescing in his desperation not to go. She refused, and gained a lot of the prize money in the end by guilt-tripping the real winner Knox-Johnston.
More likely he’s on a private island with Epstein and Robert Maxwell (unless he’s died of old age).
Someone has commented on other articles saying they think Epstein was smuggled out of prison, personally I think it’s more likely some of his very wealthy fellow paedophiles paid for him to be murdered so he didn’t drop them in the shit but who knows for sure.
It’s highly suspicious that Maxwell fell off his luxury yacht not long after it was revealed how much money had gone missing from the Mirror Group’s pension fund. It’s claimed that his naked body was found, why was he wandering around his yacht naked? and had a heart attack while urinating over the side (apparently he often did this). There was a massive funeral in Israel and we’re told he was buried on the Mount of Olives. No doubt a coffin was buried, how many people know what was inside it?
If someone’s wealthy enough and has super rich friends anything can be arranged for a price.
Erm, why wouldn’t he be naked on his yacht ?
That’s the good thing about yachts, you can sail away from the prudes and bigots.
Nudists are Exhibitionists and Voyeurs.
Matt, you summed it all up perfectly when you wrote:
“If someone’s wealthy enough and has super rich friends anything can be arranged for a price.”
Lying for your own benefit is never right, never acceptable. The longer deception continues the worse it is.
Cambridge and all other institutions need to revise their recruitment and appraisal systems. These must include verification of all important claims made by applicants.
Preference based on anything but the job description must stop. People must be sacked for what was allowed to happen over Arday.
Well said Guy. A fascinating parallel, except that Crowhurst’s was a personal tragedy while Arday’s has been politicised by the insistence of wokies to view it through the distorting prism of race.
By the way, the assumption that Arday’s death was suicide has not been confirmed. As with Crowhurst, other possibilities shouldn’t be ruled out. Let’s wait for the inquest verdict.
Yes, even Arday’s death has not been confirmed, as the coroner said he had received reports that Arday was found “unresponsive” at home.
I must say Crowhurst seems a far more interesting and attractive character.
Yes sounds like he had great potential that he struggled to channel, not sure the same
could be said of the other poor chap.
Yes it really was a Shakespearean tragedy.
Superbly argued Guy.
I shared the same opinion with my family a fortnight ago FWIW.
The key difference is Crowhurst was justly criticised for his recklessness.
Arday has been appointed a woke saint by the establishment.
I don’t know much about either of them but it sounds like Crowhurst was quite talented at a few things so it’s not unreasonable for people to have thought he was worth a punt. I didn’t get the impression the same could be said about Arday.
Props to Knox-Johnston for helping the Crowhurst family after his death.
It’s certainly a natural human tendency to want to see the world as we’d like it to be rather than how it really is. Facing reality fully and accepting it is probably the work of at least one lifetime for most of us, but it seems to me that attempting to do so is the most important endeavour of all.
I was just commissioned in the RAF when this took place. A contemporary of mine had a business card printed which, if he noticed a fellow officer at a dining-in night ‘shooting a line,’ he’d pass to him. It read ‘Do carry on with your story. I’m something of a bullshitter myself.’ Arday and Crowhurst before him were Olympic level bullshitters.
C S Lewis observed that shame was like a hot cup of tea. Drink it and it will not harm you. Do anything else with it – spill it over your hand – and it will hurt you.
Endure the shame and you will come out the other side. If only Arday had said, “I am a fool.” Everyone else would have replied with understanding and sympathy, “Quite right, Jason”. There would probably be a book and perhaps a film in that.
Yes, however we now live in a world where the devices that western civilisation have created like measurement of time, mathematics, the English language correctly spoken, the wheel, are viewed as oppressive symbols of white privilege and supremacy. So the “I am a fool” confession only works for people who understand and have embraced what it means. The doomed non professor only embraced what suited him, which was his state of oppression and foolish liberal middle aged white women working in institutions which should have known better based on their mastery of the previously mentioned devices.
Interesting. I was but a lad when this took place. Although Arday and Crowhurst are extreme examples, there are millions who live in a bubble of their own creation, and rarely if ever touch with reality. Perhaps there are many more to tumble from the woodwork.
There will be many in politics. We all remember Blair boasted of watching a footballer who had stopped playing before Blair was born.
He was and is another fantasist, showman and fraud.