One of a set of 9 colour photographs of Donald Crowhurst's abandoned trimaran, edition 1/6.
Tacita Dean is a British artist who works primarily with film and photography. The sea is a recurring theme in her work. In her series Teignmouth Electron, Cayman Brac, she documents the state of the abandoned trimaran of Donald Crowhurst. An amateur participant in the 1968 Golden Globe race, Crowhurst achieved tragic fame when it was reported that he filed false reports of his progress, and ended up disappearing mysteriously at sea. Indeed his trimaran, the Teighmouth Electron, was discovered with no trace of Crowhurst aboard. Tacita Dean’s photographs of its remains beached in the Caribbean serve as a forensic, memorial surrogate to Crowhurst’s disappearance at sea.
The only evidence of what may have happened within the trimaran following Crowhurst shutting down communications resides within his three log books, first used in order to document his false records and then descending into a journal recording his despair and alimentations at sea – it is possible Crowhurst may have suffered from time madness after so much time stranded and at sea.