Anne robertson shipwreck

Scottish author and sailor (–)

Dougal Robertson
Born	Edinburgh, Scotland
Died	(aged&#;67&#;68) Scotland
Occupation(s)	Author, sailor
Known&#;for	Surviving being adrift at sea with family members

Dougal Robertson (–) was a Scottish author and sailor who with his family survived being adrift at sea after their schooner was holed by a pod of orcas in , one of the few documented orca attacks in the Pacific.

Early life

Robertson was born in Edinburgh in , the youngest of eight children.^[1] He joined the British Merchant Navy after attending Leith Nautical College.^[2] He left maritime life after the attack on the SS Sagaing at Trincomalee in , during which his wife Jessie and his son Duncan were killed.^[1] Robertson remarried and began work as a dairy farmer.

Voyage

On 27 January , Robertson departed from Falmouth, Cornwall, on board the Lucette, a foot (13&#;m) wooden schooner built in which the family had purchased in Malta with their life's savings. He was accompanied by his wife Lyn, daughter Anne, son Douglas, and twin sons Neil and Sandy.

Dougal robertson family: Anne decided to retire from the voyage in the Bahamas and the family welcomed Robin Williams, a year-old Welsh graduate in economics and statistics on board to join them on their onward voyage to New Zealand, via the Panama Canal and the Galapagos Islands. They piled into the inflatable life-raft, managed to grab a piece of sail from the water, and rigged it to the 9-foot dinghy they had on board to use it as a tugboat for the raft now housing six human beings. Birthday feast of fresh turtle meat, dried turtle meat and dried dorado, with water to drink. Some of the teeth from the 5-foot Mako shark were kept as a trophy.

Over the next year and a half, they sailed across the Atlantic, stopping at various ports of call in the Caribbean. Anne retired from the voyage in the Bahamas.

During their transit of the Panama Canal, the family members took aboard an inexperienced crew member named Robin Williams, who accompanied them on the next stage of their voyage to the Galápagos Islands and beyond to the islands of the South Pacific.

On 15 June , Lucette was holed by a pod of orcas and sank approximately miles west of the Galapagos Islands. The group of six people on board escaped to an inflatable life raft and a solid-hull dinghy with little in the way of tools or provisions.^[3]

Using the dinghy as a towboat powered by a jury-rigged sail, the group made its way towards the doldrums.

They got water from their boat before heading away from their old boat.

Dougal robertson biography Day 14 — The raft was in even more poor condition, there was water flooding into it and a need for constant bailing. That afternoon Douglas saw a green flare often used by submarines on manoeuvres, but nothing came of it. YES NO. Progress eastwards was improving.

But running out of water, hoping to find rain there so they could collect drinking water, they sailed their way on. When they ran out of water they started drinking turtle blood. They did so successfully, while catching turtles, dorado, and flying fish to eat. They also ate fruit, bread, and biscuits that they grabbed from the boat.

The inflatable raft became unusable after 16 days, so the six people crowded into the three-metre (10') long dinghy with their supplies.

Dougal robertson sea survival Their daughter Anne, 19, had remained in the Bahamas five months earlier, a year into the family's voyage round the world. But it wasn't until an episode of Bear Grylls's ITV show, Mission Survive, six years ago that her contribution to the canon of survival techniques finally achieved recognition. The Museum is celebrating the 50th anniversary of this incredible story of human endurance with a talk by Douglas Robertson. The Japanese crew looked after everyone well.

They then continued to use the wind and current to their advantage, moving to the northeast towards Central America.

By their 38th day as castaways, they had stored dried meat and fresh water in such quantities that they intended to begin rowing that night to speed their progress. However, they were sighted and picked up that day by the Japanese fishing trawlerTokamaru II^[4] on her way to the Panama Canal.

Robertson, who had been keeping a journal in case they were rescued, recounted the ordeal in the book Survive the Savage Sea, on which the film of the same name was based.^[5]

The story was revisited in his son Douglas' book The Last Voyage of the Lucette.

Dougal robertson biography wikipedia Dad was a Captain Bligh tyrant, and you couldn't have got a better man for the job to ensure we survived. Luckily, he escaped the sharks and was utterly exhausted. There was a terrible storm and torrential rain. Douglas, now 68 and an accountant, believed he was about to be eaten alive.

Death

Dougal later wrote Sea Survival: A Manual, and continued to sail until his death from cancer in The manual was used to help save the life of Steven Callahan, who was stranded for 76 days in the Atlantic Ocean in

Aftermath

• Lyn kept running the dairy farm.
• Douglas joined the merchant navy and later became an accountant.^[6]

See also

References

• Robertson, Dougal (), Survive the Savage Sea
• Robertson, Dougal (), Sea Survival: A Manual
• Robertson, Douglas (), The Last Voyage of the Lucette, Woodbridge, Suffolk: Seafarer Books, ISBN&#;
• Brinnin, John Malcolm; Probst, Robert E; Anderson, Robert; Legett, John; Irvin, Judith L (), from "Survive the Savage Sea", Elements of Literature, vol.&#;First Course, United States of America: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, p.&#;, ISBN&#;

External links