Dougal Robertson
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Dougal Robertson (January 29, 1924–September 22, 1991) was a Scottish author and sailor who with his family survived being adrift at sea after their
schooner A schooner ( ) is a type of sailing ship, sailing vessel defined by its Rig (sailing), rig: fore-and-aft rigged on all of two or more Mast (sailing), masts and, in the case of a two-masted schooner, the foremast generally being shorter than t ...
was holed by a pod of
orcas The orca (''Orcinus orca''), or killer whale, is a toothed whale and the largest member of the oceanic dolphin family. The only extant species in the genus '' Orcinus'', it is recognizable by its black-and-white-patterned body. A cosmopoli ...
in 1972, one of the few documented
orca attacks Orcas are large, powerful aquatic apex predators. There have been incidents where orcas were perceived to attack humans in the wild, but such attacks are less common than those by captive orcas. In captivity, there have been several non-fatal and ...
in the Pacific.


Early life

Robertson was born in
Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...
, Scotland in 1924, the youngest of eight children. He joined the
British Merchant Navy The British Merchant Navy is the collective name given to British civilian ships and their associated crews, including officers and ratings. In the UK, it is simply referred to as the Merchant Navy or MN. Merchant Navy vessels fly the Red Ensi ...
after attending
Leith Nautical College Leith Nautical College was a maritime college in Leith, Scotland. The college provided instruction for the training of Merchant Navy officers and other seafarers. Courses offered included naval architecture, marine engineering, telegraphy, radar ...
. He left maritime life after the attack on the SS ''Sagaing'' at
Trincomalee Trincomalee (; , ; , ), historically known as Gokanna and Gokarna, is the administrative headquarters of the Trincomalee District and major resort port city of Eastern Province, Sri Lanka, Eastern Province, Sri Lanka. Located on the east coast o ...
in Sri Lanka in 1942, during which his wife Jessie and his son Duncan were killed. Robertson remarried and began work as a
dairy farmer Dairy farming is a class of agriculture for the long-term production of milk, which is food processing, processed (either on the farm or at a dairy plant, either of which may be called a dairy) for the eventual sale of a dairy product. Dairy ...
.


Voyage

On 27 January 1971, Robertson departed from
Falmouth, Cornwall Falmouth ( ; ) is a town, civil parish and port on the River Fal on the south coast of Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. Falmouth was founded in 1613 by the Killigrew family on a site near the existing Pendennis Castle. It developed as a po ...
, on board the ''Lucette'', a wooden schooner built in 1922 which the family had purchased in
Malta Malta, officially the Republic of Malta, is an island country in Southern Europe located in the Mediterranean Sea, between Sicily and North Africa. It consists of an archipelago south of Italy, east of Tunisia, and north of Libya. The two ...
with their life's savings. He was accompanied by his wife Lyn, daughter Anne, son Douglas, and twin sons Neil and Sandy. Over the next year and a half, they sailed across the Atlantic, stopping at various ports of call in the
Caribbean The Caribbean ( , ; ; ; ) is a region in the middle of the Americas centered around the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, mostly overlapping with the West Indies. Bordered by North America to the north, Central America ...
. Anne retired from the voyage in the
Bahamas The Bahamas, officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an archipelagic and island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the Atlantic Ocean. It contains 97 per cent of the archipelago's land area and 88 per cent of its population. ...
. During their transit of the
Panama Canal The Panama Canal () is an artificial waterway in Panama that connects the Caribbean Sea with the Pacific Ocean. It cuts across the narrowest point of the Isthmus of Panama, and is a Channel (geography), conduit for maritime trade between th ...
, 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 The Galápagos Islands () are an archipelago of volcanic islands in the Eastern Pacific, located around the equator, west of the mainland of South America. They form the Galápagos Province of the Republic of Ecuador, with a population of sli ...
and beyond to the islands of the South Pacific. On 15 June 1972, ''Lucette'' was holed by a pod of
orcas The orca (''Orcinus orca''), or killer whale, is a toothed whale and the largest member of the oceanic dolphin family. The only extant species in the genus '' Orcinus'', it is recognizable by its black-and-white-patterned body. A cosmopoli ...
and sank approximately 200 miles west of the Galapagos Islands. The group of six people on board escaped to an inflatable
life raft A lifeboat or liferaft is a small, rigid or inflatable boat carried for emergency evacuation in the event of a disaster aboard a ship. Lifeboat drills are required by law on larger commercial ships. Rafts ( liferafts) are also used. In the m ...
and a solid-hull
dinghy A dinghy is a type of small boat, often carried or Towing, towed by a Watercraft, larger vessel for use as a Ship's tender, tender. Utility dinghies are usually rowboats or have an outboard motor. Some are rigged for sailing but they diffe ...
with little in the way of tools or provisions. Using the dinghy as a towboat powered by a jury-rigged sail, the group made its way towards the
doldrums The Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ , or ICZ), known by sailors as the doldrums or the calms because of its monotonous windless weather, is the area where the northeast and the southeast trade winds converge. It encircles Earth near the ...
. They got water from their boat before heading away from their old boat. 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 Turtles are reptiles of the order Testudines, characterized by a special shell developed mainly from their ribs. Modern turtles are divided into two major groups, the Pleurodira (side necked turtles) and Cryptodira (hidden necked turtle ...
,
dorado Dorado (, ) is a constellation in the Southern Sky. It was named in the late 16th century and is now one of the 88 modern constellations. Its name refers to the mahi-mahi (''Coryphaena hippurus''), which is known as ''dorado'' ("golden") in Sp ...
, and
flying fish The Exocoetidae are a family (biology), family of Saltwater fish, marine Actinopterygii, ray-finned fish in the order (biology), order Beloniformes, known colloquially as flying fish or flying cod. About 64 species are grouped in seven genus, ge ...
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. They then continued to use the wind and current to their advantage, moving to the northeast towards
Central America Central America is a subregion of North America. Its political boundaries are defined as bordering Mexico to the north, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the southwest. Central America is usually ...
. 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 trawler A fishing trawler is a commercial fishing vessel designed to operate fishing trawls. Trawling is a method of fishing that involves actively dragging or pulling a trawl through the water behind one or more trawlers. Trawls are fishing nets tha ...
''Tokamaru II'' on her way to the Panama Canal. Robertson, who had been keeping a journal in case they were rescued, recounted the ordeal in the 1973 book ''Survive the Savage Sea'', on which the 1991 film of the same name was based. The story was revisited in his son Douglas' book ''The Last Voyage of the Lucette''.


Death

Dougal later wrote ''Sea Survival: A Manual'', and continued to sail until his death from
cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving Cell growth#Disorders, abnormal cell growth with the potential to Invasion (cancer), invade or Metastasis, spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Po ...
in 1991. The manual was used to help save the life of Steven Callahan, who was stranded for 76 days in the Atlantic Ocean in 1981.


Aftermath

*Lyn kept running the dairy farm. *Douglas joined the merchant navy and later became an accountant.


See also

* Steven Callahan, survived 76 days adrift in the
Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the ...
. * Maurice and Maralyn Bailey, survived 117 days adrift in the
Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is ...
. *
Jesús Vidaña Jesús Vidaña is a fisherman from Mexico. He, together with Lucio Rendón and Salvador Ordóñez, left a Mexican fishing port in October 2005 and survived nine months adrift in a fishing boat in the Pacific Ocean before being rescued in August 20 ...
and two other Mexican fishermen who survived in the Pacific Ocean for approximately 9 months from October 2005 to August 2006. * ''
Rose-Noëlle ''Rose-Noëlle'' was a trimaran that capsized at 6 AM on June 4, 1989, in the southern Pacific Ocean off the coast of New Zealand. Four men (John Glennie, James Nalepka, Rick Hellriegel and Phil Hoffman) survived adrift on the wreckage of the shi ...
'',
trimaran A trimaran (or double-outrigger) is a multihull boat that comprises a main hull and two smaller outrigger hulls (or "floats") which are attached to the main hull with lateral beams. Most modern trimarans are sailing yachts designed for recrea ...
on which four people survived 119 days adrift in the South Pacific. *
Poon Lim Poon Lim BEM (; 8 March 1918 – 4 January 1991) was a Chinese seafarer. He was born on the island of Hainan, China. In 1942–43, he survived a record 133 days alone on a life raft in the South Atlantic. Lim was Second Mess Steward on ...
, who survived for 133 days adrift in the Atlantic. * ''Essex'', a
whaler A whaler or whaling ship is a specialized vessel, designed or adapted for whaling: the catching or processing of whales. Terminology The term ''whaler'' is mostly historic. A handful of nations continue with industrial whaling, and one, Jap ...
holed by a whale out from the Galápagos Islands. *
José Salvador Alvarenga José Salvador Alvarenga (; born ) is a Salvadoran fisherman and author who was found on January 30, 2014, aged 36 or 37, on the Marshall Islands after spending 14 months adrift in a fishing boat in the Pacific Ocean beginning on November 17, 201 ...
, who spent 438 days drifting in a small open top boat from Mexico to the Marshall Islands. *
List of people who disappeared mysteriously at sea Nile Kinnick Throughout history, people have mysteriously disappeared at sea. The following is a list of known individuals who have mysteriously vanished in open waters, and whose whereabouts remain unknown. In most ocean deaths, bodies are never r ...


References

* * * *


External links

*
The tale of 'Ednamair'

What it’s like to survive a shipwreck
The Robertson family spent 38 days adrift with little fresh water or food supplies after their yacht was sunk by killer whales. Their tale of survival reveals the extremes the human body can endure. By William Park. 9 January 2020, bbc. *
‘We pledged not to eat each other’: the family that was shipwrecked for 38 days
{{DEFAULTSORT:Robertson, Dougal 1924 births 1992 deaths People from Edinburgh Scottish sailors Animal attack victims Attacks in 1972 Castaways 20th-century Scottish memoirists 20th-century Scottish writers 20th-century Scottish male writers Scottish non-fiction writers Scottish male non-fiction writers Formerly missing British people Maritime incidents in 1972 Orca attacks Sailing books Shipwrecks in the Pacific Ocean