A fatal dream of speed
Published: Tue, 06/26/18
In January 1967 a picture appeared on the front page of the newspaper which became an iconic image of the late 1960s. I believe that the grainy image was a still extracted from film shot at Coniston Water in the English Lake District. The picture showed a strange looking boat, a hybrid of a hydroplane and a jet fighter, cartwheeling in the air over the water. The whole film clip was was repeatedly shown on the TV news.
To a seven year old boy there wasn’t any mystery as to what the picture represented, everyone knew that the strange looking craft was Bluebird and its pilot was Donald Campbell. And now Campbell was dead and lying in 140 feet of water at the bottom of Lake Coniston. Navy divers did look for his body but failed to locate it, Campbell’s helmet and a teddy bear mascot was all that was recovered. On family holidays in the Lake District in the 1970s and 80s as a family we would walk around Coniston and reflect that this was the last resting place of Campbell and his beautiful, ill fated, craft. There was a sadness, both for Campbell who had died at 47, and for the end of an era of glamor and excitement, which had enchanted small boys of all ages.
Who was Donald Campbell? Donald was the son of Malcolm Campbell, who, starting in the 1920s, had broken land and water speed records. Always in vehicles painted blue and christened Bluebird. After WW2 Donald had taken over from his father and had commissioned his own versions of Bluebird. In order to achieve his goals Donald embraced jet aircraft technology with spectacular results. The Bluebird car achieved 403mph in 1964 a record for wheel driven cars (as opposed to jet or rocket thrust) that stood until 2001. The Bluebird car is an astonishingly beautiful creation and can be see in the Beaulieu motor museum.
The land speed records were impressive but they took place far away on Salt Flats in the USA and Australia. The Bluebird boat was built in the early 1950s by an engineering company which usually made buses. For 12 years the Bluebird boat was regularly in the news as Campbell regularly broke speed records, usually on the calm waters of Consiston. Somehow it was all very English and close to home. Then, on the 4th of January 1967 Campbell decided that he would crack 300 mph. Apparently he succeeded in reaching 328 mph but Bluebird flipped high into the air and crashed into the lake. As the water closed over the scene something of the optimism of the 1960s sank with Blue bird and its skipper.
What made Donald Campbell, and his father before him, such appealing characters of their time was that they recognized no rules or limitations. They didn’t compete in races or sporting competitions, their only adversary was the law of physics and the limits of technology, both of which father and son challenged with fearless determination. Until that is, physics hit back that fateful day in January 1967.
At the time of his death Donald Campbell held the world speed records for land, 403 mph and water 276 mph. Throughout the 1950s and 60s speed record attempts seemed to show what technology could achieve when combined with flamboyant ambition and personal determination. The very real element of personal danger certainly sharpened the public interest too. The wreck on Consiston was by no means the first time Campbell had crashed during a record attempt. By managing to survive on the previous occasions he had added courage and luck to his own personal legend.
As a small boy I was fascinated by noisy machines that went very fast. I wasn’t exactly alone in that. The Bluebirds were very British projects created using the products of British industry. There was also the theater of a plucky Brit showing those Yanks how it should be done. So, there was certainly an element of harmless patriotic pride involved. Apart from that, why remember Campbell and Bluebird? Perhaps chasing speed records with such single minded determination was about realising a dream. It does not matter too much what the dream is so long as living it, even dying for it, inspires others.
regards
Graham
PS 1n 2001 the wreck of Bluebird was raised from the bottom of Coniston and Cambell’s remains were recovered too. Campbell is now laid to rest in Consiston Cemetery. Bluebird has been restored and there are plans for her to ride again, maybe even on Coniston once more. That would be worth seeing, but it would be nostalgia for the past, not the promise for the future that Bluebird seemed to represented when I was seven. More information here if you are interested http://www.bluebirdproject.com/index.php?id=24
PPS Of course, if it your dream to learn Stav then the next day of training will be on the 21st of July please see http://iceandfire.org.uk/train.html