Too fast for this world

Published: Fri, 12/06/19

I read a lot of books, I own a lot of books. Occasionally I intentionally buy a book. Most of the time books seem to find me. Often that book will take me somewhere unexpected and interesting. A very recent example happened the Saturday before last when I was helping out at the Jacobs Well Charity warehouse sale. I found myself managing the record stall and managed to sell quite a few. I also grabbed a few minutes to glance over the bookstall. Three books for a pound so that is what I allowed myself. One of the volumes I came away with was a hardback, published in 2002 called ‘My Speed King’ by Tonia Bern-Campbell, Miss Bern was the third wife of the record breaker Donald Campbell from 1958 until Campbell’s untimely death on Coniston Water in January 1967. Okay, it isn’t a great work of literature. I am pretty sure it is ghost written (which probably explains why it is very readable and quite well structured). The book was
probably commissioned by the publishers in 2001 because the wreck of Bluebird, Campbell’s record breaking boat, and the remains of Campbell himself, were recovered from their resting place at the bottom of Coniston at this time. Raising the wreck and Campbell’s belated funeral re awakened public interest in the tragedy and telling the wife’s story probably seemed timely.

The Campbell story was part of the glamour of the 1960s. The record attempts were front page news. I had a Dinky toys of the Bluebird record breaking cars. Some years later my parents liked to take family walking holidays in the lake district and we would walk the banks of Coniston Water and talk about the wreck and its skipper lying hundreds of feet below the surface of the lake.

Spoiler alert, the book begins with a memorial service in London and ends with a funeral in Coniston. The rest of the account builds up to the well known tragedy of Campbell’s crash and instantaneous death. In the book both Tonia Bern and Donald Campbell come over as flamboyant, extravagant, attention seeking drama queens who competed for the limelight. It is also clear that they were warm, fun loving human beings who lived life to the full. Campbell was also a gifted engineer, could inspire great loyalty from the teams who supported his record attempts. It is clear from the book that he could organize and lead a record attempt like a successful military commander. Post war Britain would have been a duller place without Campbell and his quest for speed.

The real tragedy revealed in the book is that Campbell died in 1967 fighting a battle which he had already won years before.

Before the second world war land, water, and indeed airspeed, records contributed something to the development of engineering. Achieving say, 300mph on land or 200mph on water took an impressive combination of engineering, design, construction, driving and teamwork. After the second world war jet engine technology found its way into record breaking car and boat design. Developments in tyre manufacture and the science of aerodynamics meant that building a car capable of perhaps 500mph or a boat of over 300mph was not a great technological problem any more. Now the challenge was finding somewhere on the planet where reaching such speeds was actually possible. One of the most entertaining chapters in Bern’s book is her account of 1963 and 1964 land speed record attempts at Lake Eyre in South Australia. This lake was supposed to provide 20 miles of flat salt and there had bee no rain in the area for 9 years. Simply surviving in the
outback so far from civilization was a huge challenge in itself which the book recounts in amusing detail. To make matters worse the drought broke and flooded the lake. The weather was better the following year and 403 mph was achieved even though the salt was still quite soft and damp. Campbell always believed that he could have done much better if the conditions had been right. Later the same year Campbell also set a water speed record of 276 mph on Lake Dumbleyung, also in Australia.

The 1964 achievements in Australia would have been a good point for Campbell to leave speed records behind and focus on other interests. However, it was decided to make one more attempt on the water speed record on Coniston water in December 1966. Once again the challenge was as much the weather as technology. On the morning of the 4th of January 1967 Campbell did momentarily reach a speed of 328 miles an hour but fatally lost control of his boat for reasons that have never been fully explained.

Tonia Bern’s book as an entertaining account of life in the fast lane in 1960s Britain. It wasn’t until a few days later I realised the important takeaway from her story. Sometimes we struggle to achieve something we think is important but cannot quite realise our vision. Is it that the idea is flawed and we have not tried hard enough to make our dream a reality? Or is there no place for the concept to take root and grow to its potential? Campbell created machines that had no place to test their real limits.

What challenges you? And what is the real nature of the challenge you are confronted with? Have you not fully developed your talent, gift or skill yet? Or maybe you have not yet found the situation in which your work can express its full potential?

I am taking Venetia into hospital today in readiness for the baby arriving next week. I find myself what kind of world our child will grow up in. How we can encourage it to fulfill its potential? Will he or she will be able to find the environment where it and its talents can flourish to the full?

regards

Graham

PS. Last training event of the year tomorrow in Beverley https://iceandfire.org.uk/train.html and I am still working on sorting out an interesting programme for 2020, more on that next week.

PPS. There is quite a good Wikipedia page on Campbell and his speed records here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Campbell