/ 
Robertson: a family trip around the world turns into a nightmare
When Dougal Robertson, a former merchant marine captain, sells his Staffordshire farm to buy Lucette with his wife Lyn, a nurse, his children Douglas and Anne, the twins Neil and Sandy, and a young passenger from the Canaries, Robin Williams, he embarks on a family sailing trip around the world on a 13-meter schooner.
It's 1971, and the family is making its way across the Atlantic, through the West Indies, through the Panama Canal, all the way to the South Pacific. The project, long in the making, was intended to be a life-size learning experience, "the university of life" according to Dougal.
But on June 15, 1972, 300 miles west of the Galapagos Islands, the dream capsized. Three orcas collided violently with the hull. In just one minute, Lucette flows.
A makeshift boat for six people
Barely enough time to inflate a three-meter inflatable raft, hoist a small fiberglass dinghy, grab a few lemons, oranges, a knife, 10 liters of water and distress flares. There are six of them, with no means of communication, left to their own devices in the heart of the Pacific.
For the first nine days, the family tried to survive aboard the inflatable raft. But the boat deflates, forcing everyone to transfer to the narrow, unstable, unprotected dinghy.
"We had nowhere to go. Just the sea." douglas will remember.
Rationing, turtles and enemas: brutal but inventive survival
Water soon became the main problem. The 10-liter reserve barely lasted ten days. The first rains offered a temporary respite. To feed themselves, the Robertsons improvised: hand fishing, flying fish and, above all, sea turtles, which brought them meat, blood, fat and even ointments to heal salt wounds.
Turtle blood, rich in water, is drunk as soon as it is caught. Their flesh is sun-dried to preserve it longer. The fat is used as an ointment. But drinking water soon ran out again. So Lyn, the nurse, proposes a radical method: use the soiled water recovered from the bottom of the dinghy (a mixture of blood, entrails, urine, excrement...) and administer it by enema.
Rectally, the body absorbs fluids without filtering toxins through the stomach. It's degrading, difficult to accept, but it works. Douglas makes a tube from the rungs of the raft's ladder. The whole family accepts the procedure, except Robin.
"It was humiliating, but it kept us alive" douglas would later write.
Between storms and hallucinations
One day follows another. Sharks circling the dinghy, infections, burns, hallucinations, crying hungry children... every night is a challenge. Douglas, then aged 18, takes charge of food management. Lyn provides physical and moral support for everyone. The family also improvised a system for smoking meat and storing fish. A net is even stretched across the back of the dinghy to try and catch other marine prey.
"We stuck together as a team. It was tough, but we stayed a family."
38 days later, salvation
On July 23, 1972, at dawn on the 38th day, a Japanese tuna boat, the Toka Maru II, crossed their path. Dougal set off his first distress flare. Nothing happened. A second. This time, the ship slowly alters course. When its horn sounded, the Robertsons understood: they were saved.
They drifted 900 miles, surviving without sails, motors, fresh water or food. Their salvation came down to resilience, family love and an inventiveness that often stretched to the limit.
A sea heritage etched in history
After their rescue, the Robertsons' story goes around the world. Dougal writes Survive the Savage Sea (1973), which was adapted for the screen in 1993. Douglas publishes The Last Voyage of the Lucette (2005), in which he tells a more intimate story of the experience aboard the raft, the tensions, the terrible decisions, the raw truth of survival.
The story becomes a textbook case in maritime training. It inspired Alain Bombard, survival schools and military instructors. Excerpts were included in nautical manuals, and objects from the expedition were exhibited at the National Maritime Museum in Cornwall.
Today, the Robertson children are grandparents. The family trauma has never faded. Dougal and Lyn divorced. Douglas joined the Royal Navy, then went into yachting. He looks after his injured son with the skills he acquired in the Pacific.
"What I learned on that raft has guided me all my life. But my children are tired of hearing the story of the 38 days..."
