Latest news with #MauriceandMaralyn:AnExtraordinaryTrueStoryofShipwreck
BBC News
15-03-2025
- General
- BBC News
My sister's months at sea after whale sunk boat
The first Pat Brewin knew about her sister and brother-in-law being shipwrecked at sea in a dinghy and rubber life raft - tied together for nearly four months - was when she was watched the News at 10."I said 'oh my God - that's our Maralyn being helped up the gangway'. "I can see her little legs now, they were like little sticks when they were carried into this Korean boat," she and Maurice Bailey's boat sank when it was hit by a whale in the Pacific Ocean on 4 March 1973, and after their food ran out, they made hooks from safety pins and caught fish, small sharks, seabirds and turtles to eat, and collected rainwater to drink. After a book about the survival of the Derby couple, who have since died, was named the best title of last year, Pat says it was her sister - who could not swim - that kept the pair going. Earlier this month, the book - called Maurice and Maralyn: An Extraordinary True Story of Shipwreck, Survival and Love - by Sophie Elmhirst, won the £30,000 Gold Prize at the Nero Book Awards. In 1966, Maralyn - who worked in a tax office - suggested to her husband they sell their house, in Allestree, buy a boat and live on pair - who both grew up in Normanton - bought their 31ft yacht called Auralyn and set sail for New Zealand from Southampton on 28 June 1972, with Maralyn aged 31, and Maurice aged told the BBC she would regularly receive postcards from her older sister. The 79-year-old said: "On one of them she said 'don't worry - you won't hear from me for a bit because we're crossing the Galapagos', so we never gave it another thought." At the end of February 1973, Maurice and Maralyn - who had married in 1963 - left Panama for the Galapagos Islands, a journey which should have taken about 10 days. But on day six - 4 March - the ship sank, 250 miles from their couple were left fighting for survival for 118 days on a 9ft-long dinghy and a life raft, which was 4ft 6in in diameter, tied together. They drifted about 1,500 miles in a mainly north-westwards direction before they were rescued by a Korean fishing who was talking to the BBC from her home in Chaddesden, in Derby, said Maralyn could not said: "I remember saying to her 'what are you going to do if you got into difficulties or into the sea?' She said 'I'll be fine'."And she would knowing Maralyn - she would find some way out of it." Pat said: "I think Maurice gave up. She was the strong one, definitely."She added: "I know how frightening it was."One night they had tied the rafts together and she was looking through a peep hole and two eyes were looking at her - and it was a huge whale. "She just sat there thinking, 'this is the end, one flip'. She said [the whale] just stared and stared, and then she didn't hear a ripple." Talking about their diet of survival, Pat said the couple, who later became vegetarian, had to eat everything raw. She said: "I remember them saying to her when she was rescued, they could not understand how her nails were still perfect. "For every fish she caught, she used to save the eyes and call them Smarties [after the chocolate sweet] - so they had a 'Smartie' at night."Apparently around fishes' eyes is all vitamins, so she never had scurvy or anything." Maurice and Maralyn - who were sitting in water up to waist deep - would try to get the attention of passing ships, but without said: "They'd used all their flares, the jackets and I think they sort of resigned themselves - I think Maurice had more - that they wouldn't make it."A total of seven ships passed them - Maurice, who had worked at Bemrose Booth printers in Derby, wrote in a first-hand said some were "within, half to three-quarters of a mile away, but none saw or heard our signals for help". "We were troubled by sharks buffeting the raft and whales blowing close and showering us with water," he added. In an interview with the BBC - broadcast in 2014 - Maurice, who later died in 2018, said: "I have always put the credit down to Maralyn that she saved me that I wouldn't have survived at all on my own, or if she was relying on me to save her, she wouldn't have had a very good outcome." He added: "She was the guiding light in everything we did."Maurice wrote in a first-hand account that they could only eat small amounts when they were rescued because they were too weak, and initially just had milk, then eggs, soup and butter. Moving was also very painful for them, and at first they could only crawl before they began to "hobble". The fishing boat took the them to Honolulu where they received medical treatment, and were also greeted by a lot of media attention. Journalist Ivor Davies, who was working for the Daily Express and saw the couple arrive, told the BBC: "This young couple stepped off a Korean fishing boat looking like they had just come out of a concentration camp."They were emaciated and hardly able to walk."Pat added: "I don't know how she did survive, I really don't."
Saudi Gazette
06-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Saudi Gazette
Real-life shipwreck story wins major book award
LONDON — The true story of a British couple who spent four months adrift on a life raft in the Pacific Ocean, after their boat was sunk by a whale, has been named the best book of last year at a prestigious ceremony. Maurice and Maralyn: An Extraordinary True Story of Shipwreck, Survival and Love, by Sophie Elmhirst, won the £30,000 Gold Prize at the Nero Book Awards, on tells the story of Maurice and Maralyn Bailey, who sold their Derbyshire bungalow to build a boat and set sail for New Zealand, in 1972, but had to survive at sea for 118 days after it Bill Bryson, who chaired the judges, called it "an enthralling, engrossing story of survival and the resilience of the human spirit".The Baileys set off in search of adventure in 1972 but struck disaster the following year, en route to the Galapagos the whale cracked a hole in their boat's hull, they had time to deploy their 4ft (1.2m) life raft and rescue a small amount of crafted a fishing line, using a safety pin from a first-aid kit and a piece of string, and survived on raw fish, turtles and small also invented card and word games and made dominoes out of scraps of paper, to keep their minds a journalist, came across the Baileys on a website dedicated to castaway stories, and set about researching their journey using Maralyn's diary and books Maurice published after their book won the Nero Book Awards Non-Fiction category in January and has now won the overall Gold Prize for Book of the Year said: "Impressively novelistic in its narrative approach, it is a gripping retelling of a true but forgotten story."It is a story of a marriage as much as of an adventure at sea, one that subtly explores the dynamics of a relationship under the greatest imaginable stress."Elmhirst's writing was "understated but powerful, immersing the reader intimately in the unfolding drama and the horror of struggling to survive against the odds with very few resources", he other judges were novelist Bernardine Evaristo and journalist Emily Maitlis."We unanimously agreed that Maurice and Maralyn is a non-fiction work that reaches the highest literary eminence," Bryson Nero Book Awards are the successors to the Costa Book Awards and were founded in 2023. — BBC
The Guardian
05-03-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Sophie Elmhirst's Maurice and Maralyn wins Nero book of the year prize
A book by a Guardian long read writer about the true story of a couple who were lost at sea for 118 days in the 70s after their boat was struck by a whale has won the Nero Gold prize. Sophie Elmhirst was presented with the £30,000 award for her book Maurice and Maralyn: An Extraordinary True Story of Shipwreck, Survival and Love at a ceremony in London on Wednesday evening. The book 'is an enthralling, engrossing story of survival and the resilience of the human spirit', said judging chair Bill Bryson. 'Impressively novelistic in its narrative approach, it is a gripping retelling of a true but forgotten story.' Maurice and Maralyn was revealed as the overall book of the year after winning the nonfiction category of the awards in January. It was chosen for the Gold prize over Lost in the Garden by Adam S Leslie, which won the fiction category; Wild Houses by Colin Barrett, which won the debut fiction category; and The Twelve by Liz Hyder, illustrated by Tom de Freston, which won the children's fiction category. Each of the four category winners received £5,000. This year marks the second iteration of the Nero prizes, which were launched after Costa Coffee abruptly ended its book awards in 2022. The Bee Sting by Paul Murray was chosen as the inaugural Gold prize winner. Maurice and Maralyn tells the story of a couple who, bored with suburban life in Derby, decide to sell their house, build a boat and set sail for New Zealand. However, 250 miles north of Ecuador, a sperm whale smashes into the boat, and they are cast adrift for nearly four months in the Pacific Ocean on a lifeboat. Elmhirst marshals their story into an 'electrifying narrative full of atmosphere and humanity and with the lightest dusting of romance,' wrote Fiona Sturges in a Guardian review of the book. 'Maurice and Maralyn is about a shipwreck, yes, but it's also a tender portrait of two unconventional souls blithely defying the conventions of their era and making a break for freedom.' As well as being a story about survival at sea and physical endurance, the book chronicles a marriage under immense stress. 'For what else is a marriage, really, if not being stuck on a small raft with someone and trying to survive?', Elmhirst writes. 'Shining through is the heroine's courage and fortitude', said Bryson. 'As Maurice flounders, it is Maralyn's strength that allows them to survive at sea', adding that the book 'is a tribute to Maralyn's grit'. Researching the book, Elmhirst studied the diaries Maralyn wrote on the raft, interviews with the couple after their rescue and the memoirs they wrote. Sign up to Bookmarks Discover new books and learn more about your favourite authors with our expert reviews, interviews and news stories. Literary delights delivered direct to you after newsletter promotion Elmhirst is a journalist who regularly writes for the Guardian long read and other publications including the Economist's 1843 magazine and the New Yorker. Maurice and Maralyn is her first book. She described winning the Nero nonfiction category award as like 'being given a lovely confidence transfusion'. Alongside Bryson, the Gold prize judging panel included Booker-winning author and Royal Society of Literature president Bernardine Evaristo and journalist Emily Maitlis. 'Elmhirst's writing is understated but powerful, immersing the reader intimately in the unfolding drama and the horror of struggling to survive against the odds with very few resources,' said Bryson. 'We unanimously agreed that Maurice and Maralyn is a nonfiction work that reaches the highest literary eminence'. Wednesday's ceremony also saw the announcement of a new award, the Nero new writers prize, to be run in association with Brunel University. Unpublished writers will be invited to submit 5,000 words of original adult fiction, children's fiction or creative nonfiction, with the winner receiving a cash prize, a scholarship to study for an MA in creative writing at Brunel and an introductory meeting with a literary agent. Maurice and Maralyn by Sophie Elmhirst is published by Vintage (£10.99). To support the Guardian and Observer order your copy at Delivery charges may apply.
