Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
An Army captain who, with Sergeant Ch. Blythe, rowed across the Atlantic in a twenty-foot boat.
On the island
Eight records
The Nuns’ Chorus (from Casanova)
Orchestra and Chorus of the Grosses Schauspielhaus, Berlin
Also one of my mother's favourite records ... I sort of like listening to it for this particular reason.
Sinfonia Antarctica (opening passage)Favourite
London Philharmonic Orchestra, Sir Adrian Boult; Sir John Gielgud
It's been a guidepost to me really. It played a large part in ... my taking the chance to row across the Atlantic.
Overture to The Sound of Music
The last film I went to with my wife prior to going on a trip ... during the trip about two o'clock in the morning when I was rowing, I had ... the overture from The Sound of Music.
Closing passage of the Overture to Tannhäuser
Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Herbert von Karajan
This in fact was my wife's record ... when we were depressed we used to listen particularly to this ... it's very unsubtle and it means a lot to me.
The Road and the Miles to Dundee
This is the song which boosted us when we were getting a bit depressed on the sea.
Letter Home (from Summer Song)
It reminds me of many times in my life when I've done unexpected things on the spur of the moment, and they've turned out sometimes disastrously and sometimes very memorable indeed.
Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra, Antal Doráti
Towards the end of the tour ... we used to get very depressed sometimes ... all the corporals used to get together in an evening ... we used to play this record and we all used to conduct.
I've almost always come back to lean on this and recited to myself.
In conversation
Presenter asks
1:14Why did you choose The Nuns’ Chorus?
The nuns chorus is also um one of my mother's favourite records. We were we were very close, my mother and I. And I sort of like listening to it for this particular reason.
Presenter asks
2:55Captain Ridgway, the Atlantic had been rowed before, hadn't it? How did you come to decide to do it?
Well it was not a thing that um I'd always wanted to do at all. I'd never even thought of it until I heard it on the wireless … I saw a chance to do something … which was not going to cost a great deal … I think 500 pounds covered the whole thing. So David Johnston went off and started an attempt … and I teamed up with Sergeant Blythe and decided to make an independent attempt.
Presenter asks
5:14How long did you think the voyage was going to take, Sergeant Blythe?
Between uh sixty to eighty days, we thought it would take about that, but in fact we took provisions for a hundred days.
Presenter asks
The keepsakes
No book or luxury recorded for this episode.
Did either of you suffer from seasickness?
Yes, I knew I was going to be seasick, therefore I decided that a good idea would be to start in the late part of the day, so that darkness would quickly come and no one would see me being sick … I was sick I think four times in the first twenty four hours. And after that … it cleared up, although we did feel sick, both of us, sometimes underneath this wet piece of canvas in very bad weather.
Presenter asks
12:25Was there any moment when you felt like giving up?
I don't think we ever f really felt like giving up. We did discuss the possibility about three hundred miles off Ireland … I felt that I had to at least offer [him] the chance of giving up … I thought that this wasn't really worth dying for … He decided that … having come this far we weren't bloody well going to finish and uh so we went on.
Presenter asks
13:33Looking back, apart from that time of despair, what was the worst thing about the voyage?
I think there are two ways of looking at this. There was the period of depression which ensued early on when the navigation went slightly wrong … And then I remember right out in the middle in really bad conditions sometimes. I was wondering if we were going to wear out altogether. Each storm seemed to leave us weaker, and we'd recover when the sun came out, and then we'd get weaker. But each storm we'd be a little bit weaker.