Transcript of Dark Shadows | 1

We were on our own. You have to make a choice. Are we going to die?

The Pacific Ocean, the early '70s.

Douglas, take the wheel.

Stop, Lisa. Come on, come on.

All right.

Two white sails billowing in the wind. Andy, come over here. Come over here. On board, a family. On the adventure of a lifetime. Wow, what a beauty. Saving sailing round the world. Just sea, sky, for hundreds of miles.

The spray was coming across the deck, but it was a normal morning, and there was no cause for alarm. We could smell the coffee, and we're all looking forward to having a cup.

But then, I did notice that the fishing line was dancing in the water. Sandy looks over.

Oh, caught a fish.

He pulled it in.

Said, Oh, look, Sandy, it's a squid.

And where there are squid, bigger fish I found.

It was then that I saw something, a black mark in the distance, a distinct black shape, and it drew my attention.

But then it disappears.

I thought it might be a piece of flotsam, maybe a dingy or something, but it came and went. And I said to Sandy, Did you see that? That dark black thing, did you see it?

I said, Yeah, I said, Top of your beard.

Where seabirds don't really have that shape. They're soft. This was solid. Bang, bang, bang.

This is Adrift, an Apple Original podcast, produced by Blanchard House. I'm Becky Milligan.

Episode One: Dark Shadows.

Four years earlier. Staffordshire, rural England. January 1968.

Farming It was a tough existence. Fetching the cows in, milking the cows.

Money is tight. Dugal and Lynn are struggling to put food on the table and buy clothes and shoes for their four kids, Douglas, Anne, and twins, Sandy and Neil.

Fifteen years dairy farming in the middle of the countryside. It had diminished to extinction my enthusiasm for an agricultural way of life.

And in those 15 years, just two weeks off, it's up at the crack of dawn, day after day.

He wasn't a farmer. My dad wasn't. He wasn't born to farm. It took a lot out of him doing that farm. He found it very hard work.

Originally from Edinburgh, Dugal was one of nine.

The youngest. He was the youngest.

Eleven of them in one tiny apartment. Unt.

His dad was a music teacher. They had no money. They were a very poor family. There were so many kids, in fact, that Dugal and his brother had to sleep underneath the piano.

His eldest brother joined the merchant Navy.

And I think my dad was a bit taken with tales of foreign travel and followed in his brother's footsteps.

Dugal was at sea for 20 years traveling the world, and he was a good sailor, rising up the ranks to sea captain before he gave it all up to be a farmer and start a family.

He was like a square peg in a round hole.

Now he's married with four kids. Life is a struggle.

We didn't have electricity city. We had paraffin lamps and candles.

And no running water.

We had open fires, set fire to the house twice. Dugal had to stop milking the cows and come put the fire out. So, yeah, it was a tough life.

The kids don't know just how hard things are for their parents.

We didn't know we lived in poverty.

But they do have freedom, acres and acres of countryside to play in.

We would go out and enjoy our life from sun up to sundown. If Mom and Dad wanted us, Dad would whistle.

Like that?

No, four fingers.

Oh, I can do that, too.

Yeah, go. No, you can't.

I can. I can.

Well, it was twice as loud as that. Really? Yeah. And You could hear this for half a mile away, this whistle.

Anne and Douglas are the oldest kids.

We used to get up to all sorts of mischief.

Climbing trees and making dens.

We used to play together all the time. We only had each other.

We got on well together.

That's why I told him all my secrets.

We'd have fights.

Fist fights. We chipped two of my teeth. So we weren't afraid of physicality.

Dugal and Lynn are working all hours, so the kids are left to get on with it.

When we got hungry, we'd find mushrooms, wild raspberries, wild strawberries, crab apples, green gages. We knew all the places to find lunch. On a windy day, I'd go and find myself a patch of long grass, and I'd lie down just listening to those sounds. The circle of grass around me.

For four years later.

Dad. Dad.

Douglas is on deck, looking down through the hatch at Dugol.

He was looking back up at me. Terrified, confused, his eyes full of fear.

And it's only now that Douglas realizes why his dad looked so scared.

He was up to his ankles in water. There was water around his feet. And he said, Where's this water coming from? And I didn't know. I was asking him that.

And now Douglas sees the damage below deck.

These gaping holes. Just at that moment, I heard a big surging splash behind me. I turned my head. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. 3 killer whales.

Sandy sees them, too.

I looked at them and thought, A killer whale?

So close, he can almost touch them.

Right there.

Killer whales. Orchers.

The first one, big one, about 30 foot long. His head was split open and blood was pouring into the water in a long stream behind him. I thought that whale's in trouble. Something's wrong here. Whales, dad, there's whales out here. What?

What did you see? Douglas looks through the hatch at his dad.

And he was up to his knees in water. The the water had risen afloat in that few seconds.

Lynn puts her hand on his shoulder.

It's no good, Duba. We can't save Lucet. We have to go. We have to go now. Come on. Well, there's still time to save ourselves.

Lynn's voice snaps Dugal into action. Only a minute has passed since the moment of impact. If Dugal doesn't act now, they're all going down with the Lucet. He gives an order. Two words he never imagined he would have to utter.

Abandoned ship.

Abandoned ship.

Four years earlier.

He had no money, yet he'd go to the pub and drink whiskies, which were expensive, and the children hadn't got any shoes to wear.

And Dugal would be drinking all night if it wasn't for Lynn.

She walked in her nightdress from the farm to the pub, which is three miles.

She wandered into the pub and said, Dugal, what the hell do you think you're doing?

My mom was a strong woman, farmer's daughter, big-boned. I remember her arms and her wrists.

With Dugal spending money, he doesn't have on whiskey and with the farm struggling, Lynn has no choice but to return to work.

My mom was a nurse.

A midwife. And with babies to deliver any time of day or night, Lynn is always rushing back and forth to the hospital on her moped.

Wearing oven gloves because she couldn't find her gloves and just ordinary clothes.

And the roads can be treacherous.

My mom had some exciting moments on this motorbike. There were lots of minor accidents.

Lynn met Dugal when she was working in Hong Kong in the '50s. Dugal's ship was in port. He was the captain, and they fell madly in love.

You think what a perfect couple. The world was at their feet. My Mom met Dugal for the very first time. In the Peninsula Hotel in Hong Kong, and he was swinging on the chandelier with his kilt off. That was her first meeting. He knew how to party.

I used life and soul of the party.

Dugald was a great talker. He had great charisma and a great talker at a party.

He entertained?

Oh, yeah. Entertaining. Very entertaining chap and very colorful. Everywhere he went, he held court. People in awe of Dugal. He had a magnetism.

His New Year's Eve parties were legendary.

A couple of whiskies down dad, and he was back in his Navy days, dancing around with his kilt, singing his Scottish songs, and he used to get quite drunk.

So Dugal was quite a social beast. My mom was not.

I think mom was a little bit embarrassed about dad's antics.

So they were different.

Dugal was an outspoken, socialist, atheist, rebel. And the farming community goes to church every Sunday. So they're quite religious. A Dugal was not that. And yet my mom was ultra-Christian.

She was religious. We had to go to Church. We hated going to go to church, but we had to go to Church on a Sunday.

We all had christenings, and she was so pleased when I joined the choir and sang in the Church choir. So they came from quite different walks of life, actually. But certainly then, it didn't seem to be a problem.

Dugal was the love of my mother's life.

My mom loved my dad. My dad was her great love. A landing ship. A landing ship.

Dad, what's happening? Get the life raft over the plate and then get the dingy over the side.

Do as your dad says.

I thought, no, this is not happening. This can't be happening.

Below deck, Dugal and Lynn grab what they can. Lynn rumages through drawers. For a second, she and Dugal hold each other tight. By now, the water is up to their waists. Dugal orders Neil up on deck. Now, Lynn is right behind him. Dugal takes one last look.

Dugal, Dugal, come on, quick. She's going.

And he canders up. Dad, please. Everyone is now on deck. Are you in high?

I stood mesmerized for a moment. It was like watching a film unfold in slow motion.

Wait, We move. My mom was trying to get the life jackets onto the twins. Wait, wait.

The water's coming up, and she's trying to put these life jackets on us.

We were going to sink, and this was it.

Douglas is luring the sails. It doesn't make sense, but he's in shock.

Douglas, get the bloody liferaft over the side.

And I immediately jumped, too. The adrenaline was pumping by now.

Douglas has to get the small fiber glass dingy into the sea and then the inflatable life raft. They'll need both.

Pick the dingy up. Slid it over the rail. Picked the life raft up, threw it over the side.

The life raft is supposed to inflate by tugging on a rope.

And I started pulling the rope in.

It should inflate by straight away, but it isn't working.

I kept pulling on the rope, pulling, pulling, pulling.

The raft still isn't inflating. Douglas is frantic. In the next few seconds, they're all going down with the loose set.

Suddenly, the raft starts to inflate, and I just remember the relief, the extreme relief.

And then Dugal gives the order again. Abandon ship.

The Lucet was beginning to go under. There's water crashing over the deck.

The deck that just minutes earlier was 6 feet above the waterline.

She was going.

In the chaos, 11-year-old Neil can't take it in. He could only think about, Teddy, Me teddies.

Me teddies. I want me teddies.

His Teddy bears. He can't leave them behind.

I had me ted stuffed under me life, Jack.

Waves are now swamping the Luzet. Douglas is standing on the side of the deck when one big rolling wave hits him.

And over I went.

I reached out, trying to grab him, but I wasn't quick enough. My hands were just desperately grasping at fresh air. My eldest son, who I loved more than I could ever have told him, was taken right in front of me.

Douglas is swallowed by the sea. Then, flashes of black and white.

And I thought, my God, I'm going to be eating alive here. This is how it's going to end.

It was terrifying that we might watch Douglas being torn limb from limb and devoured, and the rest of us would be next.

This is it. Wait for the teeth. Keep feeling for your legs. Just keep feeling for your legs. Keep feeling that you've still got them. How could it come to this? How could a farmer's son from the middle of England be eaten by a bloody killer whale in the Pacific Ocean? Sunday.

Sunday. It's my turn. Four years earlier. Sunday, a day of family communion. Every Sunday, after church, The family gather in the parents bedroom to just chat. Stop it.

Now calm down, you lot.

But this Sunday will turn out to be unlike any other.

Duglas made the breakfast. Porridge. Porridge. Hot porridge again, dad.

He brings it upstairs with cups of tea.

To yourself.

Douglas, give us a show.

Douglas will be fooling around and messing about as he normally does.

16-year-old Douglas is the entertainer.

I used to do a funny show for them, and they used to laugh like hell about it. Dark seas and stormy weather have seen two more competitors drop out of the Sunday Times round the World Yacht Race.

There's something interesting on the news.

The Unstoppable Robin Nox Johnston is still in the first place as he approaches New Zealand.

The Round the World Yacht Race, nonstop. It's never been done before. It's captured the public's imagination and Dugas. It takes him back to his days as a sea captain and master mariner.

Dad started talking about the perils of the sea and what these men would face and how high the seas were and the dangers of lone yachtsmen at sea. And we just sat and listened in all. Then suddenly Neil just said, Well, Dad, you were a sailor.

You were a sailor. Why don't we sail around the world? I didn't think anybody would take that seriously.

But Neil's throwaway remark, well, it's the spark of an idea.

It got him thinking. He said, Well, we could sail around the world. There's no reason why we can't.

In fact, he thinks he has a very good reason why they should.

He thought that by taking us around the world, it would be an education in life. He thought that his children, he even said it, were a bit backward because they'd been brought up in a rural environment. A bit insulting, really.

Where will we go after the Panama Canal then, dad?

Talk of sailing around the world seemed to be the main topic of every conversation. How long do you think it would take? We're always talking about it. Can I take all me Teddy's dad? Consuming our every moment for two years. Once Dugal had sold me the idea. Nothing, nothing was going to turn my head.

So it turned into your dream as well.

It turned into my dream.

But while Dougal and the kids are swept up by this crazy idea.

My mom was full of doubt. Full of doubt. Really? Yeah, she was quiet. My mom was always very reserved about this.

And Lynn's sister tells her to put her foot down.

She said, You're crazy, allowing Dougal to talk you into this. You've got your children to think about.

But Dugas is not going to be talked out of it.

When he made his mind up about something, that was it.

And he's getting ready, going to some extraordinary lengths. He knows that if you get sick at sea, it can be really serious because you're on your own. But there's one illness you can prevent, appendicitis. In fact, lots of sailors used to have their appendix taken out just in case. So that's what Dugas arranges for the whole family.

We were in hospital together. Really? Yeah.

A family affair, going and have your appendix out.

Well, you get him pretty involved, don't you? If you have your appendix out.

Word about their trip and the operation soon gets out.

Dugal was a crazy father, dragging his wife and kids around the world.

And the neighbors give Dugal a piece of their mind.

What's this I hear about you sailing around the world? I've never heard anything so ridiculous in all my life.

People would come up to us and say, Your dad's a fool.

What are you doing that for?

What the hell are your parents doing?

Even close family can't believe it.

Uncle Bill was saying, No, you can't do this. You've got your family, but it was time to talk my mother out of it. He was really worried about it.

What was he worried What about?

Sinking. I said, Well, my dad's a master mariner. He's a sailor. We're not going to sink, are we? If you go to sea on a boat, it doesn't matter what boat it is. Things can happen.

Like sinking?

Like sinking.

They're becoming the talk of the town.

Robertson family to sail around the world. The local newspaper had got a hold of it.

This family sailing around the world. It was big news because people didn't do that.

We We're going to lose a lot of face if we didn't do it now.

So dad sells the farm, buys us a boat.

The Luzet, a 50-year-old boat. Yes, Dugal is a former sea captain with decades of experience, but the rest of his family-We hadn't even set foot on a boat.

We were farmers.

From rural England, miles from the sea. And that's precisely what's always worried Lynn. Four years later, they're finally about to set sail, and Lynn realizes this is her last chance to stop the madness. Her anxiety turns to anger.

What the hell do you mean?

I should never have gone along with it.

Mom and dad were having a fight, a physical fight.

You should have said something before we sold the farm.

I should have put a stop to it months ago. She was hitting it. My mom had fist like you wouldn't believe.

We always have to do what you want. Oh, that's a lie. I'm not going. We're not going.

Well, I'm going. You've had four years to say this for Christ's sake.

Four bloody years. Yeah, and I should have. But you never let me. It's just all about you. It's never about me. This is your dream, Dugal. You a dream, not ours. What if something happens? What about the children?

What about school? What better education can you have than going around the world?

Anything's better than that shit hole of a farm.

None of us can sail, Dugal. You I can, but we can't. It's dangerous. Have you thought about that?

We thought, Mom and dad are really having a crack at each other here.

Nothing's going to happen, woman. I'll tell you what, man. I'll tell you what. I'll go back to see. The rest of you can stay here.

It was definitely violent.

Oh, you bastard.

My mum's ring caught my dad's face and cut his cheek.

I don't want to go.

Well, it's for that. We've got nothing left.

It's never too late, Dugon.

And she drew blood. He's bleeding.

Get off me.

I'm sick of you.

We, as parents, were for the first time beginning to question exactly what we had embarked upon. It had been all too easy to tell friends and family that we were selling up in order to sail around the world. From the beginning, we had convinced ourselves that we We were not fleeing our economic plight or escaping from reality, but were doing what was best for our children.

A year and a half later, the Lucet is now low in the water. Douglas is nowhere to be seen, and the killer whales are circling. The Lucet's breaking up.

Whatever fate had in store for us, we didn't have a choice. It was too dangerous to stay on board the Lucet any longer.

Time has run out. Dugal has to put Douglas to the back of his mind. He orders the twins to swim, swim like mad for the raft, which is drifting away from the Luzet. Eleven-year-old Neil goes first.

You've got in the back of your mind, these bloody killer whales.

But he forces himself not to think about them and swims. Next, Sandy, his twin. Before he steps into the sea, Lynn hands him the only food she's managed to salvage, a bag of onions.

She said, Hold on to these. And I just stepped off Lucet into the ocean But the onions are heavy, and Sandy's so small. So I rolled on my back like an otter, dropped the onions on my chest, and kicked my legs. Kicking, kicking, kicking.

Kicking like mad because of those huge killer whales.

They must be still around.

Dugal watches Sandy from the submerged deck of the Luzet. The raft is moving further and further away from his little boy.

No matter how hard his little arms thrashed the water, he just couldn't close the gap. I watched him dig deep, gritting his teeth, trying to reach the raft, trying to find that crucial extra bit of speed that would save his life.

The ocean swells roll over the deck of the Lucet, blasting white flumes of water into the air. The cabin windows shatter. Lynn is next to swim to the raft.

In the distance, I could hear my children crying.

But she's waited too long to get off. Her nighty is caught on something.

As hard as she tried, she couldn't break free. The Lucet was pulling Lynn down, and then I lost sight of her.

Douglas is gone.

Lynn is gone. Dugo is certain they're dead. You've been listening to Adrift, an Apple original podcast, produced by Blanchard House and hosted by me, Becky Milligan. Adrift is written and produced by Ben Crichton and me, Becky Milligan. The series is based on the book, The Last Voyage of the Lucet by Douglas Robertson. Original score by Daniel Lloyd Evans, Louis Nankmanell, and Tobi Matimong. Sound design by Volkhan Kiseltug and Daniel Lloyd Evans, with dialog editing by Tobi Matimong. The lead sound engineer is Volkhan Kiseltug. The part of Dugal Robertson is played by Mark Bonner, and Lynn Robertson is played by Anne-Marie Duff. Their words are adapted from Dugal and Lynn's own accounts of their story. The Young Robertson twins are played by Rocco Hamill and Dexter Hutton. Other parts are played by Mark Gillis. The managing producer is Amika Shortino-Nolan.. The creative director of Blanchard House is Rosie Pye. The executive producer and head of content at Blanchard House is Laurence Grisell.