When the Ship Comes in

When the Ship Comes in

1985 3 March 13-14 When the Ship Comes in (485) In the 1984 Observer/Europe I Singlehanded transatlantic yacht race, the trimaran of Frenchman Phillippe Poupon was first to cross the line. As he approached the finishing line in Newport, Rhode Island, he was welcomed by a fanfare of boats’ horns and sirens; red flares and rockets flashed in the evening sky, welcoming the boat that everyone thought was the winner. Phillippe Poupon shared their belief. He leapt on to the port wing of his trimaran and raised both arms in the air in triumph.

On the following morning another yacht, the 53-foot trimaran of Yvon Fauconnier – Umpuro Jardin Vemerged unannounced and unheralded from the mist. Yet it was this yacht that was to be declared winner of the race. In mid-Atlantic Credit Agricole II, the catmaran of Yvon Fauconnier’s countryman Phillippe Jeantot, had capsized. Fauconnier immediately went to his rescue. The operation to right Credit Agricole II took a whole day and Yvon Fauconnier remained on the scene until it had been completed. The race committee heard about the part that Fauconnier had played in Jeantot’s rescue, and awarded him a 16-hour compensation. When this was removed from his overall time, Fauconnier was declared winner of the 1984 OSTAR.

The elation of Phillippe Poupon, the apparent winner of the race, turned to anguish. “People will not understand why I am not the winner. I am the first boat. I used to like this race because it was so simple: the winner was the winner. But for me this race is finished.” Later at a press conference Poupon put his face behind his hands and wept.

It will be much the same when man’s ship crosses the finishing line of time, and when the results of his endeavours in life are announced. There will be one who crosses the finishing line amidst a fanfare of acclaim. He will be the one who made a great show of his piety, who always appeared in the forefront of religious rites and ceremonies. He will appear to be the winner of the race, but there will be another who arrives unheralded and unacclaimed who will emerge triumphant. He is the one who stopped for a while on his way through life to give another a helping hand; who devoted a few hours of his precious time to saving a precious soul; who, far from the spotlights of fame and acclaim, out in the midst of the lonely ocean of life, committed an act of sincere goodwill towards a fellow human being. He will be shown mercy on the Day of Judgment because of the mercy that he showed to others in the world.

On that day it is the last who will indeed be first, and the first who will be last.