As part of my recent focus on the life of H.W 'Bill' Tilman, I have read the story of his final voyage as a member of the crew in a 1977 expedition. The voyage was headed by the 23-year-old Simon Richardson, who had previously sailed on one of Tilman's own voyages.
Simon Richardson was a young, adventurous sailor but whose expedition aboard his boat En Avant ended in complete mystery. After leaving Lymington and reaching Rio without incident, En Avant left Rio for Port Stanley with a crew of six, including Tilman, and was never seen again.
The appendixes gather expert speculation about what might have happened to En Avant, but no firm conclusion is possible. The result is a restrained, sympathetic account that appeals to sailors, adventurers, and admirers of Tilman’s world.
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Footnote:
There is more to say about the story of En Avant. Next year sees the 50th anniversary of her departure from Lymington.
Meantime here are some details (results of web search today) of an HTV / ITV documentary titled "No Pay, No Prospects and Not Much Pleasure". Broadcast in the early 1980s, this documentary was produced and directed by John Mead to honour the extraordinary life of Tilman.
Programme Details & Background
- The
Title: The name of the documentary is taken directly from Tilman's
famously blunt, recurring classified advertisement used to recruit crews
for his perilous voyages: "No pay, no prospects, not much
pleasure."
- The
Interview Context: The documentary covers Tilman’s final, fateful
expedition in 1977. At 79 years old, Tilman signed up as an
ordinary crew member under the 24-year-old skipper Simon Richardson.
They set sail for Antarctica's Smith Island on En Avant—a
converted, old steel tugboat that Simon had painstakingly stripped down
and rebuilt himself.
- The
Disappearance: The ship and its six young crew members, along with
Bill Tilman, vanished without a trace in the South Atlantic in late 1977.
- Dorothy
Richardson's Role: In the film, Simon’s mother, Dorothy Richardson,
provides a moving interview about her son's fierce spirit of
independent adventure, his bond with Tilman, and the legacy of the En
Avant crew. She later compiled her son's diaries and letters into the biography under discussion here: The Quest of Simon Richardson.
Current Availability
The documentary was originally produced by the regional ITV franchise HTV (Harlesden Television / HTV Wales). Because it is a historic regional broadcast, it is not widely available on mainstream commercial streaming platforms. However, physical DVD prints exist, and it is occasionally preserved or shared within classic sailing networks, outdoor film societies, or regional British television archives.
I've yet to find it, or see it.....