By KIM SENGUPTA
The blue fin of Donald Campbell's Bluebird had not been bathed in light since the crisp January day, 34 years ago, when it was catapulted to the foot of Coniston Water in the English Lake District.
It was afforded a suitably memorable return as it was heaved back
to the surface yesterday.
The sun pierced mist over the Old Man of Coniston, catching the fin as it was raised, and the serenity of the moment left onlookers as silent as those who witnessed the chilling crash that killed Campbell.
Yesterday, his family and friends saw for the first time the torn wreckage of the boat in which he perished, achieving his dream of reaching 300 miles per hour (482.8 km/h) in his last moments.
The son of Sir Malcolm Campbell, who broke the land-speed record in 1931 in his Roll-Royce V12-powered Bluebird car, Donald Campbell is the only person to have held both land and water speed records in the same year.
After attempts at breaking water-speed records in his father's boat, K4, Donald Campbell developed his own boat, the K7, and set seven world water-speed records between 1955 and 1964.
He attained a speed of 276 mph (444 km/h) on Lake Dumbleyung in Australia in 1964.
He then turned to the land-speed record but crashed badly in a record run in 1960 in Utah in the US.
Some believed the crash and his long convalescence affected Campbell's health but in 1964, on Lake Eyre in Australia, he was back racing and set a world land speed record of 648 km/h.
Three years later, while trying to become the first person to go over 300 mph (482.8 km/h) on water, he crashed at Coniston.
He achieved a run of 477.8 km/h but when he came back for the second leg, the boat lifted out of the water, somersaulted and disintegrated.
The world water-speed record has stood at 511 km/h (317.6 mph) since Australian Ken Warby broke the 300 mph barrier in 1978.
Yesterday, a team of 16 divers took more than five hours to winch Bluebird 46m out of its resting place, in a bed of silt, and then towed it in for 2.4km with a 6m crane attached to a barge.
A smattering of applause greeted the end of the delicate manouevre, but the mood stayed sombre.
Campbell's body has not been found, and some of his family, as well as many in Coniston, had wanted the boat, too, to be left undisturbed. Until recently, his widow, Tonia Bern-Campbell, was adamant that it should be left as a "memorial" to her husband. But his daughter, Gina, wanted the salvaging operation to take place.
The raising was carried out in conjunction with the BBC, which is making a documentary about the operation.
A friend of Mrs Bern-Campbell said she had agreed to the salvage because, with the location known, it would have fallen prey to trophy hunters.
She is also said to have signed a deal with a Sunday tabloid newspaper to share her thoughts with its readers.
A few years ago Mrs Bern-Campbell released the diaries of her late husband which revealed a man traumatised by his repeated crashes and racked with dark despair.
She was criticised for releasing the diaries, but insisted the public had right to know the complete man rather than a sanitised version.
The local people of Coniston say nothing will stop them revering the memory of Donald Campbell, or his resting place.
Bluebird was taken away on a trailer, the influx of visitors dispersed, and a calm returned to the lake.
- INDEPENDENT
By KIM SENGUPTA
The blue fin of Donald Campbell's Bluebird had not been bathed in light since the crisp January day, 34 years ago, when it was catapulted to the foot of Coniston Water in the English Lake District.
It was afforded a suitably memorable return as it was heaved back
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