Shipwrecks can take many forms, and they do not always involve ships. The great poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge knew this, and he used the imagery of the fight for survival at sea to describe the struggle of the human soul. If the shipwreck finds you, and you survive, it may wash you up onto a strange shore, and the experience will change your life. In this three-part series produced for Radio Netherlands’ first season of The Sound Fountain, award-winning Canadian broadcaster Chris Brooks tells three unorthodox tales of “shipwrecks”.
In this programme, a man tries to change his skin. The remarkable, true story of Lanier Phillips and the wreck of the USS Truxton in 1942.
Producer: Chris Brooks
Broadcast: March 12, 2000
The documentary won an award at the New York Festivals in 2000.