Hi guys,

Was wondering if you could help me with some info.

Am following up the story of David Lafferty who broke the World Endurance record underground in Gough's Cave in Cheddar in 1966.

He sadly passed away last month and we're just following up the story.

Does anyone have any memories or know anyone who talks about this successful world record attempt?

Also, what is the current world record for underground endurance? Guiness World Records are just being a little slow to get back to me!

Thanks,

Ed Palmer, Reporter, South West News Service

A few references (1966) from the Mendip Cave Registry & Archive bibliography which is on line -

www.mcra.org.uk


Cave Author Published Title Publication Reference Publisher
Gough's Cave Anon 1966 Cave Record Man's Wife says I don't understand Him. [Lafferty] Daily Express (2 Jun) 
Gough's Cave Anon 1966 Wow! bloss by cotton socks - I'e done it. [J. King : Lafferty] Daily Express (2 Aug) 
Gough's Cave Anon 1966 [Gough's Cave - Lafferty] Daily Express (27 May) 
Gough's Cave Anon 1966 [Gough's Cave - Lafferty] Daily Express (8 Aug) 
Gough's Cave Anon 1966 Caveman greets his wife, baby and pint. [J. King : Lafferty] Daily Express (5 Aug) 
Gough's Cave Anon 1966 Stay-down man nears record. [Lafferty] Bath Evening Chronicle 25 Jul 
Gough's Cave Anon 1966 Caver all set for record stay [Lafferty's underground stay report] Bristol Evening Post (24 Mar) 
Gough's Cave Anon 1966 Cave man loses nine hours [Gough's Cave] Bristol Evening Post (2 Apr) 
Gough's Cave Anon 1966 [Gough's Cave - Lafferty] Times, The (28 Mar) 
Gough's Cave Anon 1966 Caveman amazes the doctors on breaking surface. [Lafferty] Times, The (5 Aug) 
Gough's Cave Anon 1966 Cheddar Cave Man beats world record. [Lafferty] Times, The (2 Aug) 
Gough's Cave Anon 1966 [Lafferty in Gough's Cave] Daily Mail (19 Apr) 
Gough's Cave Anon 1966 [Gough's Cave - Lafferty] Daily Mail (27 May) 
Gough's Cave Anon 1966 The caveman loses track of 25 days [Lafferty] [p] Sunday Express (31 Jul) 
Gough's Cave Anon 1966 The Diary of caveman David. [Lafferty] Sunday Mirror (7 Aug) 
Gough's Cave Anon 1966 A human mole ends his 130 days of solitary confinment. [Lafferty] Guardian, The (2 Aug) 
Gough's Cave Anon 1966 Caveman aims to stay put until August Western Daily Press & Bristol Mirror (28 Mar) 
Gough's Cave Anon 1966 Caver aim for 108 day record[S. Hughes : Lafferty hopes to break 105 day underground stay record - Geoff Workman held record in Stump Cross caverns, in 1963] Western Daily Press & Bristol Mirror (10 Mar) 
Gough's Cave Anon 1966 Briton breaks world underground record. [Gough's Cave ; Lafferty] Daily Telegraph (2 Aug), illus 
Gough's Cave Anon 1966 Ex-RAF Officer 100 days in cave [p] Daily Telegraph (6 Jul) 
Gough's Cave Anon 1966 Cheddar Discovery Daily Telegraph (1 Jul) 
Gough's Cave Anon 1966 Stalactite find. [Gough's Cave : new stal. grotto found by Lafferty : Ray Mansfield commented at the time - "Pull the other ..."] Daily Telegraph (1 Jul), p.7 
Gough's Cave Anon 1966 He's done it! 127 days alone in a cave. [Lafferty] Morning Star (2 Aug) 
Gough's Cave Anon 1966 Solo attempt at 130 days in cave [Lafferty; Gough's Cave] [reprinted in British Caver 44,20-21] Daily Telegraph (28 Mar), illus 
Gough's Cave Anon 1966 Editorial on Lafferty's cave-squat. - may have some benefit for human beings] Bristol Evening Post (3 Aug) 
Gough's Cave Anon 1966 Cave record 'contributions to science'. [Gough's Cave; Lafferty] Daily Telegraph (3 Aug), p.13 
Gough's Cave Anon 1966 Lafferty in caving dress Western Daily Press & Bristol Mirror (8 Aug), photos 
Gough's Cave Anon 1966 [Lafferty] Climber (Sep), Vol.4 No. 11, p.26 
Gough's Cave Anon 1966 Caver near the record. [Lafferty has survived 100 days underground and has won ?500. If he breaks the world record of 126 days then at ?5 a day he will have an income bracket of ?1820] Western Daily Press & Bristol Mirror (6 Jul) 
Gough's Cave Anon 1966 Caver near the record [Lafferty completed 89 days but thinks that he has been in cave only 65] Western Daily Press & Bristol Mirror (27 Jun) 
Gough's Cave Anon 1966 [Lafferty completes 50 days in Gough's Cave] Western Daily Press & Bristol Mirror (17 May) 
Gough's Cave Anon 1966 Caver loses all track of time. [Gough's Cave - Lafferty] Western Daily Press & Bristol Mirror (2 Apr) 
Gough's Cave Anon 1966 Caveman David has his first beer in 127 days. [Lafferty : Gerald Robertson breaks news, (Manchester University making study of Lafferty's condition) Western Daily Press & Bristol Mirror (2 Aug] 
Gough's Cave Anon 1966 He blinks in the light - and goes for a cool pint.[Lafferty emerges from Gough's Cave] Western Daily Press & Bristol Mirror (5 Aug) 
Gough's Cave Anon 1966 Record in a cave. [Lafferty completes 126 days underground] Western Daily Press & Bristol Mirror (1 Aug) 
Gough's Cave Anon 1966 [Mixed reaction to Lafferty's achievement - some offered to stay underground for a year - Gough's management stated that any further attempts would be for strictly scientific work] Western Daily Press & Bristol Mirror (6 Aug) 
Gough's Cave Anon 1966 [Lafferty emerges from Gough's Cave] Bath & Wilts Chronicle and Herald 5 Aug 
Gough's Cave Anon 1966 Cheddar Caveman comes back. [N. Grant : Lafferty] Bristol Evening Post (4 Aug) 
Gough's Cave Anon 1966 Caveman beats world record. [Lafferty completes 126 days underground] AND Rehearsing cave descent [Lafferty - different edition] Bristol Evening Post (1 Aug) 
Gough's Cave Anon 1966 [Lafferty completes underground stay for 126 days] Bath & Wilts Chronicle and Herald 1 Aug 
Gough's Cave Anon 1966 [Lafferty intends learning French and Italian and mention of Lloyd and Savage's attempt on Wookey 15]- another attempt on 23 April] Bristol Evening Post (28 Apr) 
Gough's Cave Anon 1966 Cave Man Plays Darts 340ft. Down [Lafferty] Bristol Evening Post (27 Apr) 
Gough's Cave Anon 1966 [Lafferty entered cave on 27th March, should emerge on 1st August] Bath & Wilts Chronicle and Herald 25 Jul 
Gough's Cave Anon 1966 Cave-man loses all sense of time [Gough's Cave - Lafferty] Bristol Evening Post (13 May) 
Gough's Cave Anon 1966 [Lafferty in caving dress (photo); rock fall in gorge] Bristol Evening Post (8 Aug), photo 
Gough's Cave Anon. 1966 Back in the sun - the champion caveman. [Lafferty] Daily Mirror (5 Aug) 
Gough's Cave Anon 1966 [Lafferty emerges from Gough's Cave] Bristol Evening Post (5 Aug) 
Gough's Cave Anon. 1966 Caveman 3 days behind world [Lafferty] Daily Mirror (11 Aug) 
Gough's Cave Hensler, Eric 1935-c.1966 Log Book. Caves and Potholes. 

Thought the record had been taken by the man from Stump Cross - twice iirc, then some french bloke just went silly and refused to come out for ages - might still be in there for all I know!
I know a few old hands who may have spent that much time down caves, but not all in one go...
Reckon the largest/longest party has to be the Chilean miners?

http://www.stumpcrosscaverns.co.uk/thecaves.htm
This claims the record from 1963 and implies it is still current, but could be putting a spin on it! :-\

The Chilean Miners did not do it by choice,so can not be counted in my book.

Brains said:

Thought the record had been taken by the man from Stump Cross - twice iirc, then some french bloke just went silly and refused to come out for ages - might still be in there for all I know!
I know a few old hands who may have spent that much time down caves, but not all in one go...
Reckon the largest/longest party has to be the Chilean miners?

http://www.stumpcrosscaverns.co.uk/thecaves.htm
This claims the record from 1963 and implies it is still current, but could be putting a spin on it! :-\

Click to expand...

That page gives Workman's record as 105 days, didn't Lafferty claim 130?

There is a book....

This time The British Caver Vol 102 Summer 1987 page 53

SOLITARY CAVE DWELLER SETS WORLD RECORD OF 7 MONTHS

That was the title of an article in STARS and STRIPES: 15 July 1987 An Italian speleologist claimed that his stay of 210 days in Wind Cave (Grotte del Vento), Apennines, Italy was a world record.  Unfortunately he has not done his home work.  The world record is held by Milutin Veljkovich who spent 463 in the Samar Cave, Eastern Yugoslavia.  He described his experiment in a book called Pod kamenim nebom [Under the Sky of Stone].  I subsequently persuaded him to translate this into English and this was published in a special combined issue Vol 94-95 of The British Caver. Mama mio! Senor Montalbini, back to the cave you still have another 254 days to go!

braveduck said:

The Chilean Miners did not do it by choice,so can not be counted in my book.

Click to expand...

According to the Guiness Book of World Records 1974, "In June 1951 two men emerged from an undergrouind bunker at Babie Doly, near Gdynia, Poland, which had been demolished and blocked by the retreating German army in January 1945. One died immediately."

There is another book ... yes I can supply:

The cave is also known as Priest?s Grotto as the land around the entrance was owned by a local priest.  Between 1942 and 1944, during the Nazi occupation, several Jewish families lived in this cave.  Some of these people were unable to leave the cave for 344 days, making this one of the longest recorded instance of uninterrupted cave habitation known. Although some of the Jews hiding in these caves were caught and exterminated by the Nazis, thirty-eight of them managed to survive the Holocaust of Ukrainian Jews until the area was liberated by the Red Army in April 1944.

from:

Ozernaja Cave by Jozef Leonovich Zimels 2009  240 pp, many colour photos.  Hard bound, glazed boards, in Russian.  Publisher Aston, Ternopil, Ukraine. ISBN 978-966-308-297-4 Available from any good caving book seller.  eg me.

Lafferty's record was 127 days. I met him three years ago when he came to Cheddar to make a film for a production company, just talking to camera in the Mushroom Chamber. I offered to take him down to the Boulder Chamber, where he set his record, but he was too ill. I never heard any more about the programme but I'll ask.

You may wish to research "Michel Siffre".

I was lucky enough to meet him at the UIS congress last summer in Texas. A very interesting caver and scientist who once spent +200 days underground. You may get a feel for his acheivments and experiements in this interview: http://www.cabinetmagazine.org/issues/30/foer.php

Thanks for all your help guys.

Appreciate its a long shot but does anyone know if his wifer Uta or daughter Jacqueline reside in the UK?

Thanks, Ed