We Didn’t Mean to go to Sea by Arthur Ransome was first published in 1937 and it’s the seventh book in the author’s Swallows and Amazons series.
The Walker children and their mother have travelled to Harwich to wait for Commander Walker to arrive back from a trip to Europe, they aren’t quite sure when he’ll get to Harwich though. The children can’t keep away from boats so make for the harbour to admire the various yachts. They befriend Jim Braiding who has just sailed into harbour in the Goblin, Jim has earned their admiration with his sailing prowess.
After being given assurances by locals that Jim is trustworthy and a great sailor Mrs Walker agrees to allow the children to accompany him on a voyage, but she stipulates that they must not go out of the harbour as any further than that and they would be sailing out to sea.
Of course everything that can go wrong does go wrong and the children find themselves sailing the Goblin on their own and having to navigate through a real pea-souper of fog and high seas. There’s an awful lot of sailing terms bandied about which might as well have been Greek to me, but this didn’t detract from this very suspenseful adventure.
These books are very much of their time, and for me that adds to the charm of them. There’s a lot of use of the word ‘jolly’ – but hockey sticks don’t feature!
I suspect that my mother-in-law would have been sea-sick if she had ever read this book. She could get seasick watching The Onedin Line.
I loved these books but my library didn’t have this one so I only read it once. Didn’t they wind up in Holland?? My terrible sense of geography as a child prevented me from understanding even where the Lake District was, let alone when the Walkers traveled elsewhere. I liked Nancy Blackett the best and Dorothea.
One summer I tried to read Swallows and Amazons to my nephews. The sailing language and lack of action bored them and I gave up after two chapters and read them The Black Stallion instead.
Constance,
Yes they ended up in Flushing (in English) Vlissingen in Dutch. I didn’t even realise that this is an island until I looked at the map on the endpapers, and we travel/sail on a ferry to the Netherlands to see family! I can understand your nephews but I think it helps if you fancy sailing around as I do, although I think nowdays I would stick to a rowing boat on a tame river!
I like Nancy and Dorothea too. Have you seen that Girls Gone By Books have published a book about books with links to the Lake District? I think I might buy it as it might be interesting.
I bought that book but have temporarily misplaced it. I need to find it and tell if you if worth purchasing!
Con,
How I know that situation – temporarily misplaced!
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