ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The research and publication of the present edition of Racundra’s First Cruise would not have been possible without the help and assistance of a great many people. I particularly acknowledge the following:

Writers of books on Ransome, Hugh Brogan, Ransome’s biographer, Wayne Hammond, Peter Hunt, Jeremy Swift, Roger Wardale, and particularly Christina Hardyment for her help and encouragement. I have drawn heavily on the work of these writers during the preparation of the preface.

Fay and Graham Cattell, members of the Cruising Association, for taking photographs of the area for me, allowing me to use them, and finding answers to my numerous queries from their friends in Latvia and Estonia. Arnis Berzins, the current Cruising Association Honorary Local Representative for Riga, for his continued support. Brian Fitzpatrick and Peter Glover for their information on Racundra after Ransome. Michael Howe, the Cruising Association’s librarian, for allowing me access to their complete collection of Lloyds Register of Yachts. Essex Chronicle Series Ltd for the use of photograph of me on the flyleaf. Phyl Williams-Ellis of Fernhurst Books for passing on interesting leads from her myriad of contacts. Does she know everyone in the world?

Once again I owe an incredible debt to the Special Collections Department of the Brotherton Library, University of Leeds, and in particular the staff of that department for their help and assistance, and permission to use Ransome material and photographs for which they hold the copyright.

Ransome’s Literary Executors for permission to embark on the reprint and use his previously published and unpublished work. Various members of the Arthur Ransome Society for their outstanding enthusiastic encouragement following the publication of Racundra’s Third Cruise, with special thanks to Ted Alexander and Dave Sewart for the very considerable help and assistance they have given me throughout.

Finally, Tim Davison of Fernhurst Books for enthusiastically agreeing to the publication of another Ransome tome and enabling me to complete the project.

Brian Hammett,

Blackmore, Essex

APPENDIX:
A DESCRIPTION
OF RACUNDRA

“RACUNDRA” is nine metres over all – something under thirty feet long. She is three and a half metres in beam – nearly twelve feet. She draws three feet six inches without her centreboard, and seven feet six inches when the centreboard is lowered. Her enormous beam is balanced by her shallowness, and though for a yacht it seems excessive, thoroughly justified itself in her comfort and stiffness. She has a staysail, mainsail and mizen, and for special occasions a storm staysail, a balloon staysail, a small squaresail (much too small), a trysail and a mizen staysail. She could easily carry a very much greater area of canvas, but, for convenience in single-handed sailing, she has no bowsprit, and the end of the mizen boom can be reached from the deck.

She is very heavily built and carries no inside ballast. Her centreboard is of oak. She has a three-and-a-half ton iron keel, so broad that she will rest comfortably upon it when taking the mud, and deep enough to enable us to do without the centreboard altogether except when squeezing her up against the wind. Give her a point or two free and a good wind and her drift, though more than that of a deep-keel yacht, is much less than that of the coasting schooners common in the Baltic. With the centreboard down she is extremely handy, and proved herself so by coming successfully through the narrow Nukke Channel with the wind in her face, a feat which the local vessels do not attempt.

But the chief glory of Racundra is her cabin. The local yachtsmen accustomed to the slim figures of racing boats, jeered at Racundra’s beam and weight, but one and all, when they came aboard her ducked through the companion-way and stood up again inside that spacious cabin, agreed that there was something to be said for such a boat. And as for their wives, they said frankly that such a cabin made a boat worth having, and their own boats, which had seemed comfortable enough hitherto, turned into mere uncomfortable rabbit-hutches. Racundra’s cabin is a place where a man can live and work as comfortably and twice as pleasantly as in any room ashore. I lived in it for two months on end, and, if this were a temperate climate, and the harbour were not a solid block of ice in winter, so that all yachts are hauled out and kept in a shed for half the year, I should be living in it still. Not only can one stand up in Racundra’s cabin, but one can walk about there, and that without interfering with anyone who may be sitting at the writing-table, which is a yard square. In the middle of the cabin is a folding table, four feet by three, supported by the centreboard-case; and so broad is the floor that you can sit at that table and never find the case in the way of your toes. The bunks are wider than is usual, yet behind and above each bunk are two deep cupboards, with between them a deep open space divided by a shelf, used on the port side for books and on the starboard side for crockery. Under the bunks is storage for bottles. Under the flooring on the wide flat keel is storage for condensed milk and tinned food. Behind the bunks, between them and the planking, below the cupboards and bookshelves, is further storage room.

Racundra was designed as a boat in which it should be possible to work, and, as a floating study or office, I think it would be difficult to improve upon her. The writing-table is forward of the port bunk, and a Lettish workman made me an admirable little three-legged stool, which, when the ship is under way, stows under the table. Above and behind the ample field of the table is a deep cupboard and a bookcase, of a height to take the Nautical Almanac, the Admiralty Pilots, Dixon Kemp and Norie’s inevitable Epitome and Tables. Another long shelf is to be put up along the bulkhead that divides the cabin from the forecastle. Under the shelf for nautical books is a shallow drawer where I keep a set of pocket tools, nails, screws and such things. Under the writing-table is a big chart drawer, where I keep the charts immediately in use, writing and drawing materials, parallel rulers, protractors, surveying compass, stopwatch and other small gear. By the side of this is a long narrow drawer, used for odds and ends, and underneath that is a special cupboard made to take my portable typewriter.

On the starboard side, opposite the table, is space for a stove, which, however, on this cruise we used for stowing spare mattresses. Behind it are deep cupboards with low coamings to prevent things slipping. Here were empty portmanteaux, seaboots, and a watertight box for photographic material. The door into the forecastle is on this side, so that it is possible to go through even when someone is sitting at the writing-table. In the forecastle is one full-length comfortable bunk on the port side. On the starboard side there are big cupboards instead of a second bunk. These were used for ship’s stores, such as blocks and carpenter’s tools, shackles and the rest. A seat is fixed close by the mainmast, to a big central cupboard which is the full height of the forecastle from deck to floor, and was used for oilskins and clothes. In the forecastle we stowed warps, spare anchor, tins of kerosene, one of the water-barrels and the sails. This left small room for the Ancient Mariner, but, as he said, “There was room to lie and sleep, and room to sit and smoke, and what does any man want with more?” The main cabin is the general living room.

As you come out of the cabin into the companion-way, you find on either hand a cupboard from deck to floor. On the starboard side is a simple and efficient closet, and aft of that, under the deck, a big space used for all the engineering tools, lubricating oils and greases. On the port side is the galley, with room for three Primus stoves (I am fitting a Clyde cooker). One of the stoves is in heavy iron gimbals for use when under way. Behind this is a shelf and rack for cooking-things, and aft, under the deck, a second water-barrel. The engine, a heavy oil, hot-bulb Swedish engine, burning kerosene (we have no benzine in the ship), is under the self-draining steering-well. It is completely covered when not in use by a wooden case, contrived to provide steps up to the deck. The case takes to pieces, but can be fixed with absolute rigidity, so that people who have visited Racundra have asked on going away, what was the purpose of the reversing lever (at the side of the companion-way, within reach of the steering-well), never having suspected that we had an engine on board. For all the good we got of it during this first cruise we might just as well have had no engine, but next year I hope to take the engine seriously and learn the Open Sesame that will set it miraculously to work. The oil reservoir is in the extreme stern, and is filled from the deck. The companion-way can be completely covered in by a folding and sliding lid, over which we shall have a canvas cover. The raised trunking of the cabin is carried completely round companion, mizen mast and steering-well, so that there is plenty of room inside this coaming for a man to lie full length. In summer this would be a most desirable place to sleep, and even on this autumn cruise, during our days of fine weather, we put one of the spare mattresses there, and anyone who was not busy with something else reclined there, smoked, dozed, read or bothered the steersman with irrelevant conversation. The steering-well itself gives room for two people. In front of it, immediately aft of the mizen mast, is the binnacle, and under the deck, between companion-way and steering-well, is a cupboard for riding light, binoculars, fog-horn, etc. The main sheet, mizen sheet, backstays and staysail sheets are all cleated within easy reach of the steersman, who can do everything but reef without leaving his place. Owing to the height of the narrow mainsail, inevitable in a ketch, the gaff tends to swing too far forward, so I have a vang, which also serves as a downhaul fastened to the peak, and cleated, when in use, close by the mizen mast.

Arthur Ransome Societies

The Arthur Ransome Society was founded in 1990 with the aim of promoting interest in Arthur Ransome and his books. For more information on the Society visit their website at www.arthur-ransome.org.uk

In 1997 members of the Society formed The Nancy Blackett Trust with the intention of purchasing and restoring one of Ransome’s own yachts, the Nancy Blackett, and using her to inspire interest in the books and to encourage young people to take up sailing. She now visits many classic boat shows around the country.

To find out more about the trust, or to contribute to the upkeep of the Nancy Blackett please visit their website at www.nancyblackett.org

The Arthur Ransome Trust was formed in 2010, and is dedicated to helping people discover more about Arthur Ransome’s life and writing, primarily through the development of a dedicated Ransome Centre in the southern Lake District. For more information on the Trust please visit their website at www.arthur-ransome-trust.org.uk

AUTHOR’S NOTE

More than once in the log of Racundra’s little voyage I have mentioned that I found changes made by the war unrecorded in the obtainable charts. I have just received from the Esthonian Admiralty, through Mr. Edward Wirgo, a set of charts they have recently issued which cover the whole of the delightful cruising ground among the islands, and should certainly be obtained by the skippers of any other little ships who think of visiting these waters.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Relevant Publications by Arthur Ransome

The ABC of Physical Culture, Henry Drane, 1904.

Bohemia in London, Chapman & Hall, 1907.

Oscar Wilde, Martin Seeker, 1912.

Old Peter’s Russian Tales, T C & E C Jack, 1916.

Six Weeks in Russia, George Allen & Unwin, 1919.

The Soldier and the Death, J G Wilson 1920.

The Crisis in Russia, George Allen & Unwin, 1921.

Rod & Line, Cape, 1929.

Swallows and Amazons, Cape, 1930.

Swallowdale, Cape, 1931.

Peter Duck, Cape, 1932.

Winter Holiday, Cape, 1933.

Coot Club, Cape, 1934.

Pigeon Post, Cape, 1936.

We Didn’t Mean to Go to Sea, Cape, 1937.

Secret Water, Cape, 1939.

The Big Six, Cape, 1940.

Missee Lee, Cape, 1941.

The Picts and the Martyrs, Cape, 1943.

Great Northern?, Cape, 1947.

Mainly About Fishing, A & C Black, 1959.

Autobiography, edited and with an introduction by Rupert Hart-Davis, Cape, 1976.

War of The Birds and the Beasts, Cape, 1984.

Coots in the North, Cape, 1988.

Signaling from Mars, a selection of letters edited and introduced by Hugh Brogan, Cape, 1997.

Racundra’s Third Cruise, edited and compiled by Brian Hammett, Fernhurst 2002.

Other publications consulted

GC Davies, The Swan and her Crew, Warne, 1876.

EF Knight, The Cruise of the Falcon, Sampson Low, 1884.

EF Knight, The Cruise of the Alerte, 1890.

Adlard Coles, Close Hauled, Seely, Service, 1926.

The Cruising Association Handbook, 1928.

Hugh Shelley, Arthur Ransome, Bodley Head, 1960.

Taqui Altounyan, In Aleppo Once, John Murray, 1969.

Hugh Brogan, The Life of Arthur Ransome, Cape, 1984.

Christina Hardyment, Arthur Ransome and Captain Flint’s Trunk, Cape, 1984.

Roger Wardale, Arthur Ransome’s Lakeland, Dalesman Books, 1988.

Roger Wardale, Arthur Ransome’s East Anglia, Poppyland Publishing, 1988.

Taqui Altounyan, Chimes of a Wooden Bell, I B Tauris, 1990.

Peter Hunt, Approaching Arthur Ransome, Cape, 1991.

Roger Wardale, Nancy Blackett: Under Sail with Arthur Ransome, Cape, 1991.

Jeremy Swift, Arthur Ransome on Fishing, Cape, 1994.

Ransome at Sea, Amazon Publications, 1995.

Roger Wardale, In Search of Swallows and Amazons, Sigma Leisure, 1996.

Ransome the Artist, Amazon Publications, 1998.

Roger Wardale, Arthur Ransome and the World of Swallows & Amazons, Great Northern Books, 2000.

Wayne G Hammond, Arthur Ransome, a Bibliography, Oak Knoll Press, 2000.

CHRONOLOGY

1884	Arthur Michell Ransome born on 18th January, Headingley, Leeds.

1897	Cyril Ransome, Arthur’s father, dies; Arthur enters Rugby School.

1901	Enters Yorkshire College (now Leeds University) to read science.

1902	Leaves for London, works as errand boy for London publishers and becomes freelance writer.

1903	Meets W. G. Collingwood and his family.

1904	First book The A.B.C of Physical Culture published.

1907	First major book Bohemia in London published.

1909	13th March marries Ivy Constance Walker.

1910	9th May daughter Tabitha is bom.

1912	Oscar Wilde, a Critical Study published. Sued for libel by Lord Alfred Douglas, won his case.

1913	Marriage falls apart, first visit to Russia.

1914	Leaves to work in Russia for Daily News.

1916	Old Peter’s Russian Tales published.

1917	Meets Trotsky’s secretary Evgenia Shelepina.

1919	Becomes special correspondent for Manchester Guardian and moves to Tallinn with Evgenia. Later they move to Lodenzee, Lahepe Bay about 40 miles from Tallinn.

1920

2nd July buys his first boat Slug on the beach at Tallinn. 3rd July sails it 60 miles along the coast of Esthonia to Lahepe Bay. 5th July writes to his old friend Barbara Collingwood with lots of questions about sailing. During the night of 7th – 8th July mainsail stolen. Wrote essay on the subject.

1921

In the spring, purchases second boat Kittiwake. 13th April goes for trial sail. 15th April meets Otto Eggers, boat designer. Possibility of Racundra looms. 4th May dinghy, for Kittiwake, ordered from local undertaker arrives. 11th May undertakes first major voyage of Kittiwake from Tallinn to Paldiski North. 20th July sets sail on Venera (the pirate ship), lands on Hiiumaa and meets old man building large boat. 24th July walks to Heltermaa, visits Captain Konga on Toledo of Leith. Late July writes essay On the Pirate Ship. August Ransomes move to Riga. Small sailing/fishing dinghy built by Lettish boat builder. Autumn, before a trip to England, signs the contract, with builder of dinghy, for building of Racundra.

1922

January joins Cruising Association as foreign resident and appointed Honorary Local Representative for Riga. 30th January article The Ship and the Man (taken from part of On the Pirate Ship) published in the Manchester Guardian. 28th July, Racundra launched, unfinished. 20th August sets sail on Racundra’s first cruise. 26th September returns to Riga and Racundra is laid up for the winter. December trip to England, Ivy agrees to divorce, visits the Collingwoods with diary/logbook of cruise. Encouraged to turn it into a book. Christmas back in Riga and book well advanced.

1923

16th January final draft completed. February fire destroys house at Kaiserwald, Riga. Possibility of second book mentioned in a letter to his mother. April, Sailing in the Eastern Baltic published in the Cruising Association Bulletin. July Racundra’s First Cruise published. 18th July embarks on Racundra’s second cruise, Riga to Finnish islands. 25th July to 21st August urgent meeting in London interrupts cruise. 6th September returned to Tallinn, Racundra is laid up for the winter.

1924

February, plans of Racundra published in Cruising Association Bulletin. March, visit to London to finalise divorce arrangements. 22nd March, elected a member of the Royal Cruising Club. April, sail plans and lines of Racundra published in Cruising Association Bulletin. 14th April divorce becomes absolute. 8th May Arthur and Evgenia many at British Consulate Tallinn. 15th May to 22nd May, Racundra sailed back in Riga. 1st August to 10th September, Racundra’s third cruise takes place, from Riga on the river Lielupe to Jelgava. Late September Racundra is laid up for the last time. 14th November Ransomes move to Low Ludderburn in the Lake District.

1925	Racundra sold to Adlard Coles and her name changed to Annette II.

1928	Final trip to Russia for Manchester Guardian.

1929	24th March starts to write Swallows and Amazons. 19th June resigns from Manchester Guardian but still works as a freelance. December visits Cairo for Manchester Guardian.

1930	Swallows and Amazons published.

1931	Swallowdale published. 15th December joins the Cruising Association as a full member.

1932	Peter Duck published.

1933	Winter Holiday published.

1934	Coot Club published.

1935	Nancy Blackett purchased.

1936	Pigeon Post published.

1937	We Didn’t Mean to Go to Sea published.

1938	Selina King launched.

1939	Secret Water published. Ivy dies.

1940	The Big Six published.

1941	Missee Lee published.

1943	The Picts and the Martyrs published.

1946	Peter Duck built.

1947	Great Northern? published.

1952	Lottie Blossom purchased.

1953	Lottie Blossom II built.

1954	30th August lays up Lottie Lottie Blossom II for the last time and swallows the anchor.

1955	Fishing published.

1959	Mainly About Fishing published.

1965	Resigns from the Cruising Association.

1967	3rd June Arthur dies at Cheadle, Manchester.

1975	19th March Evgenia dies.

1976	Autobiography published.

1984	The War of the Birds & the Beasts published.

1988	Coots in the North & other Stories published.

2002	Racundra’s Third Cruise published.

CONTENTS

Preface	Page
Introduction	9
Slug	13
Kittiwake	24
Racundra	39
The writing of Racundra’s First Cruise	51
On the Pirate Ship	53
Racundra’s First Cruise	62
Appendix – A Description of Racundra	239
Racundra after Ransome	243
Chronology	251
Bibliography	254
Acknowledgements	256

This edition first published in 2015 by Fernhurst Books Limited

62 Brandon Parade, Holly Walk, Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, CV32 4JE, UK

Tel: +44 (0) 1926 337488 | www.fernhurstbooks.com

Text and pictures © The Arthur Ransome Literary Estate

Introduction © Brian Hammett

First edition published in 1923 by George Allen & Unwin Ltd., London

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except under the terms of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 or under the terms of a license issued by The Copyright Licensing Agency Ltd, Saffron House, 6-10 Kirby Street, London, EC1N 8TS, UK, without the permission in writing of the Publisher.

Designations used by companies to distinguish their products are often claimed as trademarks. All brand names and product names used in this book are trade names, service marks, trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners. The Publisher is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book.

ISBN 978-1-909911-23-9 (paperback)

ISBN 978-1-909911-59-8 (eBook)

ISBN 978-1-909911-60-4 (eBook)

Artwork by Creative Byte

Cover design by Simon Balley

RACUNDRA’S
FIRST
CRUISE

“RACUNDRA’S”
FIRST CRUISE

BY
ARTHUR RANSOME

TO
“RACUNDRA’S” ESTHONIAN FRIENDS

ARTHUR RANSOME, MASTER AND OWNER.

EVEGENIA SHELEPINA, COOK.

CHART OF THE FIRST CRUISE.

ORIGINAL ILLUSTRATIONS

CHARTS

	PAGE
TRACK CHART OF THE CRUISE	64
MOON SOUND AND THE ISLANDS	100
HELSINGFORS, SHOWING NYLANDS Y.C. ANCHORAGE	131
THE NEW HARBOUR AT WERDER	222
PHOTOGRAPHS
“RACUNDRA” AT REVAL, ESTHONIA	62
“RACUNDRA” ON THE STOCKS	72
“RACUNDRA” LAUNCHED	72
THE ANCIENT MARINER AT THE TILER	80
FIRST SIGHT OF LAND (RUNÖ ISLAND)	80
WOMEN OF RUNÖ COMING OUT OF CHURCH	86
INHABITANTS OF RUNÖ	90
GHOHARA ISLAND AND LIGHTHOUSE	122
NYLANDS YACHT CLUB, HELSINGFORS	128
“RACUNDRA” AT HELSINGFORS (AFTER SWINGING THE SHIP)	136
PORT OF REVAL	142
IN BALTIC PORT	146
FISHING BOATS AT BALTIC PORT	156
ONE OF THE ROOGÖ BOAT-HOUSES	156
A ROOGÖ WINDMILL	160
SHIPS THAT PASS	166
OUR NEIGHBOUR AT SPITHAMN	174
TWO SMALL SAILORS WITH A MODEL OF HER	174
HAPSAL JETTY (SHOWING LEADING BEACONS)	182
DRYING OUT	182
“RACUNDRA” AT HELTERMAA (DAGÖ ISLAND)	192
“TOLEDO” OF LEITH	198
INHABITANTS OF MOON	198
A HOUSE ON MOON	204
THE GATES OF MOON	208
THE OLD RUSSIAN INN AT KUIVAST	212
THE NEW HARBOUR AT WERDER	216
THE NEW LIGHTHOUSE AT WERDER	218
SEAL-HUNTERS, THEIR BOAT AND SHIP	226
THE SEAL-HUNTERS ON BOARD THEIR SHIP	226
“RACUNDRA” HAULED OUT	236

RACUNDRA’S FIRST CRUISE

This edition of Racundra’s First Cruise includes the original maps, text and photographs from the 1923 edition. Details of Ransome’s first attempts at Baltic sailing, in his two previous boats Slug and Kittiwake, are included in the introduction.

ARTHUR RANSOME ON THE BUILDING OF RACUNDRA

“I took a deep breath and signed the contract. This was among the few wise things I have done in my life, for, more than anything else, this boat helped me to get back to my proper trade of writing.”

BRIAN HAMMETT

Brian Hammett has compiled this edition of Racundra’s First Cruise. The preface leads us into a treasure trove of unpublished writings, essays and photographs. The life of Ransome’s beloved Racundra is chronicled to its conclusion and there is an explanation of how he came to write the book. The original illustrations are enhanced by the inclusion of present-day photographs of the same locations. Brian Hammett researched the introduction by following Racundra’s route through Latvia and Estonia in his 33 foot gaff cutter AVOLA.

INTRODUCTION

“I ... took a deep breath and signed the contract. This was among the few wise things I have done in my life, for, more than anything else, this boat helped me to get back to my proper trade of writing.”

Arthur Ransome (1884 – 1967), famous in later life as a children’s author, wrote those words in 1922, having just committed himself to the building of his boat Racundra. The maiden voyage took place from 20th August 1922 until 26th September from Riga, in Latvia, to Helsingfors (Helsinki), in Finland, via the Moon Sound and Reval (Tallinn) in Estonia and back. On completion of the trip he wrote and published his first really successful book, Racundra’s First Cruise.

I am delighted to have the opportunity to introduce a completely new edition of Ransome’s first book on sailing. The original text of the first edition, of which only 1500 copies were printed, has been used in its entirety with the original layout. The original 30 photographs, and four sketch charts, are included together with more unpublished Ransome pictures and recent photographs of many of the places visited during the cruise.

The book has been out of print for many years; the last edition was a paperback published in 1984 by Century Publishers, London, and Hippocrene Books, New York, containing charts but no photographs. The story of how he came to write the book and his sailing activities in the Baltic in the early 1920s makes fascinating reading and tells us a great deal about the man and his approach to sailing and writing.

Ransome went to Russia in 1913 following an unsuccessful first marriage and having successfully defended a court case for libel, by Lord Alfred Douglas, over his book Oscar Wilde, a Critical Study, published in 1912. He had a desire to learn Russian and research and translate Russian fairy tales. His book Old Peter’s Russian Tales was published in 1916. He was offered a job as a foreign correspondent and journalist by the Daily News and later the Manchester Guardian. He reported extensively on Russian matters, the First World War, and the aftermath of the October Revolution. Whilst in Russia he met and fell in love with Evgenia Shelepina, Trotsky’s secretary. They lived together as lovers up until the time that Ivy, his first wife, agreed to a divorce. They married at the British consulate in Reval (Tallinn) on the 24th May 1924.

PETER THE GREAT’S PLAN FOR BALTIC PORT.

Ransome was a prolific writer and had already published 23 books by 1920. The most successful of his books were Bohemia in London, 1907, A History of Story Telling, 1909, and Old Peter’s Russian Tales, 1916. He had also written two literary critical studies: one on Edgar Alan Poe, 1910, and another on Oscar Wilde, 1912. His life has been extremely well documented in his autobiography, his biography (by Hugh Brogan), and in other books by Christina Hardyment, Roger Wardale, Jeremy Swift and Peter Hunt. A literary society, the Arthur Ransome Society, TARS, is very active and his most famous boat Nancy Blackett (alias Goblin) is run by a charitable trust.

Having had a lifetime interest in Ransome’s work, and having sailed in the Baltic in the year 2000 (where I used Racundra’s First Cruise as a pilot book on several occasions), I was interested in discovering more about Ransome’s Baltic sailing and to find out why and how he came to write Racundra’s First Cruise. I was amazed by the accuracy of his description of Racundra’s sailing area. The instructions for navigating the coasts of Latvia and Estonia, and in particular the Moon Sound, were as useful and accurate today as they were in the 1920s. The details of port and harbour entry and refuge anchorages also hold good today. Indeed, at one stage in our hip we “happened upon” Baltic Port (now called Paldiski North) whilst running for shelter from a southwesterly gale. We immediately recognised the description of the harbour. Once we had moored up the harbourmaster made us most welcome, told us that we could shelter for as long as we liked, at no charge, and even sent someone to sweep the quay where we had moored. This mirrored the treatment Ransome had experienced 78 years earlier. The harbourmaster and his colleague, the director of Paldiski Port, were very interested in the chapter Old Baltic Port and New in Racundra’s First Cruise and, in exchange for a copy, gave us a pamphlet in Russian showing the original plans that Peter the Great had for the area. Ransome mentions on several occasions the uncompleted causeway and the old fort, both of which still exist today.

Ransome’s background as an author and a journalist meant that, by nature, he was a compulsive writer. He kept diaries, logbooks, typed and handwritten notes and full details of his interests and activities. Most of this information still survives, mainly in the Brotherton Library at the University of Leeds.

Ransome’s time in the Baltic up to 1920 had been fully occupied on journalistic activities and political writings of one sort or another although he was fiercely apolitical. In 1920 he and Evgenia had decided to live in Reval (Tallinn), Estonia, where he spent less time reporting and more time writing in-depth articles for the Manchester Guardian. This change of direction in his work activity meant that he was able to enjoy a little more free time to pursue his favourite pastime, fishing. Ransome had sailed a little on Coniston Water, in the Lake District, with his friend Robin Collingwood, son of W.G. Collingwood (the Lakeland poet and writer, a father figure to Ransome after the death of his own father when Arthur was only 13). This introduction to sailing appears to have whetted his appetite for the sport, although in 1920 he considered himself very much a novice. However, he was to learn his skills very quickly.

To set the background for Racundra and Racundra’s First Cruise it is important that we look briefly at his previous boats: Slug in 1920 and Kittiwake in 1921. This period of Ransome’s life has been covered in his autobiography, published in 1976, and in his biography by Hugh Brogan, published in 1984. His early sailing is portrayed somewhat differently in his unpublished notes and writings. In looking at Ransome’s work, shown in American Typewriter font, I have reproduced it exactly as originally written. In the 1920s many of the locations mentioned had different names and I have shown the current names in brackets.

In Peter Hunt’s book Approaching Arthur Ransome, he criticises Racundra’s First Cruise as “a curious volume: it is a specialist work, full of small details of what was a relatively uneventful cruise and many pages of minutiae of sailing and rigging and navigation, which are largely incomprehensible to the layperson.... Ransome leavened the account of sailing in Racundra with encounters ashore, and possibly because they are padding and not focused on his dominant interest at the time, some are in the worst possible manner – pseudo-symbolic, inconsequential, and rather pretentious. (An example ... The Ship and the Man, first published in the Manchester Guardian in 1922).... One of the features of Racundra’s First Cruise is that it seems almost a sequel, or a book written for people intimately acquainted not just with sailing, but with Ransome’s life. Old friends, in the form of boats as well as people, continually crop up, scarcely introduced. Kittiwake and Slug are referred to as though we knew them well.”

This was possibly a justified criticism. However, by looking at Ransome’s original material from 1920 and 1921 we can see how he came to include some of his previous experiences in Racundra’s First Cruise.

SLUG

Ransome and Evgenia had moved to Reval (Tallinn) in 1919 and, after recovering from a bout of illness (he suffered badly from stomach ulcers all his life), they moved to Lodenzee in Lahepe Bay about 40 miles from Reval (Tallinn). Here they rented rooms in a house with a quiet room where he could write. When shopping in Reval (Tallinn) Ransome always strolled round the harbour looking for something with a mast and sail. He recalls:

(Autobiography) In the end, walking one day along the beach, I came upon a man putting a lick of green paint on a long, shallow boat with a cut-off transom that had once carried an outboard motor. She had a mast. She was for sale. On the beach beside her were large round boulders. I prodded her here and there and asked her price. The man named a sum that sounded enormous in Esthonian marks but when translated into English money came to something under ten pounds. The price included the boulders on the beach.... I bought that boat.... I found Evgenia, told her what I had done and said I would sail the boat from Reval to Lahepe next day. Evgenia, full of quite unjustified faith in me as a mariner, said that she was coming too.

The boat proved so slow that they christened her Slug. His autobiography chronicles in detail the maiden voyage to Lahepe Bay, including his diving overboard for a swim, and the difficulty he had getting back on board when the wind came up and Slug started sailing off to Finland with Evgenia in command. He was able with a superhuman effort to get back on board via the bowsprit, a feat that he was never able to repeat. The same trip is portrayed somewhat differently in his typewritten Log of Slug. He leaves out any mention of the difficulties of returning on board, an episode of which he was no doubt ashamed and wished to forget.

LOG OF THE SLUG

1920

6 a.m. Sunday July 3.

Dead calm. However, we packed our hags and went down to the pier, determined to get out of Reval no matter if only a little way, rather than postpone the start another day. At 6.30, though the water was like glass in the bay, there were occasional catspaws from the northwest. The scoundrel, who came to his pier head to see us off, said he was sure there would he wind of some sort, but the devil only could tell from what quarter. We hoisted sail, and had just enough wind to get us out past the hank of rocks that lies immediately north of the boat piers some few hundred yards from the land. Again dead calm. Thought of bathing from these rocks, but found them surrounded by piles, making approach impossible. Drifted. A very light wind from northwest filled our sail again, and we took a course north northwest. The wind was so slight and we moved so slowly that after tying a bottle to a rope and letting out astern, in case any gust should move her to unexpected hurry, I dived overboard and had a swim. Got on board again, and about seven thirty there was enough wind to give her yard or two of wake. We held on our course, the wind steadily getting a little stronger, till close inshore, north of the mill and south of the wooden pier at Miderando. We were passed by the two masted sailing boat which we had thought of buying the previous day. South of the pier we went about, and with a pleasant hut very light wind sailed west northwest making for the southern end of Nargon Island, a run of about eight and half a miles. With great delight we picked up the various buoys marked on our chart, and ran into the little bay southwest of the point, where we grounded the boat, landed, made a fire, and boiled up some cold tea. During the war, landing on Nargon was prohibited, and as we were not sure of our rights, we did not go as we had first intended to the village half a mile away to get milk, but lay low, and did not leave the shore. From where we made tea, we could just see the Surop lighthouse on the Esthonian coast.

SLUG ON REVAL BEACH.

Looking towards Reval, we saw a heavy black sky coming up from the east, and heard thunder. Presently the wind dropped to nothing. Then rose suddenly from the east, and we decided to lose no time, but to run for Surop, and try to get across before the worst of the storm should reach us, as we were on a beach exposed to the east, and could see nothing but rocky coast to the west. We got aboard at 4.30, and took a course southwest for the Surop lighthouse, thinking to shelter from the storm on the western side of Cape Ninamaa. But the storm was upon us before we were two miles on this slant of six. At least, not the storm but the wind. We had only a drop or two of rain, though the whole Esthonian coast east of Surop disappeared altogether in a dark cloud threaded by lightning. The sea turned black and then white in a moment, and the wind fairly lifted our little boat along, so that we were very grateful for the good stone ballast, which our scoundrel friend had stowed in her for the voyage. She stood it beautifully. And we were sorry for a much larger boat, beating up for Reval clear into the storm, which bowed her nearly flat to the water. The wind dropped as suddenly as it rose. The storm blotted out Nargon behind us, and passed, and we sailed slowly by Surop lighthouse, recognising it from our chart, as a white round tower surrounded by trees, at about seven o’clock.