Three Millions Cheers

Signals from TARSUS & North Pole News May 2019

Contents Swallowdale & the Salvage of Swallow, p. 4 Ship’s Papers: pg. 2-3 A View from the Helm — Robin Marshall, TARSUS Coordinator Greetings from the North — Ian Sacré, TARS Canada Coordinator A Note from the Editor — Simon Horn

The Professor’s Laboratory: Swallowdale & the Salvage of Swallow — Ian Sacré pg. 4 Captain Flint’s Trunk: Don’t Count On the Sheep — David Rawcliffe pg. 6 Secret Water from Above — Robert Dilley pg. 7 Dipping our Hands: First Fish — Molly McGunnis pg. 9 Kanchenjunga’s Cairn: Reflections of a Gear Junkie — Alistair Bryden pg. 10 Don't Count on the Sheep, p. 6 The Ship’s Library: “Extraordinary Birds” — reviewed by Molly McGinnis pg. 12 “Swallows, Amazons and Coots” — reviewed by David R. Elms pg. 13 Reflections of a Gear Junkie, p. 10 Pieces of Eight: Swallows and Amazons Book Series Quiz — Elizabrth Jolley pg. 14 My Gritstone Trail — Martha Blue pg. 17 No Moss on Uncle Jim! Part 2 — by Molly McGinnis pg. 20 Three Millions Cheers

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Ship’s Papers — Important information for the Crew A View from the US Helm able free with your local library mem- By Robin Marshall bership. Useful for those with grand- TARSUS Coordinator children. 210 N 18th Street W Bradenton, FL 34205 Thomas Grimes informed me he has [email protected] two Penguin paperbacks, Secret Water Summer is here once again, and we can look forward andPigeonPost,henolongerneeds.Let to brighter days and maybe adventurous activities for me know if you want them. I had a those that are able. I have not heard of any members request via TARS from a non member heading to the UK this year but if you do be sure to give asking if we had any copies of the books free; if anyone has any perhaps a thought to an article of your time think. Our treasurer is working with we could pass them on. there. PayPal to fix this. Otherwise I have nothing further to Currently the PayPal payment Hoopla — https://www.hoopladigi- report except to wish you all a good method for renewals is not function- tal.com — is a “digital media service” summer. ing, so any members that have not re- that works with your local public li- Robin. newed please note. Checks sent to me brary to let you borrow ebooks, au- for The Arthur Ransome Society is diobooks, music, etc. I found out re- ______the only option whilst this is down, cently that it has all the Ransome se- Ed. Note: What is available on Hoopla unless you have an account in the UK. ries plus other works by and about depends on your local library, which you This also affects the TARS stall, I him in ebook form. These are avail- can choose on the Hoopla website.

Greetings from the North aimed at adults. Who can say? It does By Ian Sacré, TARS Canada Coordinator leave one wondering about the down- 750 Donegal Place, North Vancouver, BC V7N 2X5 stream future of our society. [email protected] Of serious concern to our society is the continually climbing cost of Greetings Canadian TARS Members. postage for the various publications Avalanches in the western mountains, snow melt, tor- we receive from the UK. As you know rential rains, swollen rivers, floods and accompanying we were asked to voice our views on sandbagging in the east, our Canadian Spring has not this subject and all of which were sent in to HQ. But as yet I have not heard exactly sauntered in like a lamb. It has ing members every year while other if any decisions have been taken in re- arrived in force and it is to be hoped literary societies are often seen to be gard to an acceptable solution to the that better conditions lie ahead. thriving? For example, Sherlock problem. Holmes associations and societies are At the present time the Canadian I would like to thank everyone for flourishing world wide and have nu- TARS paid membership sits at 26 to keeping me up to date of changes to merous groups sharing the common which must be added 13 listed family their email and postal addresses. interest. Perhaps in this example it is members. Sadly we have not recruited These are sent in to Ted Evans as because AR’s books were/are aimed any new members. Ted Evans, TARS soon as I receive them, who in turn at children who eventually grow up, energetic ‘keeper and chronicler of immediately updates the regional di- and the stories eventually are left to records’ also reports that the overall rectory, etc. This ensures the informa- fade and gather dust in the corners of membership is down. tion is kept current. our memories, while Conan Doyle’s The question is why is the Society los- Sherlock Holmes stories were/are I hope the coming summer is good to

2 Return to Table of Contents Signals from TARSUS - North Pole News — May 2019 everyone and that you all manage to of them to Simon Horn so we can all Warm regards, have exciting adventures in the best of read about them in the next issue of Ian Sacré Swallows and Amazons tradition! North Pole News. TARS Canada Coordinator Do think about sending in an account Wishing all fair winds and calm seas.

A Note from the Editor material, and a special thanks to Molly By Simon Horn, [email protected] McGinnis, who again outdid herself. * * * Welcome to Signals from TARSUS/North Pole News for As noted by Robin in his editorial, the May 2019. Society’s PayPal account is not working, so payments will have to go Thanks to everyone who contributed. Although for a though your national coordinator. while it looked like you would be getting a six-page issue, as you can see people came through as always. The next issue will appear in Septem- ber... if you send in your contribu- In this issue tation quiz, Martha Blue tells us what tions. Items short or long, pho- she does between TARS activities, tographs,drawings, comments:allare Ian Sacré starts us off with The Profes- and Molly McGinnis provides a fur- welcome. How about “What I did on sor’s Laboratory, explaining how Swal- ther look at Captain Flint’s memora- my summer vacation”. low was jury rigged after crashing into bilia with No Moss on Uncle Jim! Part 2. Pike Rock in Swallowdale, and wonder- I hope you enjoy the newsletter. ing if duct tape might have helped. Once again, thanks to all who sent in Simon In Captain Flint’s Trunk, David Raw- cliffe’sDon’tCountOntheSheepex- For Sale: plains the ancient language used to Copies of The Far-Distant Oxus and its sequels count sheep in Cumbria, while In 1937, Jonathan Cape published The Far-Distant Oxus, Robert Dilley shares aerial photos of a novel written by high school girls Katherine Hull and Secret Water he took years ago. Pamela Whitlock. An homage to Ransome’s work, the In Dipping Our Hands, Molly McGin- book was centred around riding, rather than sailing. nis tells us about her First Fish, won at The girls had sent the entire hand-written manuscript to a carnival when she was five. Ransome, with a letter letter saying: “We should like to AlistairBryden’saddshisexperience send it to Jonathan Cape, but if you do not think that it to Kanchenjunga’s Cairn with Reflections is good enough we will think of something else to do with it…” of a Gear Junkie. Although gear has Deeply impressed with the girls’s effort, Ransome did think it was “good changed a lot over the years, old or enough”. Arriving in Cape’s office he said, “I’ve got this year’s best new, is it the most important thing? children’s book under my arm.” Cape agreed to publish, and it appeared in The Ship’s Library gives us reviews of the fall of 1937 with an introduction by Ransome. Hull and Whitlock went two books: Molly McGinnis looks at on to write two more Oxus books: Escape to Persia and Oxus in Summer. new children’s book Extraordinary Former TARS member Alan Contreras recently contacted me to say that he Birds, while David Elms recom- has copies of all three of the books that he would like to sell, and he mends Swallows, Amazons and Coots. wondered if any TARS members would be interested in buying them. Finally, we have a bumper Pieces of The books are relatively rare, and any reader who is interested should Eight, with three items: Elizabeth contact Mr. Contreras at [email protected] Jolley gives us a Ransome-series quo-

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The Professor’s Laboratory — Ideas, instructions & fixes

Swallowdale & the Salvage of Swallow By Ian Sacré It will be recalled that in Arthur Ran- very thin and flimsy patch but as some’s Swallowdale, Swallow unexpect- the story revealed, it served the edly gybed as she approached Horse- purpose. shoe Cove and, while temporally out However,arealmarinetarpaulin of control, ran up on Pike Rock, sus- was made from either flax, jute, tained serious below the waterline cotton or hemp, usually in cloths damage and promptly sank in nine or 24 inches wide and graded from ten feet of water. 0 to 7 with 0 being the heaviest, The shipwrecked sailors struggled making it, in cold weather, as ashore safe and sound and then went stiff as a board. The canvas was on to salvage poor Swallow. They suc- originally dressed with tar or a ceeded in hauling the damaged hull substitute for tar but in later out of the water and onto the beach, years it would have been treated patched the hole and then sailed her with other waterproofing and under escort to Rio. preservative dressings. Heavy Of particular interest to me was AR’s tarpaulins were spread over car- description of the temporary repair go hatches and, on winter voy- carried out on Swallow by Captain ages, as many as four tarps, John and Captain Flint using a piece placed one on top of the other, of ‘tarpaulin’ cut from a groundsheet. were often used. The tarpaulins would then have been ‘battened I wondered if AR might have used a basing the description on a personal down’, literally secured with battens. wee bit of poetic license with the ma- seagoing experience. Interestingly, if Such tarpaulin material would be terial he chose to be used for the the hole was a foot below the water- much too heavy and smelly for a patch. The idea was to provide a very line and was approximately six inches groundsheet but perfect for a patch or readable solution to Swallow’s dilem- square, water would enter the hull at a ‘tingle’ for Swallow if it had been read- ma of being holed below the water- velocity of very roughly two feet per ily available. line, and how to repair her to get her second. So in one single minute 120 to Rio for permanent repairs. The AR also described how quickly Swal- cubic feet of water would have poured question is, would such light canvas low sank after being stove in and holed in or, put another way, 750 gallons! have worked in real life? on Pike Rock. Virtually nothing could have been In the 1930s, groundsheets were of- done to save Swallow from sinking …. “The water’s coming in, Roger” he said. with that kind of damage. ten made of very light weight cotton It was not so much of an exclamation as a canvas with perhaps a rubberised plain statement of fact. Swallow was badly backing. Alternatively, the canvas holed below the waterline in the bows. The (For those who are interested, the velocity of might have been treated with a water- water was spouting in and she was filling fast. water through a small hole in feet per second proofing mixture made of equal parts The water was nearly up to the thwarts. is approximately 8 times the square root of of beeswax, turpentine and boiled lin- the depth of the hole (in feet) below the surface. seed oil, which would have been ap- This description of the events is so The volume of water in cubic feet passing plied to the cotton canvas hot. Such a beautifully factual and uncannily ac- through the same hole per second is the prod- ground sheet would have made for a curate that one wonders if AR was uct of the velocity multiplied by the area of the

4 Return to Table of Contents Signals from TARSUS - North Pole News — May 2019 hole in square feet. There are of course many would have been familiar with the pneumatic jack hammer had to be em- other factors which influence the water flow technique where handfuls of oakum ployed to remove it! and volume as the scientist, Mr Bertinelli or other suitable material are quickly In this modern day and age with small would have been quick to point out. But for attached to the tarpaulin or a spare sail craft being invariably built using fibre- the seaman dealing ‘hands on’ with an emer- with rough stitching, lines are then se- glass, nailing on a tingle would of gency situation aboard his vessel, fine tuning cured to the corners of the canvas course not be possible. In a sailing of formulae would just waste time in what which is then worked under the ship vessel a spare sail drawn under the would be a very scary and urgent situation.) with the lines until it covered the leak- vessel may work as long as the damage ing seam. The oakum is then hopeful- is not too close to the keel. On a fibre- Back in the day, the best repair patch- ly sucked into the offending leak as es or ‘tingles’ consisted of a heavy glass vessel under water damage is the water enters the hull through the certainly going to require all the inge- piece of canvas which had been oiled leaking seam thus stopping the leak. or coated with tallow. The canvas was nuity that can be brought to bear by then covered with a piece of lead or I have personally used fothering in the the skipper and crew if the craft can- copper sheet if available. All nailed in- Canadian Arctic when the steel hull of not be quickly beached. to place. If lead or copper sheet was my ship sustained a small crack about In small craft,a roll or two ofducttape not available, anything that was suit- a foot long below the waterline due to should be in every boat’s emergency able would do, a plank or board, lock- ice pressure. In this particular case, kit in my view. Some years ago, when er door etc. A lapstrake boat is partic- once we had the leak temporarily a group of us were on a weeklong ca- ularly hard to patch using canvas stopped with a fothering tarp, we built noe expedition down the Kootenay alone because of the overlapping a small box inside the hull in way of River, one of our party’s canoes cap- planks. The canvas just does not lie the leak and filled it with concrete. sized and the cedar strip craft was completely flat around the edges. (Yes, we always carried about twenty bags of swept down the fast flowing river and ready mixed but dry concrete for just such reacheduphardonarockybar,upside “Fothering’ is another technique used damage control.) Once the concrete down, splitting her stem on the rocks. in wooden or steel vessels when a hardened, we removed the fothering After we had recovered the crew, the caulked plank seam below the water tarpaulin and resumed our voyage. In canoe and most of the gear, we dug line loses its’ caulking and starts to this case, the method was so effective out a roll of duct tape and patched up leak, or a steel shell plate is cracked. that we continued operations for an- the bow split. Then the canoe was But Swallow’s damage was a hole not other two months until we could dry paddled down river another ten miles just a leak so fothering could not have dock for permanent repairs. The con- or so until we came to a suitable haul been used, though I am sure AR crete had hardened to the point that a out place and the canoe could be load- ed onto a car and taken to a boat builder for permanent repairs. The boat’s crew reported that the duct tape patching job did not leak a drop! I bet Captains’ Flint and John would have wished for a roll of duct tape had it been invented back then! (While paper backed sticky masking tape was invented in 1920, duct tape was not invented until 1942, originally for use by the military.)

If a supply of duct tape and cardboard had been available the Swallows could have jury- rigged a whole boat!.

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Captain Flint’s Trunk — News from abroad Don’t Count On the Sheep … Yan, Tan, Tethera By David Rawcliffe The Lake District… where else can through cultural changes and time, “We are hiking in the Lakes” be a sen- until universal education and commu- sible statement to make? nication finally whittled away at them. Sheep… where else may hikers see the While there are several variations over fell-hardy Herdwick sheep? the North and in some other areas of England, the most commonly known Counting sheep… where else has a lan- is given below. Recently a man, whom guage of 1500 years ago survived to I have known for a number of years the present day for counting sheep? here in Canada, rhymed it off to me. In Ransome’s five ‘Lakes stories’, He was born in the 1930s and raised there are several farms which keep, or on a sheep farm near Keswick in the may keep, sheep. Dixon’s farm is Lake District but still knew the count- probably the best known because of ing which he had learnt as a child. the cragfast sheep; this was most likely yan, tan, tethera, methera, pimp, a Herdwick sheep, from the rugged Lake District evolved, and but much sethera, lethera, hovera, dovera, terrain in which it lived all year round. has happened since then: in the 500s dick Then there are the Warriners (Jacky) & 600s the Anglo-Saxons (English) who also run a sheep farm and the yanadick, tanadick, tetheradick, arrived, and in the 800s to 1000 the petheradick, bumfit Swainsons and Tysons who are good Norse settled. While place names in candidates for owning sheep, given the Lakes reveal Brythonic, Anglo- yanabumfit, tanabumfit, tether- their location. Saxon and Norse influences, the spo- abumfit, petherabumfit, jiggit However, what interested me about ken language has been English, with I wonder if Ransome knew this old these farms was the counting of the albeit some Norse influence (beck, counting system? Having read about sheep. What counting system did Mr dale, fell), for a long time. However, his love of the Lakes, I am sure that he Dixon and Silas use when it came time not so with the counting of sheep… did… but just left it out of his S, A & to take stock of the flock? Did it begin those Brythonic numbers clung on D stories. Yan, Tan, Tethera? First there should be a little bit of history. Around 1500 years ago, it is reck- oned that the dwellers of the island of Great Britain spoke a language which is now referred to as Brythonic. As an aside, the dwellers of the island of Ire- land spoke a language which is referred to as Goidelic. (Welsh is a modern version of Brythonic; Gaelic is a modern version of Goidelic.) It is from that Brythonic language that the system of counting sheep in the

6 Return to Table of Contents Signals from TARSUS - North Pole News — May 2019 Secret Water from Above By Robert Dilley I have a considerable stock of Ran- some-related pictures – Wild Cat, Rio, Holly Howe, the Dog’s Home and more. These are a few I took back in 1988 when I spent 8 months as a Visit- ing Research Fellow at the University of Exeter, living with my family (wife and four daughters then 7, 5, 3 and 1) on the edge of Exmoor. The older girls were already steeped in AR as I read to them virtually every day (also Paddington, Winnie-the-Pooh, etc.) so when we did a family trip to East- ern England we spent a week on a Margoletta cruising the Broads and explored what we could from land of Secret Water. Then, one afternoon, I left the girls on the beach with their Swallow Island mother and hired a small two-seater Cessna to fly me over Secret Water so times flew lower than he was sup- copies of the slides, and in return sent I could take pictures. posed to. (When we landed he con- me a signed copy of his book on AR in gratulated me for being so calm East Anglia. The pictures were taken on 35mm throughout; I said I was far too fasci- slides with a SLR camera (this was nated by the view to be worried.) Of the five pictures I have positively 1988) leaning out of the cockpit. The When I mentioned this exploit in a identified three. Two, so long after the pilot was very cooperative, and at letter to Roger Wardale he pleaded for event, simply baffle me. I have com-

Flint Island 7 Return to Table of Contents Signals from TARSUS - North Pole News — May 2019 pared them to the map in SW and to the Ordnance Survey 1:50 000 map, but to no avail.

Perhaps one of our members can puz- zle them out?

Mastodon Island

First unidentified island. Do you know which one it is?

What about this one?

If you think you know what these last two pictures show, please tell the editor.

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Dipping our Hands — Personal relationships with the books

First Fish By Molly McGinnis Do you remember catching your first lowed to play this game, if I remem- fish? What kind of fish was it? Where ber.) Finally, I caught one, or my limit, did you catch it – a stream, a pond, a and won... lake, an ocean? Maybe even a pay-to- fish pond. Were you on the bank, on A goldfish in a glass bowl, to take a pier, in a boat? How did you catch it home. – with a worm, a minnow, a spinning lure? Did you bait the hook yourself? Did your mom cook it for your lunch?

Ransome describes the perfect place for perch in the first fishing expedition of the Swallows, according to my resident icthyologist. “On either side of Swallow they could see the long green streamers of weeds under water... We ought to be just off the edge My dad took me on its wonderful My goldfish kept me company in the of them, and where it’s not too deep.” rumbling gravity-powered wooden sun room while I recuperated from And this was exactly the sort of place roller coaster, and on a Ferris wheel having my tonsils out. I don’t know where we caught a nice mess of perch like this one. I loved the carousel with what happened to it after that. I hope – Heart Lake, Minnesota. Here’s a its high-spirited hand-carved horses. myparentsknewbetterthantorelease glimpse: it into the nearest pond! Released goldfish have become a terrible plague in America. They eat the eggs of more desirable fish and carry dis- eases native fish are not resistant to.

Little Heart lake had nice patches of But best of all I loved the fishing eelgrass (and a pair of loons cruising booth. There was a long tank of con- with babies on their backs!). stantly moving plastic fish on a low stand, and your ticket bought you a But my first fish came to me from little fishing pole and a certain amount (Roger was in no danger of finding a quite a different environment. When I of time to catch a fish. I don’t remem- goldfish on his hook; released gold- was 5 or 6 years old, we lived just a few ber how the fish were caught, but it fish don’t seem to be a problem in the miles from Dayton, Ohio’s famous wasn’t all that easy for a 5-year-old to Lake Country, as far as I could find Lakeside Amusement Park. catch one. (No grownups were al- out.)

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Kanchenjunga's Cairn — Places we've been and our adventures Reflections of a Gear Junkie By Alistair Bryden A few years ago, my daughter decided to go on an all-inclusive holiday to Mexico. She came back saying “Dad! Why did you never tell me there were holidays like this where you didn’t have to sleep in tents and go and be active every single day?” And she was right, since she was very young she was dragged along on multiple adventures, sea kayaking and canoeing, sleepingintents,etc.Shedidn’tget exposed to many non-active holidays. I have recently been doing lots of tidy- much of this original equipment left, Not unsurprisingly, for several years, ing and sorting in anticipation of a though I bet my brother still has the outdoor adventures were not cool. move. Part of this has involved tent, and I still mourn the day sac. But the other day she came looking pulling out and considering a large set Looking back almost 100 years to the for tents, sleeping bags, rucksacks, of outdoor equipment for various Swallows, they had tents sewed up by etc. as this summer she is going on a sports. Inevitably, I have several gen- their mother, slung from trees and four-day backpacking trip with her erations of gear and need to decide weighted out with stones from the friends. Last year she took them all what to keep and what to discard. But beach. They slept on hay bags and sea-kayaking. She has discovered that it also triggered some reflection. cooked with heavy cast iron pans on she has absorbed a lot of outdoor When I look at my current equipment, open fires, carried their grog in a bar- knowledge and skills, largely through made of aluminum, titanium, plastic rel, and likewise had immense fun. osmosis, and she has access to a lot of and nylon, it is an interesting compari- son to the equipment that I started Going back even further, there would equipment. Consequently, she has be- be lots of leather and tin enamel come the leader of her friends in these with; my first tent was cotton, my stove was a brass Optimus, burning plates. There is a wonderful book adventures; they all think this is pretty called the Dangerous River by R. M. Pa- cool and fun and admire her abilities. paraffin/kerosene, my day sac was canvas and my boots were heavy terson which talks about adventuring But most importantly, she now has into the Canadian Nahanni wilder- the enthusiasm and will to get out leather. And yet we had fun and en- joyed ourselves. No, I don’t have ness (and this really was unexplored there. Go figure? wilderness) in the 1920s. He would spend an entire season equipped with only what he could carry in a small canoe, some tea, some salt, some flour, an axe, a tarp and a rifle. So it’s not about the equipment, in fact one of the advantages of older materials such as wood, leather, and canvas were that, although heavier, they were tougher, and if they did

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break they were easier to repair. Fix- something,othershavebeentherebe- ing a broken aluminum tent pole is a fore you, paving the way. There may tricky job, while broken plastic giz- even be a guidebook (though it’s fun mos are often unfixable (though it is when there isn’t a guidebook or you amazing what can be repaired with leave it behind). some ingenuity.) It’s partly about the OneofthemanythingsIlearnedfrom set of skills and knowledge that you Arthur Ransome by reading his books have, although I probably didn’t have was that he made camping and out- much of this when I started. door activities seem totally normal I think ultimately it’s about the will, and doable. The characters simply get energy and enthusiasm to simply get on with camping, sailing and hiking as out and do something… anything, they pursue their adventures. His and go from there and keep doing it. characters had the will, energy and en- It’s way too easy to decide that some thusiasm to get out there. The equip- trip or adventure is too difficult or ment, although carefully described challenging. Occasionally they are, and essential, was only a means to an but most of the time when you try end.

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Ship’s Library — Books we’ve read and want to share Sailing on Wings – Extraordinary Birds Reviewed by Molly McGinnis

“Why is a bird like a sailing dinghy?” many humans have tried to fly or glide “Why do you ask?” with wings like da Vinci’s, usually with Because a lot of Sandy Stark-McGin- more comical than disastrous results. nis’s novel Extraordinary Birds is Maybe they should have tried sailing about how birds fly. first, to get a feel for that vacuum pulling their sails – and wings. Eleven-year-old December wants to fly as birds fly, on her own wings, and December has a different strategy. she knows that it’s the vacuum above She’s going to fly away to freedom on the wings that keeps a bird aloft, just the wings she knows are budding be- as it’s the vacuum in front of a sail that neath the scar on her back. She’s been keeps the water purling at the dinghy’s passed from one foster home to an- heel. other and keeps herself aloof and ready to leave each new home, but she Every human has wished to have knows a lot about birds – December wings and fly, all through history, usu- has all but memorized the bird books ally with disastrous results. Dedalus’s her mother left when she ran away. In wings of feathers glued with wax fly “Bird Girl,” December’s novel of her him to freedom from the Minotaur’s other self, the girl who will fly on her prison, but his son Icarus flies so high own wings, she works out the math that the sun melts the wax on his for how wide and long her wings will muscle. If she does it right, she can wings and he falls and drowns. have to be, and records the ways she jump from a tree and make the scar on Leonardo da Vinci drew plans for tries to make herself as bird-like as her back release the wings budding wings to attach to a human – and possible, light of bone and strong of beneath it. So far, she hasn’t gotten it right, and the bruises and sprains get her in a lot of trouble. She’s already in quite a lot of trouble. She makes friends with the wrong person in her new school and becomes the target of a ring of bullying girls. Just as she starts to like Eleanor, her latest foster parent, a bird rehabilitator who gives December her first chance to become friends with a real bird... But that would give too much of the plot away. When I sat down to look at my ad- vance copy of Extraordinary Birds, I stopped a few chapters in and decided toreadachapterortwoeverynight,so

Here’s Sandy at her first book signing.

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I could savor all the details. The second night,I picked thebookup asI sat on the edge of my bed with my paja- mas half on, and next thing I knew it was two in the morning and I’d fin- ished the book, shivering half with cold and half with emotion. As I began to get well into the story, I thought, “This is going to be a book adults will cherish, like the Swallows and Amazons books.” Evidently I’m not alone: Extraordinary Birds is my grown niece’s book club’s current book for study. I hope you’ll give it a try. ______Extraordinary Birds, Bloomsbury Press, prices are CDN$8.24 for the paperback The e-edition is a little less or a little more May 1, 2019. and $22.99 for the hardcover. than the paperback on all sites I looked at. In the US the Amazon price is $11.27 for At Amazon UK the price for the paper- (Full disclosure: The author is my daugh- the 8”x5” trade paperback, and $11.72 back is £4.78 and £16.99 for the bard- ter-in-law.) for the beautiful hardback. The Canadian back.

Swallows, Amazons and Coots Reviewed by David R. Elms Upon a recommendation from my ment of Ransome’s life and how it Facebook friend Sophie Neville — was woven into his stories. The his- president of TARS and star of the torical influences described by 1974 Swallows and Amazons movie Lovelock: the decline of the Britih — I downloaded onto my Kobo Empire, revolution, class structure, ereader an excellent book by Julian gender stereotyping and the influ- Lovelock entitled Swallows, Amazons ence of the two great world wars, and Coots. To anyone who has read or along with the growth of the charac- who is about to read the series, I ters portrayed in the series, can only would strongly recommend taking enhance one’s understanding of the time to read Lovelock’s assess- Ransome’s writing skills.

Useful Links The Arthur Ransome Society (TARS) website: http://www.arthur-ransome.org.uk All Things Ransome, a website devoted to keeping articles, artwork, and anything related to Ransome: http://www.allthingsransome.net The Arthur Ransome Wiki, an encyclopedia on Ransome, his life and works: http://arthur-ransome.wikia.com/wiki/Arthur_Ransome_Wiki

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Pieces of Eight — The Junior Pages

Swallows and Amazons Book Series QUIZ! by Elizabeth Jolley See if you can answer a series of questions based on quotations from each of the twelve books. Be careful: the books are not in publication order. The illustrations come from each of the books, usually from the same chapter as the quotation. But watch out! The picture may give you part of the answer but, just maybe, it might be misleading.

1. “A breath of cold air touched Dick’s face. He 4. “ ‘What’s happened?’ woke suddenly to find that Tom was no longer ‘What’s the matter?’ lying beside him, but had got up and turned Titty and Roger dodged out of the back a flap of the awning. way as John came tumbling up out ‘Tom.’ of the cabin. John did not really ‘Keep quiet.’ know himself, not for certain. But ‘What are you doing?’ that that jerk, and the then the ‘Going to see if it’s them or not.’ “ queer feeling of something scrap- ing, and then the jerk again had re- Q: Who is Tom looking for, where are Dick minded him of a day out fishing and Tom, and which book is this? from? long ago, when the ______had dragged because the rope had not been long enough.” 2. “Titty took hold of both parts of 3. “With the ancient chart that had Q: What"s the rope, and paying out one and belonged to ______’s happening, hauling on the other, she brought father, two pocket compasses, the which boat the ______down. The sextant and the nautical almanac, are they in, rope slid easily over the bough.” they found their way to and which ______. Here they sent off Q: Where is this scene set, what is book is a telegram, carefully worded so as Titty bringing down, and which this from? book is this from? not to stir up mothers, just to say they were all well and had changed their ship for a new one.” Q: To whose father had the chart belonged, where did they go to send a telegram, and which book is this from?

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5. “ ‘It’s all wrong to sing that now,’ 6. “ ‘Ever caught a ______before?’ said Roger, as ______got to ‘No,’ said ______. his feet and they were able to stop pulling. ‘He isn’t a she.’ ‘You take him,’ said ______, looking over his shoulder. ‘Never mind,’ said ______. ‘How long have you had him on?’ asked the ______. ‘No more are anchors or bundles, ‘Year or two,’ said ______shortly. if it comes to that.’ “ ‘Carry on for another month then,’ said the ______. Q: What is it wrong to sing, whose ‘You’re doing very well.’ ” name fits in both blanks, and which book is this from? Q: What did they catch, who are the three people talking, and which book is this from?

7. “ ‘There’s nothing we can do,’ said Captain Flint. ‘Yes, there is, and we’ll do it. We can make such a row that they hear us in the house. We aren’t gagged. We’ve got to make the ______listen to reason. Start yelling. Go on, Uncle Jim. Let yourself go. Go on. You’re hailing a ship in a storm. Ahoy! AHOY!’ ” Q: Where are they, why are they there, who needs to listen to reason, and which book is this from?

8. “ ‘All hands!’ said ______, as they sat down to breakfast. ‘Wait till they’ve had their porridge,’ said 9. “Bit of a row last night. She told Cook she was Mother. beingextravagantwithmilk.Cookheldherpeace ‘Oh do tell us now,’ said Titty. though nearly busting. Yours is to come ‘You heard what your Mother said.’ separately. Give him yesterday’s bottle. Now ‘Oh Mother!’ listen. Orders for the day. Be ‘You get your porridge down,’ said Mother. ‘But don’t where I said at two o’clock go and eat it too quickly.’ sharp.” ‘Or too slowly,’ said Roger, swallowing fast. ‘Slop it in, Q: Who wrote this note, who ______. ______doesn’t know how to eat por- told Cook she was being ridge. When you’ve got a mouthful in, don’t just wave the extravagant with milk, whose spoon about. Get it filled while you’re swallowing.’ ” is to come separately, and which book is this from? Q: Who said, ‘All hands’, who doesn’t know how to eat porridge, where are they, and which book is this from?

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10. “They took the kettle and a jug, 12. “Well, tomorrow, perhaps, the and climbed down by the accommo- hedgehog would not have to come so dation-ladder. ______far for his evening drink. She lit her pushed the ladder back up on deck. torch and hurried down the path.” ‘Why?’ said ______. ‘We’re Q: Who hurried down the path, what just coming back.’ was s/he doing just before this, where ‘Let’s come back as if we had never did s/he do it, and which book is this been here with the others.’ ” from? Q: Who pushed the ladder back up, who wondered why, where are they, and which book is this from?

11. “ ‘Pearls,’ said the old man. ‘Pearls. Pearls’ll keep till morning. What I wants now is sleep.’ ” Q: Who is the old man, what ship are they in, what trouble did the pearls bring to the ship, and which book is this from?

Quiz Answers

. r e t a W t e r c e S . a e S o t o G o t n a e M t ’ n d i D e W ; n i l b o G . t s o P n o e g i P

; e g a t t o C a m l A ; t e g d i r B ; y d d a D . 8 n i e r a y e h t ; n i e m a c e d i t e h t ; s p o T h g i H o t t x e n e t i s p m a c e h t

s a g n i g g a r d d e t r a t s r o h c n a e h T . 4

r a e n ; r e t a w r o f g n i s w o d ; y t t i T . 2 1

? n r e h t r o N t a e r G ; y t n i G c M e h t

. k c u D r e t e P ; m e h t r e t f a g n i s a h c e k a J

; r e e d e h t g n i s a h c e r e w y e h t k n i h t . e e L

k c a l B ; t a C d l i W ; k c u D r e t e P . 1 1

s e v i t a n e h t ; t u h a n i p u d e k c o L . 7 e e s s i M ; e r o p a g n i S ; e e L e e s s i M . 3

. y a d i l o H r e t n i W

. x i S g i B e h T ; n a m r e h s i f . s n o z a m A & s w o l l a w S

; m a r F e h t ; k c i D ; a e h t o r o D . 0 1

e h t d n a e o J , l l i B ; e k i p A . 6 ; n r e t n a l e h t ; e e r T e s u o h t h g i L . 2

. s r y t r a M

e h t d n a s t c i P e h T ; s ’ a e h t o r o D & . e l a d w o l l a w S ; t n i l F n i a t p a C . b u l C t o o C ; m a h g i e H

k c i D ; a i r a M t n u A t a e r G ; y c n a N . 9 ; ” s e s i R e h S p U d n a y a H , y a W “ . 5 r e t t o P ; s o o l a b a l l u H e h T . 1

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What do Junior Tars do when they are not joining in TARS events?

I, for one, have been very busy: studying forest management and how it generally seems that the overriding policy is to extract as much resource from woodland without completely destroying it – but only for purely economic benefit, instead of caring for trees in their own right; I have been practising my French (not unlike Titty in Swallowdale) and Italian language studies; algebra has preoccupied me – a lot!; so have English grammar, punctuation and spelling!; the English monarchy from 1000A.D. to the present; writing poetry (Highly Commended prize for the 2019 Shepton Mallet Snowdrop Festival; publication in the Stratford upon Avon Literature Festival, April 2019) AND more and more and more and in-between i have been: making art for our own art-exhibition in March, which was a three-week long family ‘artibition,’ for which I made over a dozen works (out of our total of 92); planting things and making ready for planting things at our allotment; camping in the garden; climbing around the Dark Peak of Edale and Kinder Scout in the English Peak District (twice, between 8 and 14 miles) and of course reading more books– and waiting patiently for the next TARS event!

But best of all was when dad and I and my sister Aurora (who joined in on 3 of the walks) started to walk the Gritstone Trail close to home! It would be too much to do it all in one day, being officially 35 and a half miles long (56km), using permissive footpaths but was actually 38 and a half so we planned for around seven walks, doing it in six.

The trail was very hilly but not quite mountainous, with several long (45minute) ascents and descents, with varying walking surfaces, including boggy, very boggy and really oozing boggy. There is a guide published by our local council which gives route advice and direction details which, deeply frustrating, were not always correct or up to date as some way markers and fingerposts (those that have not deteriorated beyond recognition) have been relocated and some of the route, too. We had to use map and compass on several occasions. The trail is located on the edge of the Peak District.

We passed by old silk mills and dye works, following old railway lines, ridge walks and paths which go over the sandstone and mudstone of the Cheshire Plain. We saw red deer on the moor above Lyme Park, with its 18th-century hunting tower, called, ‘the cage’. The highest point on the trail was Sponds Hill (410m/1345feet) with fine views to Kinder Scout. In an area called

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Bakestonedale, whose name was taken from the bakestones used for baking cakes over an open fire which were quarried here, many quarries of which appeared along the trail, gritstone being used heavily in roadbuilding and housebuilding, some of which are still active. (We passed one which was being used as a firing range, which was a bit unnerving)

There was a bright white monument called White Nancy, a landmark built in 1820 by the Gaskell family to commemorate the Battle of Waterloo. We found patches of Speedwell growing nearby.

Local legends tell of ruthless highwaymen who stalked the lonely hill passes to rob weary travellers! Fortunately, we didn’t come across any.

As we were to walk on Sunday mornings, mum would drop us off and pick us up at our destination, so that we didn’t have to double our distance. We walked for four and a half miles along a canal until we reached Mow Cop and the Old Man of Mow (referred to as the home of Primitive Methodism), from where there were distant views. On the canal we were following two kingfishers for about half a mile, or they were leading us on! There was a very narrow part to the canal, and it didn’t look like a very-narrow narrow boat could pass through, let alone a narrow boat! The next walk was from Mow Cop to a place

Me climbing a stile in the middle of a field!

called Nick in the Hill or the Castle Inn. There were a lot of cyclists and the weather was very warm and sunny. We found a lovely village, peaceful and quiet, where we saw a twelve-inch-long feather from some sort of bird of prey! One Sunday trek from Bosley Cloud to Bosley Minn was done in a blinding blizzard! We walked down some very slippery hills (so slippery that dad nearly rolled down them, in fact he looked as comical as Laurel or Hardy might have looked in an old film, played at slightly faster speed than actual) to a very muddy track, which became muddier and wetter and stickier and oozier and deeper and closer to water! We then crossed some fields and a very busy road then onto the Cauldon Canal culvert or feeder. It was the muddiest place I had ever seen in my life! It was so thick that our wellies got stuck and the mud went all up our legs until we had completely brown legs! At one point a tree had fallen right across the path (if a mud swamp can

be called a path) and to get past we had to traverse along the edge of the feeder sliding along through

until we came out on the other side of the fallen tree! We then walked to Sutton telecommunication mast! The next Sunday we walked to Rainow and through fields and along country lanes until we got to Teggs Nose Country Park where we walked through the former quarry and now open-air museum with giant cutter saw frameworks. From here we dropped down a long and steep edge of ravine and stole our way through several reservoirs. The section of walk between Disley, near to Lyme Park, to Pott Shrigley, near to Rainow, Bollington, a distance of 7 miles, where we saw a trapped calf and several relic, rusting farm vehicles! I would recommend this trail as it covers a fair distance, enough to be too 18 Return to Table of Contents Signals from TARSUS - North Pole News — May 2019

demanding to complete in one day; it takes in a number of steeps, all with panoramic viewpoints; you pass through a number of local history and heritage sites; the weather doesn’t matter – wet just adds to the interest!; there is a further challenge beyond the physical – you have to take care with your map as in several locations the route has altered a little and the way markers are changing from yellow to white and stand now in revised locations! I think that any Tars member would enjoy it (if not too far away) as it is a definite adventure and especially gives you a great skill for finding way-markers and the mapped route shown on the map (with a little guesswork thrown in)! You will be guaranteed some wildlife, whether birds, rabbits, farm animals, mini-beasts, butterflies or even a hare! It might be useful (maybe a burden) to bring a tree-and-animal identification booklet and even some binoculars or a camera as you might be lucky enough to spot a woodpecker, a hare or some harebells, as we did. You might even get an unexpected photograph of a blizzard! It may be a long walk but it is definitely worth it when you reach the finish, wherever the finish may be as we walked some of it backwards; you will have been across all sorts of different terrain and will be an expert at recognising what different weather is coming over and what to pack and wear for a mud swamp! Did the Swallows and Amazons have to cope with so much in Swallowdale or Pigeon Post?

Dad and I at a famous landmark called ‘White Nancy’!

19 Return to Table of Contents Signals from TARSUS - North Pole News — May 2019 No Moss on Uncle Jim! – Part 2 By Molly McGinnis Souvenirs in Uncle Jim’s houseboat ic crucibles like these. “Take African weapon – its name is and his study in the Blackett house the lot,” Peggy says to Dick Africaans. A knobkerry can be give clues to Uncle Jim’s travels. The when the prospectors raid thrown to bring down game (or peo- houseboat burglary gives the most Uncle Jim’s study. ple) or used as a club, to bonk an ene- clues. We investigated some of them my. In some tribes, young boys took a in the last issue, but there are many knobkerry home with them after the more objects in the houseboat and long initiation trial: “Now I am a study. Uncle Jim had quite a collection man!” A knobkerry is made from a of weapons in the houseboat: assegais very special branch, one that has from Africa, tomahawks from North grown out of a knot. America, boomerangs from Aus- This assegai and knobkerry are at least tralia. The houseboat must have been 60 years old. My husband brought a wonderful place! There were Uncle Jim has at least two as- them home from Africa in 1970 and shark’s-tooth necklaces from New segais. Assegais are war and they were old then. The knobkerry is Zealand, a model catamaran from hunting spears used over most one piece of wood – the seam is where Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). I like to think of Africa. Ours is from Kenya. the branch came from the knot. that most of Uncle Jim’s souvenirs It has an iron rod base with a came not from souvenir stalls but very sharp point, a blade were given or bartered for – or won – worked from the same iron, from the peoples who made them. and a not very sturdy seeming First, the reason for it all: “dark stones stick in the middle. It will with glitters of metal” in Uncle Jim’s stand by itself pushed into study. even hard ground. The Zulus learned early on to hack at the trunks of the assegai tree – Curtisia dentata, a dogwood The angled boomerang that mysteri- relative – so the tree would ously returns to the thrower isn’t the make long straight shoots for only kind – though it instantly became spear shafts. the tourist model and a symbol of The knobkerry (sounds Irish, Australia, decorating all sorts of prod- doesn’t it?) is another ancient ucts. Boomerangs are as old as creation to a native Australian. The gods shaped the landscape by throwing boomerangs into the earth. They’ve been used This dark stone is copper ore, and its by humans for 20,000 years, for war, bits of metal are like the glitter in for hunting, for toys, as percussion in- quartz that so disappointed the young struments, as digging sticks, as fire prospectors – and turned out to be the starting sticks. They can bring down copper that Uncle Jim and Timothy large animals like kangaroos, birds, were hoping to find all along. Small and even fish. I like to think that one amounts of ore were melted in ceram- of Uncle Jim’s boomerangs was a

20 Return to Table of Contents Signals from TARSUS - North Pole News — May 2019 beautiful hunting boomerang, and a pipe bowl. A pipe would be shared in very interesting jaws – they are filter- he’d certainly have had one of the dec- religious ceremonies or sometimes to feeders on tiny plankton plants and orated kinds. This decorated seal a treaty, so Europeans knew the animals, or crush shellfish, or suck up boomerang in the National Museum ceremonial pipes as “peace pipes,” jellyfish. Some sharks (not as many as of Australia is from the 19th century and pipe tomahawks, with their con- you’d think) have interesting teeth but or earlier. trasting peace and war sides, became sharks have cartilaginous skeletons – popular presentation items. made of the same material as the ends of chicken bones, and I’m not sure how well a shark jaw would hold up in the damp air of the Lakes. There’s one large fish that has a very interesting head and jaw, though – At least one of the sharks’ tooth neck- Lophia piscatorius, the laces could also have come from largest of the monkfish Down Under. Sharks were important The leopard skin shield is the most and anglerfish group. in the culture of the Maori people of puzzling piece of weaponry Uncle Jim Either jaw of this 6 1/2 footer would New Zealand and they made necklace had. Leopard skins are thin and sup- be about 2 feet each way, and if I of the teeth of the biggest kinds. This ple, not very suitable for war– tough found one on a beach I’d certainly Maori necklace would have been 60 heat-treated leather from a large want to take it home! Or it may have years old in the time of the Swallows hoofed animal were the normal shield appeared in a bazaar somewhere, and Amazons – maybe Uncle Jim bar- covers. Was Uncle Jim’s leopard skin nicely cleaned and bleached. gained for one like it when he was shield for ceremonies only, or made prospecting for gold and copper in for tourists, or did Ransome simply There must have been an ostrich egg. New Zealand. remember seeing this very unshield- No one comes back from Africa with- like shield in the British Museum and out an ostrich egg. consign it to the Fram? When prospectors of Pigeon Post raid Uncle Jim’s study for assaying equipment they see “spears, shields, a knobkerry, and the jawbone of a big fish.”

By the time Uncle Jim got to North America, the tomahawk of the East- ern Amerind tribes had spread across This decorated water-carrying ostrich the United States and Canada. It was egg from South Africa was a museum a tool and a throwing (or bashing) piece even in Uncle Jim’s day, the weapon, originally made by lashing a It must have been an interesting jaw, Swedish museum date is 1799. stoneheadtoawoodenshaft.Assoon for Uncle Jim to go to the trouble of as the Europeans brought iron, toma- getting such a fragile thing home to The warrior seems to be carrying an hawks got fancier and many included the Lake. The largest fish don’t have assegai and a knobkerry! Evaporation

21 Return to Table of Contents Signals from TARSUS - North Pole News — May 2019 through the slightly porous shell kept Mounted armadillos were popular in the water cool, like the canvas water Victorian times, and I’m rather sur- bags of my childhood. prised that Uncle Jim didn’t have one. This South American Giant Armadil- lo mount is from the early 19th century. Armadillos are abundant throughout the southern parts of the United States. They are energetic diggers for worms and other invertebrates, but may be most familiar as roadkill. Get- ting in the way of motor vehicles is a major talent with armadillos. When No one dreamed of crossing the my family traveled through the Amer- the “model catamaran from Ceylon.” The catamarans of Sri Lanka were fa- American deserts without a water bag, ican South in the 1950’s traffic was for filling the car radiator and to hang slower and armadillos perhaps less mous and the design was used for ev- in the back windows of the car to cool abundant, but we excitedly examined erything from houseboats to small and darken the child space. We sipped the first traffic casualty we saw and and large fishing skiffs. Measured by at the strange canvas-flavored water stared at dried and mounted armadil- the height of the men, this one looks occasionally, too. I’m sure it tasted a los in the roadside stores. to be about 18 feet. lot better than water carried across a Uncle Jim must have brought some Luckily, the most important souvenir hot desert in the inside of an egg! curios from the house by the time the of all was safely with the campers on And we mustn’t forget Timothy. houseboat became the Fram, in Win- WildcatIsland when theburglaryhap- “We’ve been looking through the nat- ter Holiday. We’ve seen everything but pened. ural history books, and we’re pretty sure it must be an armadillo.”

The turquoise-fronted Amazon Parrot is one of the most popular for pets, and is common in much of South America. But I’m not sure it quite looks like the Amazons’ parrot, though we do know that that one’s green.

Signals from TARSUS/North Pole News is a joint publication of TARSUS (The Arthur Ransome Society USA) and TARS Canada. The TARSUS coordinator is Robin Marshall, [email protected] The TARS Canada coordinator is Ian Sacré, [email protected] The editor is Simon Horn, [email protected] Please send contributions, questions and suggestions for the newsletter to the editor.

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