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 1 Signals from TARSUS - North Pole News — May 2019 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 work- ing, 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- 3 Return to Table of Contents Signals from TARSUS - North Pole News — May 2019 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.