Arthur Ransome Trivia

1. To what or whom does the title "Peter Duck" refer?

From Quiz Peter Duck

Answer: An old seaman

Peter Duck is an elderly retired able-bodied seaman who hangs around the Inner Harbour at Lowestoft. When Uncle Jim's friend who was to accompany the Swallows and Amazons on their sea-journey cannot make the trip, Peter Duck offers to sail with them in his place. It is his story about watching pirates bury a treasure when he was a young sailor that inspires them to sail to the Caribbean in search of the treasure.

From Quiz Velocities of Swallows

Answer: Wild Cat

All these are islands in the lake which features in several of the stories, especially "Swallows and Amazons". It is based largely on Windermere in the English Lake District, where Arthur Ransome lived for many years. The Swallows consider several names for the island until they learn that the Amazons have called it "Wild Cat Island".

From Quiz A Quiz About "Coot Club", Part II

Answer: North-west

The course that the crew of the Teasel are taking runs south-east down the River Bure, south through Breydon Water, and then south-east again down the River Waveney. Thus a North-west "could not be a better wind for the voyage". The other winds all come off the North Sea and would not be suitable.

From Quiz A Quiz About "Coot Club", Part I

Answer: The Ds (Dick and Dorothea Callum)

"Coot Club" and "The Big Six", both set in the Norfolk Broads, do not feature either the Swallows or the Amazons, but rather the Callums (Dick and Dorothea, also known as "the Ds"). They appeared in an earlier story, "Winter Holiday", set during the Christmas vacation. "Coot Club" takes place during the following spring vacation. Mrs Barrable, a former teacher of Dick and Dorothea's mother, has invited them to spend part of the vacation on a boat moored near Horning on the River Bure.

From Quiz The Picts and the Martyrs

Answer: Dick and Dot

Dick and Dorothea ("Dot") Callum are invited to stay with their friends, the Blacketts, while the Blackett parents are away. However, when The Great Aunt arrives unexpectedly, they must hide out in the woods like the Picts, an ancient group of people who lived secretly when other tribes arrived in their homeland.

From Quiz A Quiz on "Swallowdale"

Answer: Their great-aunt is visiting.

Their great-aunt Maria is a stern tyrant who does not approve of the Blackett girls running loose on the hills and sailing on the lake. She tries to turn them into well-dressed and well-behaved young ladies. Nancy and Peggy, as well as their mother and uncle ("Captain Flint"), are waiting anxiously for her departure. Nancy does get the mumps in the fourth book, "Winter Holiday".

From Quiz Arthur Ransome's 'We Didn't Mean To Go To Sea'

Answer: Red

The Goblin, sailed by Jim Brading, is first described when the Swallows see her, as 'a little white cutter with red sails'.

From Quiz "Secret Water"

Answer: He was held up by the First Lords

The Swallows' father was in the Royal Navy. The 'First Lords' are the First Lords of the Admiralty. Mr Walker was hoping to take leave, but it was cancelled.

From Quiz We Didn't Mean to Go to Sea

Answer: Pin Mill

Their father would be arriving in Harwich, an important embarkation point for vessels leaving England to cross the Channel, but the family was staying at Pin Mill.

From Quiz The Swallow and the Amazon - The boats

Answer: Standing Lug

First some sail definitions...
The four sides of a fore and aft rigged sail are:
Luff - the side closest to the mast
Leech - the side furthest from the mast (also spelled leach)
Foot - the bottom side, attached to the boom (if there is one)
Head - the top side, attached to the gaff or yard. A three sided sail doesn't have a head.

The four corners are:
Tack - between the foot and the luff
Throat - between the luff and the head. A three sided sail doesn't have a throat.
Peak - between the head and the leech.
Clew - between the leech and the foot

These rigs were all common choices on small sailing dinghies because of their simplicity and the short spars which could be easily handled and stowed inside the boat.

A balanced lug sail is a four sided sail with the halyard fastened to the gaff a few feet away from the throat and the boom attached to the mast by a rope or ring a few feet back from the tack, so there is a roughly parallel strip of sail before the mast.

A standing lug sail is a four sided sail with the halyard fastened to the gaff a few feet away from the throat and the boom or tack attached to the mast (with jaws or a gooseneck) so there is a triangular area of sail in front of the mast.

A gunter rig has the gaff almost vertical, so that it appears to be almost triangular, and the gaff and boom are attached to the mast.

A sprit sail has its luff attached to the mast and held out with a spar (sprit) from the peak to a rope strop on the mast. Thames Barges (like the "Welcome" from the "Coot Club") have a sprit sail as do Optimists - a popular minimalist sailing dinghy.

So a quick glance at the book illustrations - or a careful read of the passage where John rigs Swallow for the first time - will immediately identify the rig as a standing lug.

While not as "efficient" sailing upwind as a modern rig, I expect John could rig Swallow by himself and be sailing before two people would even have the mast stepped in a modern sailing dinghy!

From Quiz "The Picts and the Martyrs" - Arthur Ransome

Answer: An enormous skull and crossbones done in black and white paint.

The Cook disapproved of such a bloodthirsty symbol being put on the wall. She said it wasn't homely. She also disapproved of Nancy's hanging flags at the foot of the bed. Nancy merely said it was the plague flag and that the other one was of a sacred beetle called a scarab.

From Quiz "Great Northern?" - the last Ransome adventure

Answer: Scape off the barnacles and paint her below the waterline.

A sheltered cove is needed so that they can run her aground and begin the work of "careening". This worthy intention leads to all the trouble and excitement that follows.

From Quiz "Swallowdale" by Arthur Ransome

Answer: the green feathers from the parrot so they can make more arrows

Titty's parrot used to live on the houseboat with Nancy and Peggy's Uncle Jim (or Captain Flint). Captain Flint gave the green parrot to Titty because she had found his missing manuscript. Polly always gets angry when she sees some of her own feathers.

From Quiz "Winter Holiday" by Arthur Ransome

Answer: They are looking at the stars.

Dick has got a book about astronomy and he is trying to find all the major stars that can be seen from the northern hemisphere in the winter months. Unfortunately the book is also filled with lots of distracting poetry as well as the star charts Dick wants to use.

From Quiz "Pigeon Post" - a brilliant adventure

Answer: a homing pigeon in a basket

Homing pigeons are at the centre of this story. In the very first pages the book begins to explain the reason for its title. It's in the story called "Secret Water" that Bridget really begins to look after the ship's kitten called Sinbad.

From Quiz "Swallows and Amazons" Part 3

Answer: Her Uncle Jim had said that pirates have to be ruthless.

Nancy regards "Ruth" as too tame a name for an Amazon pirate. When she and Peggy had been friendly with their Uncle Jim she had heard him say that pirates had to be ruthless and so she dropped her real name. Nancy and Peggy never want to deliberately annoy their mother but they turn on Uncle Jim when he refuses to spend time with them.

From Quiz "Swallows and Amazons" Part 1

Answer: Holly Howe

Holly Howe is based on a real place. The field leading down to the lake is even steeper than you might imagine.

From Quiz Arthur Ransome Books

Answer: Peggy

Nancy calls her the "tame galloot!" in the books.

From Quiz Amazons Forever!

Answer: Ruth

Nancy thought the name Ruth wasn't fierce enough for an "Amazon" so she changed her name. Amazons are ruthless!

From Quiz Swallows and Amazons

Answer: Ruth

lol... she changed her name because her uncle told her that pirates are 'ruthless'. Couldn't you just die?

From Quiz Peter Duck

Answer: Lowestoft

Lowestoft lies at the mouth of the River Waveney system in Suffolk. It was traditionally a fishing town, but now depends more on tourism. The ports at Harwich and Felixstowe form the setting of "We Didn't Mean to Go to Sea", and Great Yarmouth figures in "Coot Club". Ramsgate, unlike the other choices, does not lie in East Anglia but in Kent.

From Quiz Velocities of Swallows

Answer: John wrecks the boat on a rock.

All these options appears in the stories. Nancy catches the mumps in "Winter Holiday", a lack of drinking water in "Pigeon Post" has made camping out impossible, and in "Secret Water" their planned family holiday is disrupted by their father being called away. In "Swallowdale" a gust of wind causes John to gybe unexpectedly. This drives the boat onto Pike's rock and John barely has time to escape before it sinks.

From Quiz A Quiz About "Coot Club", Part II

Answer: Their father has a legal emergency at work.

This frees the twins up to join the crew on the Teasel, but by the time they get to the place where the Teasel was moored, they find that it has already sailed. Much of the charm of this part of the story is how Port and Starboard make their way down the river, hitching rides on various river craft.

From Quiz A Quiz About "Coot Club", Part I

Answer: Tom Dudgeon

Tom Dudgeon is one of the leading characters in the story. He is the son of the doctor in Horning, an expert sailor, and leader of the Coot Club, a local Bird Protection Society. When he finds the motor-launch Margoletta moored so as to block a coot's nest, he pushes the boat adrift. The rest of the story involves the tourists trying to catch him, but without success.

From Quiz The Picts and the Martyrs

Answer: Nancy and Peggy

When The Great Aunt arrives unexpectedly to look after them while their parents are away, Nancy and Peggy Blackett (whose "real" names are Ruth and Margaret) decide to suffer for a good cause, like the martyrs they've read about in history books. Therefore they behave like good little girls during her visit instead of the fearsome pirates they would like to be.

From Quiz A Quiz on "Swallowdale"

Answer: There is no-one to meet them at the station.

All of these things in fact happen during the first chapter of "Swallowdale", but the first hint comes when they arrive at the train station and "no one had been there".

From Quiz Arthur Ransome -- "Pigeon Post"

Answer: Tyson's

Atkinson's farm is where Squashy Hat (their imagined enemy and rival) is staying. Dixon's is where the D's stay in Winter Holiday. Swainson's is the farm in Swallowdale. Tyson's farm may be based on Low Yewdale, near Coniston.

From Quiz The Fool of the World and the Flying Ship

Answer: 2

The Fool has two older brothers who are more clever and more well-loved by his parents than the Fool is.

From Quiz Arthur Ransome's 'We Didn't Mean To Go To Sea'

Answer: Penny whistle

Grog is what the Swallows call ginger beer (pop or soda). Pemmican can be corned beef. A Penny Farthing is a very old fashioned type of bicycle that would not have been a welcome addition on Goblin. Roger can very nearly play the penny whistle.

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