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.

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.

Answer: The Teasel

The Teasel is a small yacht moored downstream from Horning. Mrs Barrable, accompanied by a pug named William, has booked the yacht for the spring vacation. When she sees that the Callums are terribly disappointed that they will not be sailing anywhere on the yacht, she asks Tom Dudgeon if he will teach Dick and Dorothea to sail and captain her boat.

The Titmouse is Tom's own sail-boat, the Death and Glory a black ship's boat, and Sir Garnet a wherry that has a major role in the second half of the story.

Answer: The Hullabaloos

The Margoletta is a locally owned motor-launch which some loud and annoying tourists have rented. They disregard all the safety conventions of the river, constantly play loud music, are rude to the locals, and have moored their boat blocking the entrance to the inlet where the "sacred coots" of the Coot Club have made their the nest.

They spend much of the first half of the story chasing Tom Dudgeon up and down the river.

Answer: 7

This particular coot was special to the Coot Club because she had a white feather on her wing that could be seen from across the river. It has become the club's special bird and the threat posed by the noisy tourists to its nest and eggs is particularly disturbing to the members of the Club.

Answer: Push their boat out into the river

The Death and Glories (Pete, Bill, and Joe) ask the tourists on the Margoletta politely to move their boat because the mother coot will not return to her nest as long as they are moored there. When they rudely refuse, the boys tell Tom about it. He tells them to give themselves an alibi while he casts off the motor-launch.

Answer: He asks the twins' father (a lawyer) for help.

In addition to these adventures, he is nearly trapped upstream by the Margoletta, but the twins get word to him and he is able to tie his boat to theirs, hide beneath the sail, and have them pretend that they are towing an empty boat downstream.

Answer: George Owdon

George Owdon is the son of the pub owner and an enemy of the members of the Coot Club. Tom remembers that George had seen him go down river just before the Margoletta was cast off, and Dorothea thinks she saw him on the staithe at Potter Heigham. When it seems that Tom has been caught, George Owdon says, "Serve him right". George Owdon will have a larger role in the sequel, "The Big Six".

Answer: They are crewing for their father in a regatta.

Port and Starboard are the nicknames for Nell and Bess Farland, the twin daughters of the local lawyer. They are avid sailors, members of the Coot Club, and have grown up with Tom Dudgeon, who lives next door. They are able to join the Teasel for the practice cruise to Horsey Mere, but will be needed to crew for their father in the Championship Races.

A visit from the Blacketts' unsympathetic great-aunt is a theme in "Swallowdale" and "The Picts and the Martyrs".

Answer: Potter Heigham

All of the answers are places that they visit during the practice cruise in the first half of the story. They leave the Horning area to avoid being caught by the tourists on board the Margoletta. They spend the night at Potter Heigham on their way back from Horsey Mere. For reasons of space Dick and Tom spend the night in the Titmouse which they have moored next to the Teasel. Tom hears another boat arrive and when he checks, he sees that the enemy have moored right beside them.

As soon as dawn arrives, they sneak away undetected.