July 2023
By Randy Randall
We Didn’t Mean to Go to Sea (Swallows and Amazons)
by Arthur Ransome, Jonathan Cape Ltd. 1937; 333 pp, $15.
If you didn’t happen to grow up in the UK, you might not know about a series of children’s books called “Swallows and Amazons.” I was unaware of them, too, being born on the wrong side of “The Pond.” But I have a good English friend, properly raised on the Isle of Wight, and he set me straight: “There’s a great book called ‘We Didn’t Mean to Go to Sea’ by Arthur Ransome,” he said. “Have you read it?”
“Nope, never heard of it.”
“Ah,” he said. “More’s the pity. But, of course, you’re not British. So why would you?”
It didn’t take too many keystrokes before I found “We Didn’t Mean to Go to Sea” and downloaded a copy. I also discovered that it was the seventh of 12 “Swallows and Amazons” books written by Arthur Ransome for children back in the 1920s and ’30s. I also learned that “Swallows and Amazons” is revered in the UK about the same way “Little Women” or “Anne of Green Gables” is popular here in the States. Every English kid, it seems, grows up knowing about the two dinghies the Swallow and the Amazon, and the children who sailed them. It’s impossible not to read and be captured by the young crew and picture yourself with them on one of their sailing or camping adventures.
Ransome himself was a bit of a character in the years between world wars. He went to Russia to study folklore, and as a foreign correspondent during the Bolshevik Revolution (during which time he married Trotsky’s secretary). He spoke Russian and was thought to be an English spy. What makes his books special is that he got the sailing and navigating right. The children use correct nautical terminology and they all practice seamanship worthy of Admiral Nelson. Ransome knew all about sail-handling and navigation, as he owned a variety of sailboats over the years. “We Didn’t Mean to go to Sea” mostly takes place aboard the sailboat Goblin, which was inspired by a small English cutter he had called Nancy Blackett. Some years ago, the boat was found and restored. Today it’s owned by the Nancy Blackett Trust.
The “Swallows and Amazons” books have never been out of print and have spawned a flourishing tourist trade in the English lake district and east coast of England. Ransome used the actual place names of rivers, towns, bays, buoys, and lightships in his writing. Many of the landmarks can still be found today. Some of the stories in the catalog have been made into movies and a TV series. Not all the books deal with sailing and boats, so they may not all appeal to young sailors. These were intended as children’s books to illustrate virtues such as courage, ingenuity, patience, and seamanship, as well as common sense and imagination.
“We Didn’t Mean to Go to Sea” is still a good read for adults and would be a much-loved addition to anyone’s ship’s library. Anyone who has endured a rough nighttime passage from Cape Cod to Penobscot Bay will relate to the trials and emergencies experienced by the kids as they cross the North Sea in the fog and the dark. Make time to look up “Swallows and Amazons” and learn about Arthur Ransome. You’ll discover a whole new world of boating and sailing and childhood adventures. I can’t think of a better way to pass a blustery winter evening than sitting by the fire and reading “We Didn’t Mean to Go to Sea.”
Frequent contributor, correspondent and friend, Randy Randall is co-owner of Marston’s Marina in Saco, Maine and a dreamer and waterman of the first order.
