Re: John Young, Northern River Pirate


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Posted by PeterH on November 28, 2006 at 21:53:58 from 86.130.137.244 user Peter_H.

In Reply to: John Young, Northern River Pirate posted by Alan Hakim on November 28, 2006 at 20:12:52:

But I see that has vanished into the archive already

Alan - apologies for overlooking your post about the NRP last July. I thought the least I could do now would be to descend into the Tarchive and try to retrieve it. After some haphazard faffing about, I now emerge, dusty and cobweb-covered, with this:

Yet more definitive - I have spoken to John and Thomas Young today. They were two of the original Northern River Pirates in 1938-9, and confirm (emphatically) that they did call themselves that.
So we have not only the diary entry quoted by Christina, but actual participants' witness.
John is now 84, and regrettably has taken to a wheelchair in the last year. Thomas is a mere 78, and more mobile, but both remember their Broads adventures vividly. They both said, independently, that their boat was called "The Smarties", because instead of lowering things in an orderly fashion to go through obstacles (e.g Potter Heigham Bridge) they just dropped it all and shot through.
John said AR was a great man, but added that Evgenia "didn't speak a word of English." Possibly a slight exaggeration?
Incidentally, Amazon published the Russell diary of the 1938 trip in Ransome Broadside, but we decided not to include the 1939 diary, since it was mostly repetitive. Hence no mention of the NRP.
But Thomas reminiscences that they noted AR's preferred moorings in 1938, and next year made at point of getting to them first and tying up. They very nearly got sent home for indiscipline. That didn't get into the Russell diary.

Shame about the 1939 diary. How repetitive was it? Might be better than nothing!



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