Re: PM review on Amazon


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Posted by Andrew Craig-Bennett on February 28, 2010 at 18:27:01 user ACB.

In Reply to: Re: PM review on Amazon posted by Peter Ceresole on February 28, 2010 at 17:58:11:

I agree entirely (on both counts!

First, the anorakery:

The "imaginary year" is fixed as 1936 by the visit of the "Pommern" to Ipswich (I think it is the only year when she called there - I have a note of her in Belfast as well as Hull and London for other years) and it cannot be earlier because of the Bawdsey "radio" (actually radar) masts.

I am not worried that the photograph is dated to May 1936 because I suspect that date is too early and may be a mistake. The "Pommern", a noted fast sailer for a big barque, took around three and a half months to get from Australia to Falmouth, on average, and she could not possibly sail before the Australian grain harvest was in, (and, in the case of her cargo, bagged and transported to the loading port and loaded). She was typically in port in late June and July, and it would take time to discharge 3,000 odd tons of wheat in hundredweight sacks by hand.

Second, we know AR was a square rig anorak because of

(a) Captain Sehmel's reference to the "Demooply", which Ransome correctly idenifies as the "Thermopylae", in "Racundra's First Cruise"

(b) Roger pretending to be the "Cutty Sark" in SA - the "Cutty Sark" had just been bought by Captain Dowman and was in Falmouth, not preserved at Greenwich, at that time.

(C) Peter Duck's yarn in PD, which is very detailed and full of technical terms.

So AR. sailing on the Orwell in Nancy Blackett and overlooking the river from his house could not possibly have missed the "Pommern".

Third, none of this matters in the slightest!


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