Posted by Geraint_Lewis on July 01, 2011 at 03:34:07 user Geraint_Lewis.
In Reply to: Re: Folding Boat posted by John Nichols on June 30, 2011 at 17:59:51:
I suspect that Ransome based Mac's folder on the Berthon Folding Lifeboat.
There's a history of the Berthon folding boat on Berthon's website: http://www.berthon.co.uk/about-berthon/berthon-history.html . The reproduction from their advertising/manufacturer's price & fact sheet is interesting, because Ransome owned a copy of this very document. It's normally kept in the Brotherton Collection. Interestingly, it's filed amongst Ransome's original line drawings for the SA Series books.
Ransome's copy has its prices updated in pencil, which seem to match the £23.8.0 that Roger mentioned higher up the thread (Message 37120). This would suggest it is the folder Ransome sold unused with Lottie Blossom in the early 1950s.
Is it also the model for his GN drawings? Well, he did reproduce the Berthon photograph as sketches in one of his sketch books, usually held at Abbot Hall. The photo also resembles the GN drawing of two people (John and Susan?) opening the boat. I'm not sure that there's any conclusive proof that AR had the Berthon flyer at the time he wrote GN, but the updated prices on his copy is circumstantial evidence that he had had the advertisement/flyer for some time.
Ransome's copy of the flyer is currently on display at Brantwood, as part of the Brantwood/Arthur Ransome Trust Imagination and Reality exhibition (http://www.arthur-ransome-trust.org.uk/news-and-events/current-and-future-events/imagination-and-reality-the-art-of-arthur-ransome/). Unfortunately we weren't able to display his sketch taken from the Berthon photo, because we wanted to exhibit a different page from that particular sketchbook.
Here's a photograph of a Berthon Folding Lifeboat (top photo): http://intheboatshed.net/2008/08/18/folding-boats-at-the-isle-of-wight-classic-boat-museum/
Incidentally, I understand that Windermere Steamboat Museum have an example in storage (and in need of renovation) so there's a chance that they'll be able to display one in the future.