Posted by Peter Ceresole on December 23, 2014 at 05:25:29 user PeterC.
In Reply to: Re: Duncan's hut (was Auction of Ransome originals plus an AR response card from 1939) posted by Tom Napier on December 22, 2014 at 13:38:36:
They saw the "little summerhouse with its flagstaff" as they approached the mouth of the river. They also saw the "settlement."
This fits pretty well with the postcard, which strongly suggests the shore line just beyond the eastern end of Borrans Park, and the rising ground behind it, and the 'settlement' being the houses at (I think it's called, from the earlier OS map) 'Wanlass Howe'. If you look there, on Google Street View, there's quite a bit of development now, but groups of houses which look from their style as though they were built in the early part of the 20C, and would have been there in the '30s although not yet in the 1900 postcard.
So it does seem quite plausible that the hut visible in the photo was what might have given AR the idea for the North Pole, but that by the time he wrote WH it had been built, or tarmaced over. He didn't need it to actually be there; just to be in his mind.