Posted by Andrew Craig-Bennett on November 10, 2003 at 17:22:37 from 195.93.32.7 user ACB.
In Reply to: Re: "Riddle" on the Radio posted by Andrew Craig-Bennett on November 10, 2003 at 16:48:53:
Sir Walter Runciman died in 1937, not 1947. One speculates that a yachting MP and a yachting House of Commons Clerk might well fall in with each other. The historian of the Crusades, Sir Stephen Runciman, was a descendant, I think.
I should add that the "Dulcibella" had a prototype, owned by Childers. She was called the "Vixen", and she was indeed a converted lifeboat, modified in just the manner described. She was the boat in which Childers made his cruise to the Frisian Islands in 1897, and after he married and found himself with the very splendid "Asgard" he laid her aside in a creek off the Solent, where she went quietly to pieces, despite being regularly pointed out as "the Dulcibella". There are a couple of photos extant. These photos were used by Laurent Giles and Partners when they designed the "Dulcibella" for the film.