Posted by Ed Kiser on April 13, 2005 at 18:31:10 from 205.188.116.6 user Kisered.
In Reply to: Re: Ransome and Knight Stuff. posted by JLabaree on April 13, 2005 at 13:58:58:
The one usage of "duffer" as found in "Riddle of the Sands" is:
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'We must jibe,' said Davies: 'just take the helm, will you?' and,
without waiting for my co-operation, he began hauling in the
mainsheet with great vigour. I had rude notions of steering, but
jibing is a delicate operation. No yachtsman will be surprised to
hear that the boom saw its opportunity and swung over with a mighty
crash, with the mainsheet entangled round me and the tiller.
'Jibed all standing,' was his sorrowful comment. 'You're not used to
her yet. She's very quick on the helm.'
'Where am I to steer for?' I asked, wildly.
'Oh, don't trouble, I'll take her now,' he replied.
I felt it was time to make my position clear. 'I'm an utter duffer at
sailing,' I began. 'You'll have a lot to teach me, or one of these
days I shall be wrecking you. You see, there's always been a
crew--'Crew!'--with sovereign contempt--'why, the whole fun of the
thing is to do everything oneself.'
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The neat thing about having an assortment of books as ASCII TXT files is the ability to scan them for a keyword. The above shows the only usage of "DUFFER" in that book.
You might be surprised to find just what I do have as my collection of typed in ASCII TXT files. It started with the Ransome twelve, and it grew from there...
Ed Kiser, South Florida