Posted by Andy on April 15, 2008 at 12:20:09 from 130.159.248.222 user AndyG.
In Coot Club, set in Easter 1932, the twins hitch a ride on the Welcome of Rochester, a Thames Barge sailing to Beccles.
The wife of the captain of the Welcome mentions that her son, Jacky Whittle, serves on board HMS Iron Duke - a First World War battleship, famous for being the flagship of Admiral Jellicoe during the battle of Jutland.
Coot Club was published in 1934, at which point the Iron Duke (built in 1912 and by then wholly outdated) had been demilitarised under the London Treaty of 1930, and converted to a gunnery training ship.
However, this conversion took place between November 1931 and September 1932, neatly overlapping the events of Coot Club, and (I now note) similarly neatly sinking my age-old theory that Jacky was a new recruit involved with gunnery training.
Ah well.
Andy