Posted by Geraint_Lewis on February 28, 2010 at 18:53:44 user Geraint_Lewis.
In Reply to: Re: PM review on Amazon posted by Andrew Craig-Bennett on February 28, 2010 at 18:27:01:
Extract from an entry in AR's own log for Nancy Blackett:
June 11, 1936. At 2.25 Longsand bore W. Log 59. At 4.00am Sunk bore E. Log 67. At five waked by the daylight... we were close to the Cork and W of it before it showed up like a ghost. Then we saw a lovlier ghost, the four masted barque Pommern being towed out. I was lucky to get three photographs of her in the mist from close to...
This was on AR's return from his trip to Flushing to research WDMTGTS.
However, I very much doubt you can take this as indicating that the novel was set in 1936, as the internal timeline for the series suggests WD took place soon after Pigeon Post, a year after Swallowdale. It seems far more likely to me that AR saw a wonderful sight on his return to Harwich and he simply dropped that into the book as a memorable incident.
As for the radar masts at Bawdsey: AR only moved to Suffolk in 1936, so he may not have realised the masts didn't exist in 1932. Again I'd suggest he saw them on his return and put them in as an object of interest for the return passage to England.