Posted by Roger Wardale on February 09, 2012 at 14:30:58 user RogerW.
In Reply to: The sources for "Peter Duck" posted by Andrew Craig-Bennett on February 09, 2012 at 11:13:59:
Why should it need to be vaguely possible? From the start PD was seen by AR as a romance — allowing the SAs to give themselves a wild adventure. He could not very well translate the SAs into characters in a historical novel, even though realistic Lowestoft and realistic fantasy on Crab Island do not sit happily together.
AR could have crewed aboard a friend's yacht — Herbert Hanson springs to mind, but when? During the Eastern European years? Hardly.
During the early Ludderburn years? These are well documented and there is no mention of any such trip,
During the writing years? These again are well documented and there is no suggestion of a Channel voyage before 1933, London—St Mawes steamship Southern Coast. He mentioned when writing about buying Nancy, that he had not been to sea for ten years. The main reason for the three Broads cruises 1931.3,4 was that this was the only sort of sailing that he felt he dare risk with his stomach trouble that could erupt at any minute.