Posted by Tom Napier on September 04, 2012 at 10:32:30 user Didymus.
I have just discovered that The Cruise of the Alerte by E. F. Knight is in the public domain and is downloadable from www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/38891 . This is the true story which, according to Christina Hardyment, Ransome used as source material for Peter Duck. My apologies if everyone already knew this and where to find it.
I promise I'll get around to reading it soon.