Posted by Martin Honor on January 18, 2014 at 10:46:23 user MartinH.
In Reply to: What AR saw posted by Paul Mackness on January 11, 2014 at 12:47:43:
Apologies for being late in catching up with this thread – blame IT problems!
What a great picture. I immediately had to look up the history of this ship. At first glance I thought she was a merchantile conversion, but a look at the bow gives away her true origin.
I wanted the ship from the book to be true warship, maybe the coastal battleship De Zeven Provincien, or an elderly armoured cruiser.
Unfortunately many authors equate any vessel painted grey and mounting a gun with “battleship”. Back in the 1980s during a visit to Poole in a “Ton” class minesweeper (all of 153 feet long!) a father was overheard telling his children to look at the “battleship”. I hoped Ransome didn't make the same mistake. I'm sure John wouldn't.