Posted by Ed Kiser on January 05, 2001 at 06:41:30 from 64.20.230.163:
P172 Chapter 14
Dick and Tom were suddenly aware that the Margoletta had moored quite close
by their own mooring place. They were waiting until all was still before
investigating further.
"The inn had closed long before and it had been an hour at least since the
last motor car had crossed the bridge."
In this modern age, where there are so many autos and trucks on the roads
for all hours, it struck me as it was so strange that a whole hour can go
by with NO TRAFFIC at all. I wonder if such a cessation of traffic is at
all possible at the Potter Heigham of today.
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P172 Chapter 14
"There wasn't much go left in that torch of his..."
"GO" - used as a noun, meaning, in this particular case, "battery power".
Strange to use "go" as a noun. But then, now that I think about it, there
is that saying, "My get up and go has got up and went" which means "I don't
feel like doing anything." Maybe it CAN be a noun... Learn something
every day...
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P179 chapter 15
"...to watch the yellow-hammer flitting through the branches of the
pollarded willows,..."
POLLARDED? How does one POLLARD a willow?
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P180 chapter 15 (and various other places in CC)
The twins refer to their father as "A.P." which one eventually finds is to
stand for "Aged Parent". Is this just a term the twins use, or is such a
"title" in more common usage? In the US, we might refer, in a somewhat
similar manner, to "the old man", meaning the Father (parent, not priest),
but such usage is only a reference, not a "name", and is not normally used
as personal address to one's parent face to face. Both expressions are on
the side of being perhaps a bit disrespectful. As a Father myself, I'm
sure I would rather not be known as "the Aged Parent", or "the old man"
either.
- - - -
P184 chapter 15
"electric torches" - what I would call, "flashlights". Is this "electric
torch" term in common usage in England, or is this an expression that
belongs to that time, not today?
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P186 chapter 15
"Well, you two, have you packed your dunnage?"
I would have called it luggage, or baggage, or simply, "have you packed?"
or "have you packed your things?" or perhaps, "have you packed your
bags?" At least, that is what I am GUESSING as to the meaning of
"Dunnage". A few lines further down, it turns out to be "knapsacks".
P186 chapter 15
As the twins were about to leave the Teasel, Mr. Farland had this
comment as to their plans for the next day:
"Let me see, if the wind's like this, you'll be leaving here soon after
nine to carry your tide down to Stokesby."
At the very end of this chapter, Tom is also discussing the scheduled
departure, indicating a need to get an early start:
"Stick your head out the moment you wake," said Tom,
"and have a sniff at the wind. If it's north-west I'll be along
first thing, and we'll get off right away."
The twins had already departed, so did not hear his words.
Interesting that there is such diversity in the BEST time to leave.
It is that very confusion that caused the twins to miss their boat.
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P192 chapter 16
"Good! Good!" he said. "Here he is. Wouldn't it have been
awful it he'd come and found us still in bed?"
Looks like a typo. Should be "...been awful IF he'd..."
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P195 Chapter 16
"Dick was ready, clutched the tiller as if he thought it might
get away,..."
This was obviously taking place BEFORE Nancy had admonished him, "FINGERS!
FINGERS!" (in Picts and Martyrs - which hasn't happened yet.) But then,
Nancy was talking about steering a MUCH smaller sailboat, the Scarab.
Maybe, for a ship this size, a good grip may have been a good idea.
- - - -
P202 Chapter17
"...The hot water stood there cooling. The next thing
they heard was the banging of the breakfast gong..."
Two points here.
There is NO running HOT water. It must be heated, as on the kitchen stove.
And, as previously observed, the meal is announced with a GONG. Such is so
different from how it was at my own home, where a simple call: "Breakfast
is ready" from Mom sufficed. If that did not work, the request was
escalated by my Dad's: "Come and get it, or I'll throw it out!" Now that
announcement was considered to be the ultimate in motivation, and was not
to be trifled with.
- - - -
P202 Chapter 17
"Hallo! Hallo! Hallo! Is that Norwich Ten-sixty-six? Norwich...
One-owe-double- six... Hallo! Yes. I said so. Engaged? Can't be
engaged. Private exchange. Please ring them again. Give them another
ring. A long one. Hallo! Hallo! Is that Norwich One-owe-double-six?
Oh. Wrong number. Ring off please... Hallo! Exchange? Oh, PLEASE ring
off Exchange?... Hallo! Hallo!... Bring me a cup of coffee out here,
somebody... Hallo! Exchange! Gave me a wrong number. No. No. Not
one-double-six. One-owe-double-six."
Note how short the numbers are. Also, it seems some numbers have more
digits in it that some other numbers.
Reminds me of a cartoon. Kid is at Grandma's house, watching her make a
phone call, the old-fashioned way, commenting that Grandma has a neat
phone; you don't have to dial it, you just tell the operator, and she does
all the dialing.
The above quote from Ransome serves us well to remind me of those golden
days of yesteryear, when the operator made the connections for us. In this
day of satelite communications, of push button dialing, it is good to have
this glimpse of the old way of doing things, the "Good Ol' Days". Maybe we
can now appreciate the changes made by modern technology.
P204 Chapter 17
Mrs. McGinty was packing so Mr. Farland could go on a week trip on
business:
"Half a dozen collars for the blue..."
A look into the past. Collars that are SEPARATE from the shirt. A momento
of a time long gone, thank goodness... Is there any such thing TODAY as a
collar that is not a part of the shirt? Not familiar with the internal
workings of such, but maybe a clerical collar is separate.
- - - -
P204 Chapter 17
"I say, A.P.," she said. "If you're going away, and Flash
won't be racing, what about us sailing in the Teasel with Tom
and Mrs. Barrable and those two children?"
According to the projected ages that somebody worked out and posted on the
internet, Dick at this time is about 10, the twins are about 10.5 and Dot
is about 12. In the above quote, the twins seem to be "speaking down" with
regard to the Callums by referring to them as "children", whereas they are
very close in age to the younger, and some 1.5 years under the elder.
Perhaps what they are referring to is not so much "AGE", but relative
skills in the art of sailoring. The twins are nobbut children themselves.
- - - -
P205 Chapter 17
"Mr. Farland had just caught sight of the clock on the dashboard."
I was not aware of clocks being present in the instrument panel of cars at
this time. Possibly, his car is very much a luxury car, and thus might
have the more advanced gadgets. Not sure when, in the history of
automobiles, the clock became a relatively common feature.
P205 chapter 17
"Mr. Farland waved with his left hand, steered with his
right, swung out of the gate and was gone."
I suppose he COULD have waved with either hand all right, but it would seem
more reasonable that he would wave with the hand that was able to stick out
of the window, which would be his RIGHT hand, assuming of course he was
seated on the RIGHT front side of the car, since traffic is supposed to
drive on the LEFT side of the road.
As an American, who normally would drive on the right from the left front
seat, I found that custom most unnerving when I was being driven around
during my brief business trip to England back in '83. I dared not do any
driving myself; that would have guaranteed a head-on collision with me at
fault. It was so wierd to sit in the left front seat, and NOT be driving.
- - - -
P205 Chapter 17
The twins have just found out that they are free to join the voyage on the
Teasel, and are frantically tossing things together in their knapsacks to
get ready to go.
"Shoes were tossed under the bed and rubber sea-boots put on. Sweaters,
sandshoes, washing things and night clothes were crammed into the
knapsacks, rugs rolled up, and, by the time Mrs. McGinty had climbed
upstairs, the twins were already rushing down."
I suppose it was not necessary to mention such things as unmentionables
(underwear) or even socks. Maybe we can assume since these Ransome
characters never had to go to the bathroom, they never had to wear
underwear either, so that item could be left off the packing list.
- - - -
P212 Chapter 18
"Is your name Robin?" she asked.
"Yes," said the boy.
Mrs. Barrable bought another big slab of chocolate cream
and gave it to him. "I should not think," she said, "that you
could get a stomach-ache from eating this. But you might
like to try."
What an INNOCENT time that was... Today, we take special care to
instruct our children NEVER to accept candy or other goodies from
strangers, for fear of ulterior motives. Yet here this Robin is
taking chocolate from Mrs. Barrable whom he has never met. Too
bad we can't go by that set of rules any more.
p213 Chapter 18
Tom, with his eye always on the time and the tide, felt
better now. He was steering because, alone of his crew, he
could manage the tiller with one hand and pork pie in the
other without danger of running the Teasel into the reeds.
Seems like eating a pork pie as a convenient ONE-HAND FOOD not only
worked here, but I believe the PORK PIE managed by the helsman was
also eaten by John, in We Didn't Mean to Go To Sea, even while
navigating rough weather.
Having mentioned WD, (may I digress), that book towards the end
had a big, "AH, G'WAN, you gotta be kidding..." type of
COINCIDENCE, when the Goblin just HAPPENED to be spotted by their
Father in time for him to jump ship and switch over to the
Goblin. Now an adult was in charge; John could go back to being
a crewman without those awsome responibilities. A adult had the
money to send a telegram, to get something to eat, and other
trivia. An knowledgable sailor type adult was now on hand to get
them back safely. Talk about your LUCKY. It really stretches
the ability to accept such a good fortunate coincidence. Other
than that, it was a great story, one that probably more so than
any other of the 13 Ransome stories could be made into a
fascinating movie.
- - - -
P217 Chapter 18
Reference is made to the "wreckers of Yarmouth" as Tom avoids
falling victim to such a ruse. Is this still a common problem
of that area? Is this a problem that is peculiar to just that
area?
- - - -
P219 Chapter 19
The "dolphin" is the symbol they looked for that identifies a
group of pilings that they tied up to until the ebb tide subsided.
Is there such an object there today? Is the "dolphin" an object from
reality, or is it Ransome's imagination?
A big difference in the stories located in the Broads is that Ransome
seemed to be factual as to the geography of the region, using very
real place names, at least for the most part, with no attempt to take
any "poetic license" with rearranging the geography for his own
design. The Five Lake District books do not use real names of places,
but are a composite of more than one lake, with features of those lakes
all placed in his own imaginary "Lake". The Lake District stories
were a series of fanciful imaginary situations of children's games
with made up adventures. These other stories in the Broads are
on the other hand quite "real", although there is still some room for
"play," as the Death and Glories from time to time do take on the
mantle of being "pirates", but such a role is very minor in the story.
I wonder if today, one could repeat the voyages of the Coot Club book
and see the various referenced places in the proper order as described
in his book? Not being familiar with the actual location, I cannot
tell what is imaginary, and what was really there. Although I
am guessing at this, there is a perception of reality regarding the
geography of Coot Club's voyages.
- - - -
P225 chapter 18
"The Teasel drifting down with the steam tautened it, stretched it,
stopped and swung."
Looks like another typo, where I think "steam" should have been "stream".
Tom had just towed Teasel using Titmouse under the three bridges at
Yarmouth, about to re-set the sails for Breydon Water.
- - - -
P229, chapter 19
And then they talked of sugerbeet, that was keeping wherries busy
at one time of the year, going round to Cantley on the Norwich
River, and of other cargoes, such as grain, of which there was
less than ever, and of the bungalows that were sent down by water
all ready-made and needing only to be set up ("Cardhouses, I call
'em") and cargoes of planks for quay-heading and cut logs for piles.
It seems that the wherry was the kind of boat that was used for freight
hauling of various cargoes. Just wondering, in today's world, is this
freight still being shipped on the river, or has land transportation
(train, trucks) taken over this task? If so, then are there still
wherry type boats on the river, or are they too a part of an extinct
past?