Posted by Mike Field on May 26, 2001 at 01:39:01 from 203.26.98.4:
In Reply to: What colour was posted by Andrew Craig-Bennett on May 25, 2001 at 19:25:28:
Well, I've always thought she was white-painted, but I'm not sure whether I read it or whether I just assumed it. On checking through the illustrations in S&A now, in "Start of the voyage," "Feeling their way in," and "Loading firewood" it appears she's painted as the topsides are shown absolutely plain, but in "It's a shark" AR has drawn in several strakes, which would indicate brightwork to me.
On the other hand, in "Do you surrender?" no strakes are shown for either Swallow or Amazon, indicating by the above logic that both were painted; whereas we know from the text that Amazon was varnished. (And for what it's worth, the illustration on the cover of my Red Fox edition shows both boats bright.)
I posted a comment a while back about the same thing in regard to Teasel, (apparently) shown painted in a light colour (white?) in AR's illustrations, but portrayed as bright in the Broads films.
On the basis of this somewhat contradictory evidence, Andrew, I don't think we should let our illusions be shattered, do you?