Posted by Dave Thewlis on October 08, 1997 at 21:13:36:
In Reply to: Re: Sea Bear, Teddy & E Tambs (was Re: Sea Bear in Norwegian) posted by Peter on October 08, 1997 at 04:10:14:
Very good indeed, Peter!
AR&CFT, Hardyment, Pg. 204 (Hardcopy):
"There was no longer a Wild Cat to sail in, of course, so Ransome provided the Sea Bear.
She was an old Norwegian pilot vessel, modelled on the Teddy, heroine of one of Ransome's
favourite books of epic voyages, Erling Tambs's The Cruise of the Teddy.
"The climax of that story is when the Teddy is wrecked and Tambs has to trust his son, the
three-year-old 'mate', to perch on the reef and cling on to his eighteen-month-old baby
sister while he himself dives into the crashing surf to save his wife. When Ransome wrote an
introduction for the first English edition of the book, he told Tambs that the readers
would want an exact description of the Teddy, inside and out. He found it very
useful himself when he brought her to life again as the Sea Bear."
(Emhasis added)
The index does not have a reference to Tambs, and I find no indication of the source of
this information. But I think the premise that Ransome knew Tambs is substantiated if he
told him that the readers would want a description.