"I'll be back in half a jiffy. Nothing can possible happen..."
From what I have read, it seems a lot of people feel this is another 'Peter Duck' story, i.e. it wasn't supposed to have actually happened in the Swallows' and Amazons' reality. But I think it did. The timing is viable; it can occur after Pigeon Post in the end of the summer although the book makes reference to Winter Holiday but not Pigeon Post, which is odd because we know Pigeon Post is at the start of summer holidays as they go straight to the lake from school. I suspect Ransome actually wrote this one before he wrote Pigeon Post. Anyway, temporally it is viable, and dovetails well with Secret Water which clearly happens shortly after.
Technically none of it is impossible. As Father (Ted, we now know) says "A lot of things were lucky." (p320). I would say the most improbable thing is actually meeting their father in Flushing, but without that element, the story becomes even more improbable as there is no way they could sail back to Harwich without more knowledge of navigation than John has, and a rescue in Holland is a poor ending although I might have been tempted to have Jim sail over on some very small boat for the rescue.
When I read We Didn't Mean to Go to Sea previously, it didn't really resonate with me. It seemed impossible, and father's reaction and Jim's reactions all seemed too unlikely. I also understood less about boats then. Now, as a father of teenagers myself, and having done some sailing on the ocean, I found this to be an excellent book. Plausible enough to be enjoyable and I very much appreciated their father's reaction and handling of the whole situation. It must be remembered, he's a commander of a navy destroyer - easing young men into responsibility at sea has been a prime function of his life to this point. Jim I felt was quite well portrayed given he had a concussion. Roger and Titty never really freaking out because they were too young to truly appreciate the situation, while Susan completely lost it because she understands just how far outside any sort of reasonable safety zone they had traveled was very well portrayed. John is, and always has been, solid. Actually the whimsical parts of him imagining himself solo sailing early in the book, while again serving as foreshadowing (something Ransome has leaned into heavily here) are one of the few instances I recall of John not being entirely serious.
In the beginning, John has a few 'Titty-esque' fancies about sailing alone at sea; foreshadowing that he will indeed be doing so shortly. But by the end of the book you feel he's crossed something of a threshold into maturity, as can sometimes happen with an incident that seriously burdens a young person with responsibilty.
Susan's breakdown is apt, I feel, as she is someone who seems to always have things under control, and desires clear boundaries for all behaviors. When that sort of person loses control of a situation, they often fall apart because they are quite rigid. I wish we could have seen how Nancy would react in the same situation.
It was nice to finally meet the often spoken of 'Father', or Ted. I found he did meet my expectations of a father who was willing to accept some risk in exchange for broadening the horizons of his children. He was also sympathetic and careful in handling a situation that was likely to be traumatic to his wife.
I don't know why the diagram of Goblin is titled "First Aid" (this has always confused me), and I can't understand why the backstays aren't included given how they are mentioned every time the boom has to come over in the book. For someone who isn't familiar with sailboats, the concept of running backstays (supports, often of cable, for the mast running to the rear quarters of the hull which are actually in the way of the boom and have to be manipulated every time the boom needs to come from one side of the boat to the other) would be incomprehisible and exactly what should be explained with a rigging diagram. Actually I'm curious myself because there is only ever mention of a single backstay in the narration.
Ah! We can see in the illustration "Jim rowed away" (p93 in my Red Fox) that Goblin has a single backstay. Mystery solved! I do wonder though at having to detach it to jibe, because in that case the sail is still pulling and the mast is under load to forward, and you might need the backstay to be working. I wonder if in practice you would bring in the sail almost to touching the backstay so that it's not drawing much, quick-like detach and pass it around to re-attach, and then let out the sail on the other side. Making jibing something of a two-stage process. At least with running backstays you always have one 'working'.
On page 39, they write a postcard to "Nancy and Peggy and the D's". It is addressed to Beckfoot. This is some strong supporting evidence that We Didn't Mean to Go To Sea occurs shortly after Pigeon Post. Titty also says "It'll cheer them up a lot, they never thought we'd get any sailing so soon.". This is an odd statement, because it suggests they did not get to sail Swallow after the events of Pigeon Post. Perhaps they were immediately whisked down south to meet their father on such short notice that nothing happened at the lake after Pigeon Post. That is my theory, because we know that Secret Water still has to happen and summer holidays are only so long. We know the month from "the warm August sun..." (p30), and if we weren't told we could guess by the fact that they swim in the harbour. I would not swim in an active harbour since the industrial revolution for fear of being poisoned. Some of the stuff I've seen floating in Halifax harbour is truly disgusting.
"Last night they had slept for the first time at Alma Cottage..." (p1) So day one of the novel is really day two of their adventure, although day one was mostly train ride from the lake. This story is quite short!
| Day | Major events | Night spent at |
| 1 | Meeting Jim and Goblin | Alma Cottage |
| 2 | Sailing in Goblin | Goblin: Shotley Pier |
| 3 | Beach End buoy and back
Jim off to buy petrol Goblin at sea |
Goblin: the North Sea |
| 4 | A Foreign Port
Reunited with father Returning to England |
Goblin: the North Sea |
| 5 | Return to Pin Mill | Undocumented |
Closing thoughts.
Mother, to Jim, "You'll feel better when you've had some hot soup." (p21)
Father, to John, "You'll feel better when you've had some soup." (p325)
Well, I'm going to have to re-evaluate my score for this one, as I would have said it was low on the list but after this re-read, and even without any Amazons, it's a top five for sure. So that's five top fives now. We shall see if there will be more (spoiler alert: there will be).
We don't really know where the Walkers lived prior to this, but we can guess from some comments that it was in or around Falmouth. With Commander Walker assigned to Shotley, they will likely be living here for some time.
Paraffin to the English, petrol, to the Dutch, is kerosene to North Americans. Petrol to the English or benzine to the Dutch, is gasoline to North Americans. I used to think Goblin's sidelights burned wax, since as a kid that's all paraffin meant to me! For the curious, this is (or close to) the engine on Goblin, the Thornycroft Handy Billy. It's surprisingly quiet!
'Flushing' in the Netherlands is actually Vlissingen to the Dutch, if you are trying to find it on a map.
Odd to me that Ransome doesn't even mention the head (bathroom) when describing a tour of Goblin. The man seemed to have a real block about mentioning anything related to bathrooms in general. I don't think I can recall one, or anyone's need for anything of the sort, even once in all the books. Maybe it's a product of the times?
Next up are both Secret Water and The Big Six, temporally, but in order of publishing we have Secret Water first. One of my top five for sure, I really, really, like the Eels.