We Didn't Mean To Go To Sea
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| Author | Arthur Ransome |
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| Cover artist | Arthur Ransome |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Series | Swallows and Amazons |
| Genre(s) | Children's books |
| Publisher | Jonathan Cape |
| Released | 1937 |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover & Paperback) |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-613-77239-3 |
| Preceded by | Pigeon Post |
| Followed by | Secret Water |
We Didn't Mean To Go To Sea is the seventh book in Arthur Ransome's Swallows and Amazons series of children's books. It was published in 1937. In this book, the Swallows (Walker family) are the only recurring characters. They are staying in a new location, Pin Mill on the River Orwell upstream from the ports of Felixstowe and Harwich.
The book features a small sailing cutter, the Goblin, which is almost identical to Ransome's own boat Nancy Blackett. This book also features accurate geography unlike the Lakes books. Ransome sailed Nancy Blackett across to Flushing by the same route as part of his research for the book.
[edit] Plot summary
The Walkers help Jim Brading moor his sailing cutter Goblin when he misses the buoy. In return he invites them to go sailing aboard Goblin. Their mother agrees provided that they stay within the estuary of the rivers Orwell and Stour and do not pass the Beach End buoy at the mouth of the rivers.
On a short overnight cruise, Jim goes ashore in a fog from the anchored Goblin to replenish the petrol supply but does not return. The Walkers realise that the tide has risen and they are drifting, the anchor is lost in an attempt to put out more chain and the yacht drifts out to sea. They decide that it is safer to gain sea room rather than stay in the sandbanks and shoals of the estuary and risk being wrecked in the fog. But the wind rises and it becomes impossible for them to turn around once the fog lifts. They sail all night and finally pick up a Dutch pilot and arrive in Flushing. There they see their father leaving on a ferry to Harwich, but he manages to return and meet them and organize the return trip. They meet Jim Brading looking for his missing yacht. It turns out he had been unconscious in hospital, suffering from concussion after being involved in a road accident.
| Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome | |
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Swallows and Amazons | Swallowdale | Peter Duck | Winter Holiday | Coot Club | Pigeon Post | We Didn't Mean To Go To Sea | Secret Water | The Big Six | Missee Lee | The Picts And The Martyrs | Great Northern? | Coots in the North |
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| Characters | Places |
