My father handed me an old notebook with his pencilled logs from his early twenties when he lived in Southampton. The boat they sailed in was a 20ft ship’s lifeboat which had been converted for sailing by the addition of a false keel bolted through the original keel and a mast in a tabernacle on top of a cuddy made by raising the topsides. The rudder was the original one and the boat had inside ballast. The original thwarts had been left in and were used for rowing. They had been helped in drilling the keel by a boat builder from Camper Nicholson’s after their first efforts had failed.

The boat was kept on a mooring at the bottom of their garden, which was up the River Itchen, and to reach the Solent there was a difficult winding descent of the river with three bridges, each of which required the mast to be lowered. As the river snaked around so much, the wind was always against them at some time. The boat was the focus for a good deal of their social life, with family and friends going for outings at the weekend. This cruise was the first of any length, and I imagine the cuddy had only just been completed.

George had a job at the time and so had to get back at set times, which the lack of a motor must have made a problem. My father was a student, and had plenty of time but no money. The log was for the amusement of their circle of friends, and the style is very 1930s. There are almost echoes of Arthur Ransome about it.

LOG OF 1929

[First part missing…]

Got alongside barge and repaired same [presumably the mast tabernacle].

Outside docks all plain sailing to Owers Lake with beam wind — reached there about 5.30. Remarkable luck in beating in. Just managed to gauge distances nicely. Very pleased with ourselves but discover we had no dinner — sausages!!!

Ashore for walk then to supper.

Beginning to look quite homelike — hurricane lamp one of paramount features.

George now playing the violin — water rippling against the planking and lights of Hamble thru’ the cabin opening — content.

August 4th Sunday

Wind still WSW blowing great guns. Decided to stay in the creek, especially as we were very tired after yesterday’s exertions.

Thought to improve shining hour by scrubbing the sides. Suddenly noticed anchor was dragging considerably. Paid out more rope and decided that with the tides as they were we were in no danger and would only drift until we stuck. Also decided to reef the mains’l in case. Very good job too. Not long after dinghy adrift. Exciting chase after it, so enjoyable that we thought of running with reefed mains’l to Beaulieu.

Outside thought better of it and beat back with considerable difficulty against tide. Boat no good to windward. Rule: aim to weather bows of any boat and you just clear the stern. A good sailor knows his own boat.

Had to keep ship all day as the sea too heavy for dinghy. We read with philosophic calm. Ashore in evening. Caught by rain without coats and arrived home wet thru’. Fo’c’sle full of wetness.

August 5th Monday

Wind WNW. Slipped out of Ower with wind astern 11 am. Gybed round Calshot and headed for Stansore Point with wind at first on the beam and later wind veered WSW dead ahead, had to tack to windward. Rudder too small for boat. Could not go about either in the Solent or in the Beaulieu River. Had to tack up the first reach of river and pull round every time we went about.

Anchored ½ mile below Bucklers Hard 2pm. Tide swishing down. Hopeless to go out in dinghy. Geo and brother tried because latter due home. Had to give up. Had yarn with yawl anchored near us. Said he had come from Falmouth in 4 days, had rotten time of it off the Bill — wind and mist, but a worse time of it through the narrows of the Solent!! Sounds cheerful for us. Likelihood of going round island being abandoned.

At slack tide rowed up river to hard, had tea, filled water jar and strolled to Beaulieu and saw ‘passenger’ on bus, got petrol for Primus having found paraffin useless and regained ship. Rain beginning.

August 6th Tuesday

Rain all night and rising wind WSW. Cabin leaking especially around the tabernacle. Anchorage good. Slept till 9 am in spite of wind and wetness. Got out and rigged canvas over boom. Kept cabin.

Everything sodden.

August 7th Wednesday

Fine morning. Promise of fine day. Wind considerably abated. Hoping to get off at midday. Dried most of the clothing and went shopping. More rain — poured solidly for five hours. Rain ceased about 5 pm. Decided to drift down with tail of ebb. Got up hook. Drifted off stern first. Swung round with oar and kept course clear of mud. Went down in fine style. Not a breath of wind. Got sails up for airing. At last bend the breeze freshened, tacked down to the mouth of the river and anchored. All ready to sail tomorrow.

August 8th Thursday

Fine day everything out of the cabin to dry and air. Ship looking like an ol’ clo’ shop. Yacht racing up the Solent. About midday while tide was still making we decided to get underway.

Wind SW nice light air. Sailed with wind nearly abeam for the Isle of Wight. About 1 mile off mainland a gale swept down on us. Ran like mad with the gun’ 1 awash. Rudder useless, boat yawed about madly. At entrance to Newtown ran before it and then up the Western arm and brought to. Time from Beaulieu River to Newtown — 2 hours!!

Just before getting underway, eyebolt in the end of the boom snapped so we came right thru’ with the lashed boom!!!

Long walk to Shalfleet to get provisions. Landed at the oyster beds. Came back to find the dinghy hanging over the sea wall. No damage done however.

Rowed to ship. Got dinner underway. Took mud and cooked at angle of 45º. Spotted Naish surveying us from dinghy. Came aboard, also took our anchor to the middle of the stream so that we could warp off when the tide rose. V successful.

August 9th Friday

Slight drizzle in the morning. Cleared up later. Anchorage very snug. Newtown fine little place for dinghies — full of creeks.

Went for long walk to Needles. George developed rotten head.

Naish came aboard and asked us to come and share bonfire on shore to watch firework display. Skipper went. Chief Engineer remained aboard to cure head. Found Naish family exceedingly nice. Went aboard the Enchantress to supper. All very agreeable.

August 10th Saturday

Fine morning — slept till 10. Aired the bedding got underway about midday. Nice breeze, developed later into a gale. Decided to put into Pitts Deep for dinner and make Lymington in the evening.

Wind WSW put helm hard up to run into Pitts deep — entrance not 30ft wide. Ship wouldn’t run off. Heard tiller crack. Shouted to Chief Engineer to get sweep out. Too late. Nearly tore out one of the innumerable booms marking the channel. Tiller snapped. Downed the mains’l in record time but found ourselves on a lee shore with fiendish sea running. Backed foresail and by dint of straining at the sweeps and with the help of the rising tide managed to drift over mud banks into deep water

August 11th Sunday

Anchored all day in Pitts Deep. Rotten anchorage. Channel only 15ft wide. Take ground every low water. Most uncomfortable. Fine starry night. Milky Way very plain. Hundreds of shooting stars. Half moon.

August 12th Monday

Up at 7:15. Not a breath. Sweeped out with tide. Got up sails and had brekker under way. Fitful air mainly W. Fine view of Alum Bay and the Needles. Tempted to go round but doubt if time allows to get down before flood turns. Using two walking sticks for tiller.

Flood turned and so far from making Hurst Castle, couldn’t make Lymington. Anchored in little creek and bathed and had dinner. Afternoon wind freshened. Got out and beat up against tide to Lymington. Fouled one boom and ran aground but got off all right and tore up river with the wind abeam. Anchored snugly below baths.

Went ashore and found piece of wood for tiller — just fitted.

August 13th Tuesday

Under way 7:15 with ebb tide down river. As usual no wind and brekkers under way. About 10 breeze freshened. Made Sconce Point before flood turned. Beating against SW.

Slowly made way and got into Hurst Castle about 2 pm. Entrance to Keyhaven only about 30ft wide with shingle spit on one side. Two yachts aground. Current running out. Owing to inability to go about found entrance impossible. Dropped hook, had lunch, strolled around castle. Made another attempt about 4 pm. Got in all right but ran aground inside. Boat making terrific leeway.

Got off mud and reached up with wind abeam. Keyhaven admirable for small yacht. Saw a converted lifeboat but much bigger than ours and very well got up. Walked to Milford for provisions.

Fine night but wind fresh. Anchorage quite snug after being ordered further down which we did with sweeps. Saw our old friend ‘Harbour Master’ from Newtown.

August 14th Wednesday

First good nights’ rest for three days. Woke 9 am. Walked to Christchurch.

August 15th Thursday

Lovely morning. Intended to sail up to Cowes but the wind which, ever since we have been out, has been SW to W, on this particular morning chose to be N to NE. We got out of Keyhaven, sailed across the Solent, got into the Shingles race which was not dangerous owing to the sea being dead calm, then into line of trajectory of gunfire from Warden Point. Skipper had wind up but CE took his responsibilities lightly. Drifted down on to the Shingles waiting for the tide to turn.

Breeze changed to SW about 11 am. Tide turned, began to move up Solent. Got out spinnaker, breeze freshened. Arrived Cowes Roads 4:30 after long steady run up. Entered roads crabwise owing to tide and leeway. Anchored in Roads. Went to cinema in Cowes. Turned in about 12:15.

August 16th Friday

Got underway 2 pm. Sailed down Spithead in two reaches thro’ thunderstorm.

In Portsmouth Harbour 7 pm and wind dropped. Kept going with the oars and got dinner going. Took wrong creek, kept close to harbour thinking it best, Couldn’t see booms in dark, ran aground twice — good job no wind.

Got up to Whale Island taking soundings. Nowhere more than 6ft. Within about 15 yds of island all time — being deepest. Got anchor over twice but decided she would ground so reached back with freshening breeze. Tied up to one of His Majesty’s mooring buoys and spent comfortable night.

August 17th Saturday

Under way 6:15 down harbour and round into Porchester Creek with beam wind. Tipnor on port bow. Anchored north of naval pier Hillsea Island, opposite Porchester Castle 7:45.

Had brekker and bathed. Found anchor dragging, shifted berth further from pier. Good job too — naval pinnaces back and forth all time. Went ashore and examined castle and St Mary’s church. Most perfect Norman doorway we have ever seen. Young gale blowing from SW. Got underway about 11. Wind abeam tore down stream. Decided it would be too rough outside, ran before it into Tipnor Creek.

George got anchor ready, I brought boat up and yelled to George to drop. (Owing to small rudder, boat takes long time to come up). George hadn’t made fast. Rope raced thro’ and we lost it. Nothing to do but lower the sails as quickly as possible, keep her head to sea with the oar and drift on to beach on the rifle butts, Tipnor. Got line ashore, lowered the mast and watched the tide ebb. Fishermen said the tide ebbed a long way and we might get our anchor.

Went ashore and visited friends after seeing her lie comfortably. Came back about 4 — low tide — anchor just visible sticking up about 6 inches. George waded out at great risk and rescued it. We joined up all the pieces of warp we had and sank the anchor out as far as possible. Then went to kill time in Portsmouth.

About 10 pm the boat just floating but grounding with swell. Climbed aboard and warped off, straining every nerve and sinew in the process. Dropped hook in main stream and ate supper. About half way through the fisherman who had given us information in the morning came up to tell us that we would ground. Advised us to moor to the govt buoy which we accordingly did.

Dinghy a great nuisance owing to strong wind overcoming tide and blowing her against us. Also up about 3 times before 4 am fending off iron buoy. Devilish cold in SW gale in your shirt. Sat several times in mud off the anchor. There follows bit suppressed by the censor! Finally turned in and slept soundly until 10 am the next morning.

August 18th Sunday

Wind and sea unabated. Miserable end to otherwise successful trip. Hesitated what to do. George must get back. Left to herself for a week the boat would be half full of water. Looks like more rain. Had good dinner. 2:15 decided wind was more moderate. Immediately got under way.

5 pm off Gillicker Point reaching up Spithead. Tide changing. Rain. Drop anchor to wait for ebb about 8:30. Out of provisions. One Oxo cube which we are saving for the evening. Plenty of tea which we drink without milk.

8:30 underway again. Sail by moonlight up past Lee on Solent and Cowes in between Calshot Spit and Calshot Light. Here the ebb caught us down Solent. Breeze dropped and we lost a good mile down before dropping the anchor off Englehurst 3 am.

August 19th Monday

I up 6:10. Geo still asleep. Got sails and anchor up single handed. Tide running up. Saw Schneider Cup race practice. Also saw school of porpoises and thought they were sharks!! 9 am just past Fawley. Found task of beating up river heartbreaking, especially on an empty stomach and only 3 hrs sleep in the last 24 hrs.

Anchored inside Rolling mills pier midday, rowed dinghy to Itchen hard and got home. Evening rescued dinghy from small fry of Woolston and took ‘Old Sam’ to see boat and rescue valuables.

August 21st

Went down in ‘George’s’ motorboat and towed ship back to moorings. Cost 4/-. Here endeth the Homeric cruise of the good ship Red Rover in the year of Grace 1929. Halcyon days, my master, halcyon days.

Appendix

By penetrating genius of skipper and the scientific pertinacity of the Chief Engineer it has since been plainly and irrefutably proven that the inability — so apparent in the foregoing log — of our good ship to ‘come about’ was due solely and simply to faulty ballasting.

The truth, indeed, dawned upon the skipper quite early in the trip, but the CE, with characteristic pigheadedness (George please note), refused utterly to notice, roundly asserting that a holiday was a holiday and not going to spend it trying experiments with the ballast — in short mutinied and made himself generally obnoxious (George please note once more).

We are pleased to add, however, that the CE has since redeemed himself spending a memorable Sabbath morn dashing fore and aft with lumps of pig iron — cursing and swearing in the nautical manner but really being very useful. When we add that he dropped one of the afore mentioned pigs on his toe (to the infinite relief of the Skipper seeing that it might have gone thro’ the bottom of the boat) we give an added lustre to the laurels of his achievement.

In view of which fact it was thought right and proper that he should be promoted on the ship’s list and should henceforth be known as “Chief Engineer with command of the ship’s ballast”. Which resolution is hereby set down and recorded by the hand of the Skipper.