SEEKING ROBINSON CRUSOE Tim Severin Macmillan 2002

Members will be aware of Severin’s many maritime adventures. For this book he undertook substantial documentary research into the many castaways who could have been the original for Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe, and visited many possible locations for the actual island, in some cases at considerable personal risk. There are many accounts of epic open boat journeys, and one of the Amerindian tribes visited, the Moskitus of Nicaragua have been rated as the world’s most daring open boat sailors. (They sit out on sliding weatherboards to balance their fast two-man open fishing boats, navigating miles out into the Atlantic simply by wave pattern and the look of the water). Of the many castaway’s accounts of which were available to Defoe, a number seem to fit Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe better than Alexander Selkirk. One of these, Fitman, quite possibly became a neighbour of Defoe, and the Caribbean island where he was marooned seems to be a more likely location than Selkirk’s Juan de Fernandez in the Pacific. Incredibly however, one Caribbean native was inadvertently marooned for several months on Juan de Fernandez, which was some two thousand miles from his homeland!

BRITAIN’S LOST WATERWAYS Michael Ware Moorland 1979

Before the advent of the railways a great network of canals linked many inland towns and villages. For instance there were regular freight services from Midhurst connecting to London and Portsmouth, and seagoing vessels for far-off places such as Argentina and Egypt were built and launched near Milton Keynes! This interesting book consists almost entirely of old photographs with generous captions.

SAILING SHIPS Colin Mudie Published by Adlard Coles (2000)

This is not just another book on historic ships. All the vessels dealt with are modern replicas or re-creations, and the ‘ships’ include rower-sailers such as the Viking ships, the Saxon Sutton Hoo ship which probably had only a small auxiliary sail, and even the ocean-going raft which Tim Severin sailed some 2000 miles before it became unsafe and was abandoned. Scale drawings and technical information supplement the superb photographs of each vessel. Dr Edwin Gifford’s half size replica of the Saxon Sutton Hoo ship (which incidentally has been rowed to Guildford) is shown carrying a large standing lugsail, and what look like leeboard fittings. This, I think, is historically incorrect. I understand that no trace of a mast-step was found in the Sutton Hoo excavation, and that leeboards first came centuries later. The original Sutton Hoo ship is more likely to have been a rowing galley, perhaps with a very small auxiliary square-sail as indicated in Mudie’s drawing. (In my youth most rowing boats had provision for a small mast in the forward thwart, and a century ago barges and lighters commonly carried small sails). As the powerful king Raedwald’s ceremonial flagship, the Sutton Hoo ship would not normally have sailed without his bodyguard, and with forty of these as oarsmen, an impressive 11 knots would have been possible in short bursts. However I can well understand Dr Gifford wanting the option of sailing his fine boat, as I would in his position.

Boat Tents from Dinghy Cruising Windmill Press 1945 by A I Earl — available from the DCA library