Children's book -- children sailing -- British fifties?

A British children's book I read in the late sixties, but it's probably from the fifties. It was, as I recall, a family story, with no fantasy or mystery elements.

The family had several kids, and one might be named Peyton or Pip. (There might have been boy and girl twins.) They befriend a kid who is less well off than they are, and show him how to sail. I remember mention of dungarees, oil cloth, and tacking--my first exposure to those terms.

The only other thing I remember is that the children sang the song:

I'm Captain Jinx of the Horse Marines
And I feed my horse on corn and beans
I know it's quite beyond my means
But I'm a captain in the army!

Maybe something by Arthur Ransome?

That was my initial thought too. I only ever really read the Swallows and Amazons books that were set in The Lakes, so I haven't actually read The Coot Club - which is one of the Norfolk Broad ones - but from the info on the works page it might possibly be the book the OP is thinking of. It stars Dick and Dorothea and twins named Port and Starboard.

It doesn't sound familiar, but it's been so long that it might not anyway. My impression is that the sailing was done on a river, but it might have been a channel.

Thanks for the suggestion. I'll go check it out.

Not that it is of any help, but the poem seems to come up with the name being Jinks, not Jinx, in google books. Is it "Jinks" in the story?

#4 Well that would fit with Coot Club. I'm sure both my siblings read the book so I will call them later and ask about the other details.

No, there's no Captain Jinks (or Jinx) in Coot Club. Nor do I remember dungarees or oilcloth (though neither would have been new to me when I first read it), though there is a discussion of tacking. I don't think it's any of the Arthur Ransome books - I've read them all and this doesn't sound familiar. Interesting, though, so if you figure it out I'd like to know!

In Coot Club and the other Norfolk Broads stories there isn't any Peyton or Pip; could those be from another book? Port and Starboard teach Dick and Dorothea how to sail, but the "less well off" element isn't there.

I don't remember it well enough to be sure of the details, except for the song. Captain Jinx isn't a character; it was a popular song of yesteryear--probably a marching song. The name is spelled various ways; I can't remember how in this book. I googled the song, hoping to find a site that quoted the book, but it's too well-known a song!

I'm definitely not sure of the names of the twins, and may be thinking of characters from "The Witch's Bridge" (although one of those twins is Gillian).

Twins = possibly a bobbsey twins book? Were they twins or just siblings?

Possibly just siblings. The character I remember as less well off may just have been from a more conservative background: I do seem to remember him being surprised at the independence and liveliness of the children.

I think it must have been a British book, or so modeled on Brit lit that it gave that impression, but I was so young when I read it that I wouldn't have known the difference, or taken particular note of the setting.

It's possible it could have been Bobbsey Twins; the two sets of twins befriending a less-well-off kid and dragging them on an adventure was a pretty common pattern for those books, and they did a lot of messing around on boats, but I don't actually remember one where they sailed as opposed to rowing or motoring. (although apparently there's one called The Bobbsey Twins at Whitesail Harbor which I've never got my hands on, so I suppose it could've been that one.)

It actually sounds pretty close to Coot Club, though I don't specifically remember the Captain Jinx song coming up in that book, it might've.

See, the only Bobbsey Twins I actually ever read was The Bobbsey Twins on a Houseboat, but I don't recall if there was any sailing in that one.

Reviewing the titles has caused me to realize that there are practically an infinite number of possible identities for this book among the Bobbsey Twins series alone. There are gazillions. Take a look at Laura Lee Hope.

Yeah, but the Bobbsey Twins are just so American. You'd never mistake them for Brit Lit. And dungarees is a very English word (by way of Hindi).

Speakin' as a born & raised American, which I think the OP is, I'd buy somebody misremembering the Bobbseys as British, especially if they'd only read one volume, and weren't British themselves. And the sort of formulaic-kid's-series that the Stratemeyer Syndicate did, along with the old-fashionedness of the originals, slotted it in the same "where old books happen" place in my head as E. Nesbit and Enid Blyton and C.S. Lewis and Roald Dahl went into, so maybe.

Dungarees is used in American too, though it's a bit old-fashioned here, and has a slightly different meaning: but the Bobbseys would've used it. I guess the question to ask is: did these dungarees have a bib and straps over the shoulders, or were they more just demin trousers? :D

As for individual Bobbsey books: Merry Days had sailing on ice but not water; Seashore had rowing, and a dramatic shipwreck rescue, but no sailing I recall; Houseboat had a toy sailboat, but all the full-sized boats were motorized; Deep Blue Sea they're actually aboard the Swallow, but it is not, alas, Ransome's Swallow, and it has a motor (there may be some auxiliary sailing there, but it would be on the sea, and OP remembers a river-ish setting); Big Bear Bond had no boating I recall; the ferryboat was motorized; Volcano Land had outrigger canoes, but none with sails; Big River Mystery was rowing and motorboats; Sun-Moon Cruise was a giant cruise ship but no sailing.

It might be Whitesail Harbor, though. Or maybe Lighthouse Point or Spruce Lake, which I haven't read, either. The Bobbseys did have mystery plots tacked on to most of the later books, but sometimes they were *really* tacked on.

...my Stratemeyer Syndicate obsession aside, though, I think Coot Club is far more likely.

(Tag mash actually suggests Trixie Belden, but I was never a Trixie reader.)

Good sum-up, melannen. I always knew the Bobbsey twins were American, but I suppose someone could make the mistake. Dungarees was an American term in the 40's and 50's, but disappeared fairly quickly.

I'm fond of the ol' Syndicate myself!

I've read Coot Club (and The Big Six, the other Ransome Norfolk Broads book) relatively recently. The 'picking up someone less privileged' didn't happen, to the best of my recollection, nor was the Captain Jin(x/ks) song in either. Coot Club does have teaching someone to sail, and twins, but no one named anything like Peyton or Pip.

It's an excellent book, but I doubt it's what the OP is looking for. There are a lot of books written more-or-less in imitation of Ransome, which range from great to...not so great. I suspect it's one of those. I've read quite a few, but not, unfortunately, the OP's book (to the best of my recollection).

OP here. It wouldn't have been a Bobbsey twins book. It just wasn't that style of writing.

It could quite possibly be a Ransome imitator. I ordered "Amazons and Swallows," which arrived today. I would say the book I remember was written at a lower reading level, but I am now embarking on an exploration of Ransome's work, just for fun.

Enjoy - they're great books!

(Thinking about getting them out again ...)

I just got Swallowdale and Pigeon Post which are two of my favourites. I am going to reread them once I'm done with the ER book I'm currently reading.

Something over a third of the way through Swallows and Amazons, which I love. The general style and content are exactly what I remember of the book I'm trying to identify, but I think mine must have been shorter.

I do think my book must have been British. Even at a pretty young age I knew the difference. However, "dungarees" (meaning blue denim trousers) was familiar in American English into the fifties, and there was a class of American books for children (especially some set in New England) which were so pseudo-British that they were almost indistinguishable from the real thing. The Mystery of the Witches' Bridge, for instance, by Barbee Oliver Carleton, has a very British feel, but is set in New England.

The twins element I am very uncertain of, and may be confusing that with another book. I am certain of the sailing (and tacking from one shore to another, so probably set on a river or channel) and the language. And the song. The main reason I wonder about the book is that every once in a while that song comes to mind.

I looked up a bit of the history of the song 'Captain Jinks of the Horse Marines" it was apparently first written and popularized in british vaudeville in 1862 and apparently crossed the ocean to the U.S. and was popular during the civil war, short;y after the war a british vaudevillian came to the U.S. and incorporated it into a popular act which made it even more popular and widespread and it appears in a number of songbooks both general and for children.

I remember singing it in music class as an elementary kid.

I can assure you that it is not an Arthur Ransome book. I have them all, have read them and have written about them all. May I suggest that the key word is 'Peyton' ? This might lead you to the author K.M. Peyton who has written a huge number of stories set in Britain. Some of them were about sailing such as 'Brownsea Silver' and others in that series are about horses and were extremely popular. There is a website of K.M.Peyton online and one of the titles might ring a bell. You can't do wrong by reading Arthur Ransome but that song is not there. It might not be Peyton as author but she/ (the author) would be in the time-bracket you are writing about.
To stay happy with Ransome I would suggest avoiding 'Peter Duck' and 'Missee Lee' - the fantasy/wish fulfilment style jars with all that is best in the author's work.

The song about Captain Jinks also appears in Little House in the Big Woods, by Laura Ingalls Wilder.

>25 kdcdavis:: Yes, that's where I know it from. It's definitely not in any of the S & A books.

You were reading the Famous Five series by Enid Blyton.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Famous_Five_(series)

>25 kdcdavis: Thank you for that - I knew I had seen it somewhere, but that for me the context was American.

I can also concur that the situation the OP describes does not occur in any of the Arthur Ransome books.