Coastwise-cross-seas

There is not much room for books in small boats. The few non-technical books that will not be left behind, but force their way in among the nautical almanacks, pilot books and books of first aid to non mathematical minds, have already passed tests that have eliminated the hundreds of volumes that, good enough for the fireside, are not taken to sea. Further, when at sea, or even in harbour, the sailor of small boats has not much time for reading, what with chartwork, chivvying dirt, cooking and washing up and getting a fair share of the well-earned sleep that is both a duty and a pleasure. Consequently, even the few books he takes with him do not very often get read. Some of them go to sea again and again without ever being opened at show more all. Those that do get read acquire a weather-beaten appearance, and it is easy, looking along that short row of old companions, to tell those that have really earned their place on board. For example I have never in any boat seen a copy of the Riddle of the Sands that looked anything like new. In my own library the battered covers of Erskine Childers are matched only by those of a collection of logs by Henry Reynolds called Coast-wise-Cross-seas, published by Potter, the Admiral Chart Agent, in 1921. No other book has been more frequently hauled out for reference by paws still over-intimate with saucepans. Senorita is likely to share its fate. ...

[Arthur Ransome reviewing Senorita in The Observer, 11 Oct. 1936; reproduced in Christina Hardyment, Ransome on blue water sailing, p. 77-78]. show less