Signals from TARSUS North Pole News - Arthur Ransome · pg. 17 pg. 18 Support the Nancy Blackett Trust 20th Anniversary Appeal. Find out more on page 16. Signals from TARSUS - North

Signals from TARSUS &North Pole NewsJune 2016

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Contents

Ship's Papers:A View from the Helm— Robin Marshall, TARSUS Coordinator

Greetings from the North — Ian Sacré, TARS Canada Coordinator

A Note from the Editor— Simon Horn

Ship's Library:Nautical Reading— Ian Sacré

Dancing on Ice—Alistair Bryden

Dipping our Hands:Arthur Ransome in my Life—Gordon Proudfoot

Kanchenjunga's Cairn:Sail Camping on the Nancy Blackett—Diane Tucker

Captain Fint’s Trunk:Arthur Ransome in Yiddish —Avi Lank

Before the Spray—Maida Follini

Pieces of Eight:Bananas Everywhere! —Molly McGinnis

Beckfoot Kitchen:Banana Blossom Salad —Molly McGinnis

pg. 2-3, 5

pg. 3

pg. 6

pg. 8

pg. 12

Sail Camping on theNancy Blackett, p. 8

Arthur Ransome inYiddish, p. 12

Before the Sprayp. 14

pg. 15

pg. 14

pg. 17

pg. 18

Support the Nancy Blackett Trust 20th Anniversary Appeal.Find out more on page 16.

Signals from TARSUS - North Pole News — June 2016

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This summer looks set to be anopportunity formyownadventure. InMay I will set off with my wife, andOscar our dog, for eight weeks in thesouth of Spain. Later my son andgrandson will join us and hopefullymy daughter and grandchildren aswell.

We really will be amongst the natives,sincewehave rented ahouse in a smallvillage up in the mountains of LasAlpujarras. Over the winter we havebeen trying to learn some Spanish.This has been somewhat harder thanwe thought — maybe learning inone's 70s is not so easy.

Very impressed with the newnewsletter. I hope you let Simon

know what you think and send himmany articles. He needs some for theyounger TARS as well.

Fortunately most 2016 subscriptionshave now been paid, and I would liketo thank all those who made an extradonation toTARS and in particular toTARSUS.

I have listed to the right those who sofar have forgotten to send in theirsubscriptions in. As I mentioned lastyear: if you are not on the list, then youare paid up to date. However, if yourname is listed and you believe youhave paid, please contact me asap.

Have a great and enjoyable summer.Robin

Ship’s Papers — Important information for the Crew

A View from the Helm

By Robin Marshall, TARSUS Coordinator210 18th Street NW Bradenton, FL [email protected]

Once again, we are on the verge of summer, whichgives us all a chance to get out and explore outdoorpursuits.

TheTARSMembershipDatabase ispurged of non-renewals at the endof May. The following membershave not yet renewed:

P J Bauer 1411W Eggena 5035D Hill 358D Iams Mcguire 4626F L Johnson 800

Please send your renewal checkquickly or yourmembership is likelyto go to Davey Jones!

Yourmembership type and renewalamount:Junior: $17.50 – Adult: $52.50Student: $35.00 – Family: $67.25Senior/Pensioner: $44.00Corporate: $105.00

To pay, or if you have have alreadypaid, contact me by email atusa@arthur ransome.org, phone at941-726-1974 or mail at:Robin Marshall210 N 18th St W.Bradenton FL 34205

Jib Booms and Bobstays! Youare standing into danger!

Unidentified topsail schooner off Kingston, Ontario (photographed by your editor in June 2007).

mailto:[email protected]


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Nautical ReadingReviewed by Ian SacréThis winter I had the opportunity toread a number of good books thatother TARS members might well en-joy.

The firstwasTheMutiny onBoardHMSBounty, which is an account written byCaptain William Bligh himself, short-ly after he returned to England andwas exonerated by the Naval CourtMarshal for losing his ship.

As nearly everyone knows, after themutiny of April 29, 1789, WilliamBligh was cast adrift in the Bounty’slaunch accompanied by 19 of hiscrew. The launch was 23 feet inlength, of carvel construction. Thenarrative is drawn from his journaland ship's log, which his clerk man-

aged to takewith him in-to the boat.I had alwayst h o u g h tthat the in-c r e d i b l e3,600 milesBligh sailedwas nonstop. In facthe stoppeds e v e r a ltimes dur-

ing his small boat voyage, first in theislands between Tofua and Australia,then on the North East coast of Aus-tralia, before finally making fever-rid-den Timor.

Bligh's only instruments were a quad-rant — an early form of the modern

sextant— and a compass. Despite allthe trials, tribulations and sufferingthey all endured, he was ever the navi-gator and took the time to record nu-merous hydrographic, geographicand navigational observations duringthe voyage. I found it a most interest-ing read.

The next book I thoroughly enjoyedwas Shackleton's Boat Journey, The Nar-rative from the Captain of Shackleton’sShip, the Endurance, written by FrankArthur Worsley. Frank Worsley wasthe navigator of the launch during the800-mile passage that carried six ofthem from Elephant Island to SouthGeorgia Island.Their boat was calledthe James Caird and was also 23 feetlong and carvel planked. Written in atypical mariner's plain-speaking style,the book is well worth reading.

Pole News, so to avoid being keel-hauled or havingmy timbers shiveredor, evenworse, being Black Spotted, Ithought I should at least have anothergo at contributing something (you canread my book reviews further on).First someadministrativedetails. OurCanadian TARS membership sub-scribers now stand at 26, while the to-tal actual membership consists of 40warm bodies!

Regrettably, two members decided toresign from TARS, but all remainingCanadian subscriptions were fullypaid up by the end of February. TedEvans advised me that Headquartersis envious of the prompt Canadianmembership renewal action. Appar-ently someof thehomecountrymem-bershave tobe 'bugged' well into Juneor beyond. Well done and thank youeveryone! All we need to do now is

recruit some more willing hands tohelp swell our ranks a little. Perhapswe need to consider resorting to oldpress gang tactics to fill out ourWatchBills and Muster List?

Spring really does seem to have ar-rived in most parts of the countrythough I was dismayed to learn thatparts of our land recently had freshsnow in mid April!

Not good.

I hope everyonemakes bold plans forthe summer, and that we will have thepleasure of hearing about some ofyour adventures in the autumn.

Wishing every one fair winds andcalm seas,

Ian SacréTARS Canada Co-ordinator

Greetings from the North

By Ian Sacré, TARS Canada Coordinator750 Donegal Place, North Vancouver, BC V7N [email protected]

April 28th 2016Greetings, fellow Canadian TARRY members! Simonrecently sent out his reminder that input is required forthe Spring edition of Signals from TARSUS/North

Ship’s Library — Books we’ve read and want to share (part 1)


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This book led me on to read Shackle-ton's Boat, The Story of the James Caird,written by Harding McGregor Dun-nett. A most interesting book, well il-lustrated with many photographs.Frank Worsley oversaw the buildingof the James Caird, which was sonamed after one of Shackleton's mainfinancial contributors to the ill-fatedAntarcticExpedition.Thoughbuilt in1913-1914, theboat still exists andhasbeen preserved.In 2013 the James Cairdbecamepart ofthe Shackleton Exhibition on displayat Dulwich College, Shackleton's oldschool. (The book's author also wentto Dulwich.) The original rescue ofthe boat from it’s landing place on theislandwas the result of efforts byNor-wegian whalers, based at that time onthe north coast of South Georgia Is-

land.Theywere so impressedwith theincredible small boat voyage in winterby Shackleton and his crew that theybrought the boat back to their baseand physically carried it up from thedock to a place of safety. Later theyarranged for the boats’ transport backto England!

Finally I read The Young Sea Officer'sSheet Anchor, or A Key to the Leading ofRigging and to Practical Seamanship, byDarcey Lever. Originally written inabout 1811, the copy I found was amodern reprint of the original, beauti-fully illustrated text. All the drawingsand plates are the original black andwhite engravings. So if you want toknow how to manually step a mast ina three masted man-of-war or loadwater casks into a ship's boat on anopen beach this is just the book foryou.

Theauthor's foreword isdelightful. Inoneparagraphhe says: “Amereverbalexplanationoftenperplexes themind,for no one but a seaman can clearlycomprehend it; and he is not the ob-ject for whom such aid is intended.”

He says in a later paragraph: “YoungOfficers sometimes feel a diffidencein soliciting information; either froma fear of exposing their ignorance, orfrom the idea that such a request maybe treated with ridicule. A reference,like a work of this nature, which canbe consulted in privacy will obviatethe difficulty. It was not a secondaryconsideration in the prosecution of it.The Author has done his best.” Howvery true even in this day and age.

For those that may be interested Ifoundall theabovebooksonabebook-s.com, a site I use quite frequently.

The Arthur Ransome Society (TARS) website: http://www.arthur-ransome.org.uk

All Things Ransome, a website devoted to keeping articles, artwork, and anything related to Ransome:http://www.allthingsransome.net

The Arthur Ransome Wiki, an encyclopedia on Ransome, his life and works:http://arthur-ransome.wikia.com/wiki/Arthur_Ransome_Wiki

Useful Links

http://abebooks.com

http://abebooks.com


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lantic, so you are never far from thesea, and boats. Big boats, little boats,cruise ships, dinghies, sail boats, mo-tor boats, tug boats, ferry boats… thelist couldgoonall day.Therewas evena Canadian frigate in harbour while Iwas there.

As far as I know, there is not theslightest evidence that Arthur Ran-some, in his Captain Flint days, evervisited Bermuda, but I think he mighthave liked it. A British colony since1612, Bermuda was described to methe year beforemy first visit in 1995 as“Englandwithpalm trees”.Abit of anover-simplification, perhaps, espe-cially since American influence hasgrown greatly sinceWorldWar II, butin the first half of the 20th century theplace would have been very English.

While Ransome probably didn’t visitBermuda, he did write introductionsto seven volumes in the Mariner’s Li-brary, published by Rupert Hart-Davis in the 1950s. The Mariner’s Li-brary reprinted classic accounts ofsailing voyages, often single-handed,beginning with the granddaddy ofthemall, JoshuaSlocum’sSailingAloneAround the World. R. D. Graham’sRough Passage (Mariner’s Library #9)describes his single-handed 1934 voy-age from England to Newfoundland,followed by a harrowing return viaBermuda. Alain Gerbault’s In Quest of

the Sun (Mariner’s Library #30)presents the four and a half-year voy-age of his cutter Firequest from NewYork through the Panama Canal tothe South Pacific and back to Francevia theCapeofGoodHope, includingan early stop off in Bermuda for re-pairs. (No doubt other books in the38-volume series mention Bermudaas well, but my collection unfortu-nately remains incomplete.)

Bermuda has a long history of boat-building and sailing, one that is beingcarried on by the Bermuda SloopFoundation’s sailing training vessel,the Spirit of Bermuda. Alas, woodensailing vessels are no longer built inBermuda, so the 112-foot, three-

masted schooner was built in Rock-port, Maine, to the pattern of aBermuda-built, Royal Navy sloop ofwar from 1831. The ship waslaunched in 2006.When not voyagingwith a crew of Bermuda youth, theSpirit of Bermuda canbe seenmoored atDockyard, at the western end of theisland, which is where my picture (be-low) was taken.

* * *

I hope you like this edition of thenewsletter. Thanks to everyone whosent in material or suggestions. For awhile there I was afraid that the issuewould be very thin, but people camethrough, as Elizabeth Jolley told methey would. Please send me your im-pressions, your criticisms, and yoursuggestions for future issues. Whileyou are out enjoying the summer withyour families, take a picture for thenewsletter; I’m sure you can find anArthur Ransome connection!

Simon

* For anyone interested, try this website for a clue.

A Note from the EditorBy Simon Horn, [email protected]

I recently had the chance to spend two weeks inBermuda doing research for a book (although that’sanother story*). It wasn’t a very nautical visit, since Ispent much of my time in archives and museum quar-ters examining old photographs, but Bermuda is asmall, isolated island group in the middle of the At-

The Spirit of Bermuda, under power, leaving its berth at Bermuda's Dockyard.

http://www.bermudarailway.net

http://bermudasloop.org

http://bermudasloop.org


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Dipping our Hands — Personal relationships with the books

My introduction to Arthur Ran-some's Swallows andAmazons bookswas thanks a young lady who wouldlater become my aunt. My uncle wascaptured atDunkirk andwas destinedto spend thenext five years inprisonerof war camps and to endure severemarches as the Reich collapsed.

As I understand it, young womenwere encouraged towrite to aPOWtoboost theirmorale during their intern-ment. Anne was one of these ladiesand Bert was a recipient of her letters.Long before my uncle was liberatedAnne met my grandmother andgrandfather and Bert’s three sisters,who included my mother, severaltimes, so I also came to know Anne.The spark must have been struck inthe letters Anne and Bert exchanged.because shortly after Bert’s rehabilita-tion and demobilization they weremarried. They remained so until theypassed on.

As a Christmas present— I believe itmust have been in 1944, when I was 9

years old — Anne gave me a copy ofWinter Holiday, which I read, re-readand treasured. The book was still onmy bookshelf when I emigrated toCanada in 1957. Later it must havebeen passed on to someone else,when it became evident I would notbe returning to England to live.

I have no specific memories of read-ing any further Swallows andAmazonstories beyond that first encounter, al-though I am sure I did, relying onbooks borrowed from friends and thelibrary. I have some memories of myfriend Michael and myself discussingthe books. I believe he speculated that“The Lake” was Coniston although Ithought it wasWindermere, based on“Rio” being Bowness-on-Winder-mere.

The reason I think that my interest intheRansomenovels did not decline inthe years between the ages of nine andtwelve is that Michael received GreatNorthern? very shortly after it was pub-lished in 1947. As soon as he had fin-

ished reading it he loaned it tome. Justat that time I was off school sick for afew days, so I read the book in veryshort order, in one day perhaps?Probably not. Unfortunately I did nottake thebest of care ofMichael’s bookand the dust jacket was rather dam-aged when I returned the volume, theresult of reading itwhile onmyback inbed.

Swallows and Amazons were nevercompletely forgotten as I moved intoadulthoodand learned to fend formy-self, but there was a hiatus of severalyears without the Arthur Ransomestories being a part of my life. But inthe late 1960s, Puffin Books startedpublishing the series. I pounced at theopportunity toown them, and as soon

Arthur Ransome in my LifeBy Gordon Proudfoot, Hamilton, Ontario

My "Arthur Ransome Bookshelf" with mycollection of pertinent books. Included isa reproduction whale tooth scrimshaw,my boatswain's call (from my stint as aSea Cadet in the 1950's) and a piece ofCaribbean coral. Next to the Top Knotsbook, but not apparent, is the Manual of

Seamanship, Volume One, 1951.


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as possible had the twelve novels onmy bookshelf. These were read andreread several times over the follow-ing years, yellow and dishevelled asthey became (as to be expected for 45-year-old paperbacks).

In 2012 I went on a group hiking tripinEngland toConistonWater and theCotswold Hills. Time had weakenedmy connection to the legacy ofArthurRansome and the Lake District andthus, regretfully, I missed the oppor-tunity to hike Kanchenjunga (TheOld Man of Coniston) and possiblycheck out other Ransome highlightsin the area of the Lakes. However, thearranged bus trip from Coniston toBourton-on-the-Water in theCotswolds included a stop at LittleMoreton Hall in Cheshire, the Tudorarchitectural masterpiece. In thebookstore there I found and pur-chased Roger Wardale’s book ArthurRansome, Master Storyteller. This of

course rekindled a dormant interest inthe great man and his children’s nov-els, and I read the stories again once Ireturned home.

Then calamity struck! In March 2013a broken water main filled my base-ment with water that, while clean, de-stroyed many books, including myPuffin editions of the Swallows andAmazons, as well as many irreplace-able items such asmyvinyl record col-lection and photographs. Once moreI was without the Arthur Ransome’sstories.

Following the loss of the paperbacksandmyreawakened interest in the sto-ries, I set about finding replacements.Initially I found only the paperbackeditions published by Red Fox. Then,wonder of wonders! I discovered thatJonathan Cape, with hardly a break in80 years or so, was still publishing thehard cover editions, resplendent with

those glorious dust jackets that I knewand had loved. As fast as disposableincome became available I bought alltwelve volumes, shortly followed bythe purchase of theKindle editions tomake sure I could dip into the storiesanywhere and at any time I chose.

In one of the Red Fox volumes I hadfound a reference to “The ArthurRansome Society”. I soon made myinterest known to the society and be-cameamember. Since thepurchaseofthe Wardale book, my interest in theperson of Arthur Ransome and hiswritings has expanded immensely.Thanks to Cape and the TARS Stallmy library has grown, and now takesupa complete shelf onmy Ikea “Billy”bookcase. I expect my collection ofbooks and e-books will continue togrow in the future but at a whole lotslower rate. In the meantime I havemuch pleasurable reading in store fora long time.

Shades of Missee Lee?

Here are a couple of pictures I took on arecent visit to China. One shows an

elegant lady (descendant of Missee Lee?)in a sampan; the other a line of fishing

cormorants. Both on the Dragon River, atributary of the Yangtse in the Three

Gorges area.– Robert Dilley

TARS member Robert Dilley sent intwo pictures taken on a recent visitto China.


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My family are Swallows andAmazonsaddicts.We lived andbreathedArthurRansome, reading every one of thetwelve books. It tooknearly a year andwe were all a little depressed when weclosed the cover on the last one. Mydaughter wanted to be Nancy Black-ett, the sassy, irrepressible heroine ofthe series. If I ambeing totally honest,so did I.

It isn't surprising to learn that thecharacter of Nancy Blackett has beenthe inspiration of generations ofBritish women, much like NancyDrew here in the U.S. She is a truefeminist. In fact, she is more like apost-feminist as she (as well as herother female cohorts in the S&Abooks) shows no recognitionwhatev-er of gender stereotypes. She simplydoes whatever is required with brav-ery and panache.

Having read a few depressing pieceslately in periodicals like this one,about the decline of boating, the lackof interest that kids today have foroutdoor pursuits and sailing in specif-ic, I was thrilled that my daughter

adored it. At twelve, she has alreadyowned three sailboats, an Optimist, aSunfish and aCapeDory 10.At camp,she sails aPico.My Juliawants tobuilda boat someday, and I bet she will!

Despite sailing on her own, Julia re-cently informedme shewants us to gocamp sailing! If you have a kid thatwants to play pirate with you, I adviseyou to jump on it. We quickly made alist of desirable features for our pirateship. Knowing inmy heart my swash-buckling days were apt to be short, Iwanted to be sure the boat would suitme longafter Ihungupmypeg leg andsword. Storage was important. Com-fortable thwarts for this pirate waskey. I'm not a young terror of the seasanymore and I don't want to sit in thebilge. Most of all, the boat needed toaccommodate a twelve-year-old girland her mom for the occasional overnight.

I poured over designs andkept coming back to theJim Michalak Lady Bug.Boy, was she cute. I love agaff rig, and I read whereChuck Leinweber said itmight make a decent campsailor! Did I not rememberseeing a picture of his LadyBug in the Texas 200? So Iordered the plans andstarted in to find a boatbuilder. I know I shouldhave gone in for building itmyself, but I wanted it formy daughter, not mygrandchildren!

I poured over boating periodicals,scrolled through websites and wadedthrough boat building advertising. Ihappened across a website in my tar-get geographical location by a builderin Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Iliked how he described the boats hemade. The photos of the boats werejust beautiful, the boats built with ob-vious care. The descriptions of themwere simple, but lyrical. I was prettysure I found The One. His name wasGreg Hopkins, of Next Wave BoatShop. I e-mailed. He e-mailed. I sentplans. We talked on the phone. With-out further ado, I sent a deposit!

Kanchenjunga's Cairn — Places we've been and our adventures

Sail Camping on the Nancy BlackettBy Diane Tucker, Farmington, Connecticut

Reprinted with grateful thanks tothe author and to both MessingAbout in Boats magazine(www.messingaboutinboats.com)and Duckworks Magazine(duckworksmagazine.com).


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I didn't worry about a contract or ref-erences or anything. Like the old daysin a sense, we did it on a handshake. Itwas a "telephonic handshake", butstill.

So began my almost nightly corre-spondence with Greg Hopkins. Asmy husband snored next to me, Gregand I typed back and forth, discussingtypes of wood, fold-out seats for acamping platform and other minutia.Greg documented the build with lotsof photos. If a night or two went bywhen we didn't write, the day seemedout of kilter.

We struggled over the issue of a sleep-ing platform, until Greg solved it inone stroke by suggesting a hammockslung between the thwarts. With nocenterboard case in the way, the ham-mock could be supported by slippinga piece of wood through pockets ineither side of the hammock. Thewood pieces would fit snugly in aspace at the edgeof the thwart. Simpleand perfect solution! I never wouldhave thought of it. This kind of thingmade working and becoming friendswith Greg such a pleasure.

The only time he questioned my

thoughts was as we picked colors. Iwanted Interlux Seafoam Green onthe sides, and the leeboard tobepaint-ed the color ofHollandaise sauce. Be-ing a New Hampshire man, thatseemed kind of sissified to him. Icouldn't blame him, but this was to bea "girl boat". Greg painted the boatthe way we wanted, even mixing theHollandaise sauce leeboard painthimself.

The day I picked up the boat was somuch fun! As I had, Greg had sharedthe story of our Lady Bug build withhis friends. So, pickup was like a partywhere I got to meet all his buddies.What a great groupof guys!We got onas though we had known each otherforever. Then Ann Hopkins, Greg'swife turnedup. Shewanted to seewhowas e-mailing her husband in thesmall hours!Wehit it off the samewayGreg and I did, and went off to buypizza and beer together as lunch forthe gang.

After a few hours spent rigging theLady Bug, re-rigging and yes, riggingagain, we finally sorted the sail rig out.Lest anyonegetworried, theLadyBugrig is as easy as pie. It was all our fault.

Could we have been joking aroundtoo much? I couldn't possibly com-ment. The fellows found thatmy littlehomemade Harbor Freight trailerneeded some serious adjustment toproperly carry theprecious 'Bug.Theywent way above and beyond, essen-tially rebuilding it. I prettymuch had anew trailer! I couldn't be more grate-ful, and I think of those nice men ev-ery time I look at it. That's quite a lotsince the boat has spent a wonderfulsummer being sailed almost daily, andthe trailer is in my driveway waitingfor the sad "boats out" time later thisfall.

What did we name our Lady Bug?Why, "Nancy Blackett", of course.The perfect name for a pirate shipbuilt for two aspiring Swallows andAmazons out for some adventures intheir sea foam green girl boat.

The big day for camp cruising finallyarrived. While my daughter spent amonth at sleep-away camp, I repur-posed a mosquito netting tent I


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bought off an army-surplus websiteinto a snug,bug-freeboat tent. I testedour sleeping arrangements, includinga hammock I had made. This was tohang between the bench seating in anarrangement ingeniously contrivedbyGreg. The idea is to sew pockets oneither side of the hammock, throughwhich large dowels which usuallymake up the front edge of the benchare inserted. The dowels are then re-placed where they usually sit with thefabric stretching over the cockpit.The system works like a charm and isa very good way to solve the sleepingdilemma on a dinghy. However, Icould not figure a way for me to getthe hammock perfectly taut betweenthe two benches. When two of us areto sleep aboard, gravity being what itis, whoever sleeps on a bench is veryapt to roll into the hammock along-side her shipmate at some point in thenight.With time drawing short, I tooka few naps on the benches and decid-ed they would do for the time beingwithout the hammock. Certainly wewould get away with it for one night.

During my nap-time experiments, Ialso learned that sleeping on the solewas very satisfactory provided a nicemop-upwas donewith a sponge priorto sleep. As a solo camp cruiser, Lady-bug is a good choice, whether yousleep on the sole, or in a nifty ham-mock. For the time being, I folded thehammockaway for another cruise andstarted thinking about the rest of ourequipment.

The tent was easy to set up. I inserteda few hooks under Nancy Blackett'sgunnels. Bungee cord went aroundthe cockpit andbehind the hooks.Us-ing Byers Tarp Tie-Downs I hookedthe mosquito netting under thebungee cording.

Provisioning was vital. We wouldspend the late afternoon and nightaboard, with breakfast first thing thefollowing morning. A reasonable,healthful and comforting dinnerwould be needed, plus snacks andbreakfast. In consultation with myFirst Mate, we decided upon cannedtomato soup with toast. We wouldcarrymilk formaking the soup as wellas for tea and formy daughter to havea goodglassbeforebed.Dessert beingthemost important factor Imade suretohave, as theSwallowsandAmazonscrew did, plenty of chocolate. Break-fast in the morning would be oatmealwith dried cranberries put in, alongwith mandarin oranges (no scurvy inthis woman's navy) and good, hot teawith milk.

I have a wonderful "stores box" I gotfrom John Owens at JO Woodworksdown in Texas, another great guy Ihave had the luck and pleasure to runacross since I got the boating bug. Iput our Trangia alcohol stove, sporks,mugs, canned goods, baggy with pre-

made toast, chocolate bars, a box ofCheezits, tea bags, a baggy of sugarand a thermos of milk in there. Fireblanket and fire extinguisher were in adry bag, to be placed near at handwhile cooking. Another dry bag con-tained the lantern to be hung from theboom inside the tent forpre-bed read-ing. Sleeping bags were set, and I hadmade a nice set of comfy pillows lastwinter during a blizzard out of Sun-brella fabric thatmatched the color ofthe boat. A couple of warm sweat-shirts, our pj's and we were ready foradventure.

I worried a bit when consideringwhatmight happen in the event of a mid-night call of nature. The Ladybug is asmall, open boat. We had a bucketaboard, but on a boat that size a buck-et of "effluvia", would be at risk ofseriously fouling the cockpit and itsinhabitants should something (some-one?) "kick the bucket". Anotherromp through the Army supply cata-logue turned up an item called a Wag


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Bag. Eureka! TheWagBag goes in thebucket, you go in theWag Bag. Fancychemicals in the Bag turn whateveryou put in there into a gel-like, frozenstate. You wrap the bag and its nowinert contents into the ziplockprovid-ed with each Wag Bag and dispose ofit all in the first trash bin you see onshore. No fuss, no mess, no smell.These things even come with TP andhand sanitizer. A ladymariner's sensi-bilities, as well as most gentlemanmariners', are safe with a few of thesethings aboard. You could probablyeven use the "head" such as it wouldbe during daylight hours provided noone was nearby. At night, no worriesat all! Talk about well-provisioned!!Better tohaveandnotneed, thanneedand not have.

My daughter and I took a lovely late-afternoon cruise before anchoring offshore. Our little Eastport Prambobbed next to our mooring. We usethe pram as a tender to get to NancyBlackett and for rowing for exercise.We kept well away from themooring,not wanting the two boats to bumpone another and keep us awake. Plus,we wanted to lie at anchor, not at theend of a mooring tether which wouldbe sort of like camping out in one'sbackyard.

Over the summer, theNancyBlackettattracted quite a bit of attention. Ev-ery sail (which was close to every day)people hailed us with compliments.They loved the color, they loved thesail, but generally they just loved theboat, asking, "What kind IS it?" I hadlots of chances to toot the Michalakhorn and tell his story. My favoritecompliment was "You and your boatgive our lake CLASS!" While anchor-ing that night, we made sure to give

everyoneon the lake a chance to seeusand watch while we put up our tent.We thought it might be the first timesuch a thing had been seen there andwere proud to add still more cachet tothe Nancy Blackett's reputation.

The tent went up easily, and mydaughter pronounced it "cool". Soonwe were ready for supper. The hotsoup went down a treat, and the toastwas a comforting addition, just likehome. The capacious Michalak bulk-heads had swallowed somuchgearwecouldn't believe it. Though itwas hardfor us not to overpack, the Ladybugwas more than a match for us.

As night fell, we settled in on ourbenches. They really weren't too badfor sleeping,maybeatad narrow, but real-ly not bad. We hadThermarest sleepingpads, and I've cer-tainly slept in lesscomfortable quar-ters. The lamp dan-gled from the boom.We read our books.It was peaceful andwonderful! Andthen the fishermenarrived.

Suddenly the wateraround us was illu-minated like a surgi-cal suite. There wereboats both port andstarboard contain-ing Serious Fisher-men.One guy stayedall night. With myhead below the levelof the gunnel, I did-n't notice it much.Julia wasmore both-

ered than I, but I think that goes withbeing nearly thirteen.One is nearly al-ways a bit bothered at her time of life.Even with the fishing lights, I couldstill see the stars clearly, and far betterthan home in suburbia.

I slept until eight. By that time, ac-cording to my child, a fleet of kayaks,a man in a shell and a whole new co-hort of fisherman had already passedmy sleeping figure. We made ourbreakfast, which tasted fabulous, asoutdoor breakfasts always do. It wastime for a swim, and we wriggled intobathing suits below gunnel level lestthe fishermen see us. Before we doveover Nancy Blackett's side, Juliagrinned atme and said, "WeHAVEtodo this again".


12

On paying for my room at the beginningof the week I was given a card with thedays of the week printed along its edge.This card gave me the right to buy onedinnerdaily, andwhenIbought it thatdayof the week was snipped off the card sothat I could not buy another. The mealconsisted of a plate of very good soup,together with a second course of a scrapof meat or fish. The price of the mealvaried between five and seven roubles.

One could obtain this meal any time be-tween two and seven. Living hungrilythrough the morning, at two o'clock Iused to experience definite relief in theknowledge that now at any moment Icould have my meal. Feeling in this wayless hungry, I used then to postpone ithour by hour, and actually dined aboutfive or six o'clock. Thinking that I mightindeed have been specially favoured Imade investigations, and found that thedinners supplied at the public feedinghouses (the equivalent of our nationalkitchens) were of precisely the same sizeandcharacter, anydifferencebetween themeals depending not on the food but onthe cook.

A kind of rough and ready co-operativesystem also obtained. One day there wasanoticeon the stairs that thosewhowant-ed could get one pot of jam apiece byapplying to the provisioning committeeof the hotel. I got a pot of jam in this way,and on a later occasion a small quantity ofUkrainian sausage.

Besides the food obtainable on cards itwas possible to buy, at ruinous prices,food from speculators, and an idea of thedifference in the prices may be obtainedfrom the following examples: Bread isone rouble 20 kopecks per pound by cardand 15 to 20 roubles per pound from thespeculators. Sugar is 12 roubles perpound by card, and never less than 50roubles per pound in the open market. Itis obvious that abolition of the card sys-temwouldmean that the richwould haveenough and the poor nothing. Variousmethods have been tried in the effort toget rid of speculators whose high profitsnaturally decrease the willingness of thevillages to sell bread at less abnormalrates. But as a Communist said to me,"There is only oneway to get rid of specu-lation, and that is to supply enoughon the

card system. When People can buy alltheywant at 1 rouble20 they arenot goingto pay an extra 14 roubles for the encour-agement of speculators." "And when willyou be able to do that?" I asked. "As soonas thewar ends, andwe can use our trans-port forpeaceful purposes."There canbeno question about the starvation of

Arthur Ransome in YiddishBy Avi Lank

Between the end of World War I andthe publication of Swallows & Ama-zons, Arthur Ransome had an unlikelyset of readers: Yiddish-speaking Eu-ropean immigrants to the UnitedStates, many of whom were concen-trated on the Lower East Side ofNewYork City. These were people hungryfor news of the small Jewish commu-nities they had left in the old Russian

Empire, and Ransome’s reporting forBritish newspapers during the Rus-sian Civil War provided them with awindow on conditions in theMother-land.

There is scholarly dispute as to exactlywhatRansomewas up towhenhewasin Russia at the time. No matter theultimate answer to those questions,

however, his dispatches from the pe-riod painted a vivid picture of whatlife was like in Moscow and what wasthen called Petrograd, now known asSt. Petersburg.

Here is an excerpt from an onlinepostingofhisbookRussia in 1919, de-scribing his experiences at a “better”hotel in Moscow at the time:

Captain Flint's Trunk — News from abroad

The title page of the Yiddish translation ofRansome’s Russia in 1919. Ransom’s nameappears in the Hebrew alphabet used inYiddish at the top of the page.

Avi Lank is a member of TARSUS. He is a retired journalist living in Milwaukee, Wi., andco-author of TheManWho Painted the Universe (WisconsinHistorical Society Press, 2015)which is about a hand-built rotating globe planetarium in northernWisconsin and containsa reference to Dick’s stargazing inWinter Holiday.


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Thewriting is vintageRansome, usingan economy of words, explainingwithout cant and leaving the readerricher and better informed. Such ac-counting was an invaluable resourcefor immigrants to theUSwho had leftbehind relatives in such places. In ad-dition, Ransome’s reporting on theCommunists was at least even-hand-ed, if not sympathetic. That caused anAmerican organization called theJewishSocialistFederation to takeno-ticeofhiswork.According to anemailfromDaniel Soyer, a professor of his-tory Fordham University in NewYork City:Founded in 1912, the Jewish SocialistFederation was one of a number of "lan-guage federations” affiliated with the So-cialist Party, the language in this case be-

ing Yiddish. Although theoretically thefederation was designed to conduct gen-eral Socialist agitation among Yiddish-speaking workers, in practice it had con-siderable autonomy …Like all Socialistsaround the world, the JSF early on wasfascinated by what was going on in Rus-sia, all the more so because most mem-bers were actually from the Russian Em-pire. And it was pro-Soviet.

Ransome’s work dovetailed nicelywith the Federation’s aims, and led itto publish a Yiddish translation ofRussia in 1919 for distribution inNorthAmerica. I have been unable tofind out howmany copies were print-ed, but at a recent trip to the YiddishBook Center in Amherst, Mas-sachusetts, there were several on ashelf awaiting new owners. The Cen-

ter is devotedto the collec-tion, preserva-tion and distri-bution ofbooks printedin Yiddish. Itcollects themby any methodpossible, as de-scribed in Out-witting History( A l g o n q u i nBooks, ChapelHill, 2005), ad e l i g h t f u l

memoir by the founder of theCenter,Aaron Lansky. While many of itsbooks come from private collectionsin theNortheastern U.S., in particularNew York City, the Center does notkeep careful records on where partic-ular volumes came from. For that rea-son, Catherine Madsen, a bibliogra-pher at the Center who showed metheRansomevolumes,wasnot able toprovide provenance for any copy.Madsen, by the way, was familiar withRansome’s work, having read theS&A series while living in Alaska as achild. Yiddish, which was the com-mon language of Jews in Eastern Eu-rope, is written in the Hebrew alpha-bet, and Ransome’s name appears inHebrew characters at the top of thetitle page. That is followed by a copy-right page, in English, naming theJewish Socialist Federation as thecopyrightholder, and then apagewitha seal containing the hammer andsickle emblem, apparently an impri-matur from the Soviet Union.

I purchased two copies, one for myown collection and one for the TARSlibrary, which was sent over to Scot-land inMay.WinifredWilson tells methat the Library’s only other holdingofRussia in 1919 is a Lithuanian trans-lation. As a journalist, AR had readersin many places, and many tongues.

Right, the copyright page of the book. Left, a seal of the Soviet Union.

Moscow.On the thirdday aftermyarrivalin Moscow I saw a man driving a sledgeladen with, I think, horseflesh, mostlybones, probably dead sledge horses. Ashedrove ablack crowdof crows followedthe sledge and perched on it, tearinggreedily at themeat.He beat at them con-tinually with his whip, but they were sofamished that they took no notice what-

ever. The starving crows used even toforce their way through the small ventila-torsof thewindows inmyhotel topickupany scraps they could find inside. The pi-geons, which formerly crowded thestreets, utterly undismayed by the traffic,confident in the security given by theirsupposed connection with religion, havecompletely disappeared.

Nor can there be any question about thecold. I resented my own sufferings lesswhen I found that the StateDepartmentswere no better off than other folk. Evenin the Kremlin I found the Keeper of theArchives sitting at work in an old sheep-skin coat and felt boots, rising now andthen to beat vitality into his freezinghands like aLondoncabmanofold times.


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The first person recorded to sail alonearound theworld was Joshua Slocum,born in 1844 on North Mountain inNovaScotia,within sightof theBayofFundy — which has the highest tidesin the world. His father John was aboot-maker, but Joshua at age 14 leftthe cobbler’s shop for amore excitinglife at sea.He sailed first as a cabin boyand cook on local fishing schooners,but at 16 he took a voyage as a seamanon a merchant vessel to Dublin, Ire-land. From there he found berths as aseaman on British ships, sailing toChina, theEast Indies, andCalifornia.He studied for his officer’s license andat 18 qualified as Second Mate, laterachieving First Mate credentials. Af-ter a stint in theCalifornia fur trade, heofficered merchant ships carryingfreight between California, China,Japan and Australia.

In Australia he met his first wife, Vir-ginia Walker. Virginia sailed awaywith Joshua, and the couple had sevenchildren, born in foreign ports or atsea. By 1874, Slocum had acquired avessel of his own, a ninety-tonschooner named Pato (Duck in Span-ish). Continuing in the Pacific cargotrade, the Slocumsmoved on to larger

ships, including a clipper ship, North-ern Light, and the barque Aquidneck.

In 1884, on a voyage to Buenos Aireswith the Aquidneck, Virginia WalkerSlocum became ill and past away.Joshua Slocum sailed to Massa-chusetts, where he left his youngerchildren with his sisters. His oldestson Victor, remained with his fatheras First Mate.

Two years later, Joshua remarried,this time to his 24-year-old cousin,Henrietta Elliott. The family, in-cluding all but the two youngestchildren, sailed away with their fa-ther. Poor Henrietta, on her firstvoyage, experienced a hurricane,an attack by pirates, an outbreak ofsmallpox among the crew, and fi-nally in 1887 the wrecking to theAquidneck off the the coast ofBrazil.

Undeterred, Slocumandhis sonsbuilta 35-foot boat, the Liberdade, out ofsalvagedmaterials, and sailed herwiththe family 5510 miles back fromBrazil, through the Caribbean toSouth Carolina. They reached Bostonin 1889. Not surprisingly HenriettaSlocum stayed on land after that!

Joshua continued his adventurous lifeon the sea. InDecember 1893 he con-tracted to deliver from New Jersey toBrazil anunusual armoured steamwarvessel supposedly able to fire a torpe-do.

The ship began to leak at the begin-ningof thevoyage, lost its rudder, and,either by amiracle or due to thepersis-tence and improvising of Slocum andthe crew, somehowmanaged to reachBrazil where, in January 1894, the shipwas taken over by the Brazilian navy.It was an unlucky vessel, however, for

Before the SprayBy Maida Follini

Slocum's Sailing AloneAround the World isavailable in many edi-tions. Long out ofcopyright, the bookcan be downloaded inan ebook version atManybooks, ProjectGutenberg and similarsources. — Ed.

The Liberdade.

http://manybooks.net/library

http://www.gutenberg.org

http://www.gutenberg.org


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Winter Holiday has always been one ofmy favorite S&A books, if not the fa-vorite. The story is familiar: frozenlakes, seals, igloos, Eskimos, dogsleds, polar exploration, High Green-land and the climactic rescue missionacross the ice to the North Pole. Butwhere did all this come from?

The conventional answer is well doc-umented in various Ransome biogra-phies.ARmet and talkedwithNansenwhen he was living in Riga in Latvia,and there are multiple references toNansen in WH: Captain Flint’shouseboat is renamed the Fram afterNansen’s famous Arctic explorationvessel, and Nansen’s books FurthestNorth andTheFirst Crossing ofGreenlandare on Captain Flint’s bookshelf (andalmost certainly AR’s bookshelf aswell).

AR was later to describe Nansen as a“hero since my childhood”. But wasNansen Ransome’s only inspiration?

Today, Gino Watkins (1907-1932) isnot a well-known name, but in thelate 1920s and early 30s, during thedepths of the Great Depression, hewas awidely known, authenticBritishhero, in a time when there were fewheroes.Watkins’ exploits are the sub-

ject of Jeremy Scott’s 2008 book,Dancing on Ice.

A golden-haired Cambridge student,Watkins organized and led expedi-tions to Svalbard, Labrador andGreenland, including wintering inGreenland. He was extraordinarilytough, with some very challengingand lengthy winter trips on his re-sume. He even had direct links to theglory days of the British polar expedi-tions as the ship he chartered for hisgreatest Greenland trip was theQuest,which was previously Shackleton’sship. Watkins died young, aged only25, while paddling his kayak in aGreenland fjord, hunting for sealmeat for his party.

On a personal note, I have alwaysbeen aware of Gino Watkins. My fa-ther (born in 1915) had a biography ofWatkins on his bookshelf, and I re-cently learned that the explorer livedon the same London street as my fa-ther during the late 1920s, so it is notimpossible that theymet or were con-nected. Dad would certainly havebeen an admirer. From another per-spective, I have had a life long interestin kayaking, both river kayaking andsea kayaking. Watkins is a famous fig-ure in kayaking history as he learned

the so-called Eskimo Roll fromGreenland Inuit and brought thistechnique back to the UK, along withan example of a Greenland kayak andpaddle and necessary equipment suchas a sealed skirt.

If we look at the adventures ofWatkins and his party, it is not hard tosee many connections toWinter Holi-day. Firstly of course there is the tim-ing. When Ransome was writing WH(published in 1933), Nansen’s adven-tures were over 30 years old, but

Dancing on Ice, A Stirring Tale of Adventure, Risk and Reckless FollyReviewed by Alistair Bryden

Ship’s Library — Books we’ve read and want to share (part 2)

after furthermishaps, it holed itself ona rock and was abandoned.

Joshuawas not the sailor to remain onland for long. A whaling captain inFairhaven, Massachusetts, gave himan old sloop, named the Spray, whichhad been hauled out and propped up

in a field with a canvas covering.Slocum set himself to rebuild it, andon April 24, 1895, at the age of 51, heset sail from Boston, Massachusettsto sail around the world.

A little over 3 years later, on June 27,1898, Slocum and the Spray cast an-

chor again at Fairhaven after a trip ofover 46,000 miles.

The three years of this adventurewereengagingly recounted in JoshuaSlocum’s famous work, Sailing AloneAround the World, one of the best sail-ing accounts ever written.


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Watkins was very much in the news.His most famous trip to Greenlandwas over the winter of 1930/31. Ihaven’t been able to find out whetherAR was a member of the Royal Geo-graphical Society (although I think itvery likely) but it was the RGS thatawarded Watkins their Foundersmedal in1932.Watkins spentholidaysin the Lake District, likely sailing andwalking in the hills, so again it is notimpossible that AR had met him orknew of him.

On the Greenland expedition,Watkins and his team used dog sleds,hunted seals, lived with Eskimos (asthey were still known at the time) andtook weather readings. One of theirmembers, Augustine Courtauld,manned a weather observation sta-

tion for five months by himself in atent on the Greenland ice cap! This inturn led to a dramatic rescue missionby Watkins, when they found Cour-tauld with his station completelyburied, with only a stove pipe stickingabove the snow, and out of food.Sounds familiar.

Of course other aspects of Watkinsexpedition are not reflected in WH,including a 600-mile sail in an openboat around the bottom of Green-land, flying two Gypsy Moth seaplanes, learning to kayak from the lo-cal Inuit, and having very social rela-tionships with them as well. One ofthe party, SpencerChapman (who lat-er wrote the famous jungle warfarebook The Jungle is Neutral), fathered achild on one of the Inuit girls who

shared their very small cabin, al-though thiswas not public knowledgetill much later.

I am confident that the publicityaroundWatkins’ trips andadventures,stirred AR’s old memories of Nansenand it seems likely, based on the evi-dence, that he reflected at least a partof Watkins’ adventures in the climaxtoWinter Holiday.

All of these adventures and more areadmirably described in Jeremy Scott’sbook.Wellwritten, thebookmoves ata rapid pace, and I am sure that it de-serves a honorable place in the Ship’sLibrary. Incidentally, if any reader canpoint me to any other references toWatkins in the various Ransome bi-ographies, I would be very interested.

TheNancy Blackett Trust 20th Anniversary Appeal aims to raise £20,000 towards securing the future of ArthurRansome’s historic yacht Nancy Blackett, the original of the Goblin in “We Didn’t Mean to Go to Sea”. It was20 years ago that Arthur Ransome fans worldwide showed phenomenal support by raising enough money tobuy the Nancy Blackett and preserve her for future generations to appreciate, enjoy… and sail. Nowwe needto boost our finances to put her future on a firmer footing, so we’re asking you to…

“Please help Nancy Blackett to last forever”

Learn how you can help on the Nancy Blackett Trust website (nancyblackett.org/appeal/) — Ed.


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Bananas in Swallows and Amazons!Then there was a really huge bunch of ba-nanas whichMother tied in a tree as if it wasgrowing there. “You can pick them just asyou want them, she said.”

Bananas in Peter DuckThere was great delight when they came on awild banana, with a heavy drooping cluster ofripe fruit. Bill, Titty, and Roger ate some asthey walked along, and Captain Flint cut abig bunch and put it in his knapsack.

Bananas in Pigeon Post...they had finished up a cold rice pudding anda lot of bananas...

Bananas in We Didn't Mean to Go toSeaAnd aren't there a few bananas left in the bagin the starboard locker?

Bananas in Secret Water (11x)At the bottom of the basket was another bitof paper with the message, “Fill up with ba-nanas.”Eleven times the Swallows and Ama-zons andEels consider bananas or eatbananas! This is themost times of anybook. Banana and Blackberry Mashfeatures largely on the Secret Watermenus.

Bananas in The Big SixAlways before, when they had had money tospend, there had been so little of it that theyhad spent an hour or so outside the window,calculating just how far it would go, and de-

ciding to go without chocolate for the sake ofgetting bananas, or to do without bananas...

Bananas in Missee Lee (7x)Gibberwas eating some green bananas from thetree that Roger had found when they landed.

Bananas in The Picts and the Martyrs(2x)Then she put down everything they had: thetinned foods, soups, steak and kidney pie,corned beef, stews, peaches and sardines, thefresh food, half a beef roll, one third of anapple pie, six bananas, twelve oranges, teneggs, half a loaf of bread...

But NO bananas!In Swallowdale. How could theNativeshave forgotten to send some!No bananas in Winter Holiday, either,but that's understandable. They'dfreeze in the shipping, wouldn't they,in those uninsulated days?Bananas aremissing fromGreatNorth-ern, too. Perhaps Captain Flint under-stood that the relentless odor of ba-nanas sharing space in a small cabinbecomes quite sickening.

But especially...Bananas in Coot ClubYou wouldn’t think a chap could get a stom-achache for fourpence but he done it. He goand buy a bunch of dud bananas and eat thelot.And because of that stomachache,poor Robin, the Hullabaloo-watcher

at Acle bridge, lets theMargoletta anditsHullabaloos slipbyhimandsetsoffthe chases and escapes and dramasthat take up the whole rest of thebook.Mrs. Barrable supplied bananas forher crew: a dozen bananas of thesmaller and more tasty kind... Thesewould be the kind called Chinese Ba-nanas in American supermarkets, Ithink, and they truly are tastier, much,than the standard mealy, bland GrosMichele types. If you shop in Asianmarkets you might find Turbanabrand, firmer and tastier than Dole'sversion of Chinese Bananas.

Are Bananas Chinese?All bananas, in fact, are almost Chi-nese — they are native to SoutheastAsia (Cambodia, Thailand, Burma,Malaysia, and many more countries).The banana plant has been grown byhumans since about 8000 BCE —10,000 years or more. The tough aro-matic leaves made roofs and fences,plates and cups, food wraps and writ-ing paper. The "banana flower" – thebig bud at the tip of the fruit bunchwas (and still is) eaten. The fruit of awild banana is mostly seeds and ittook a few thousand years of selectingbanana fruits for fewer smaller seedsand tasty pulp and a couple of luckymutations and natural hybridizationsbefore bananas, the fruit, becamemuch of a food item.

Pieces of Eight — The Junior Pages

Bananas Everywhere!By Molly McGinnis

Bananas appear in almost all the Swallows and Amazons books.Here are the examples we have found.

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Signals from TARSUS/North Pole News is a joint publication of TARSUS (The Arthur Ransome SocietyUSA) and TARS Canada.

The TARSUS Coordinator is Robin Marshall, [email protected]

The TARS Canada Coordinator is Ian Sacré, [email protected]

The editor is Simon Horn, [email protected]

Please send contributions, questions and suggestions for the newsletter to the editor.

Beckfoot Kitchen

If you can find fresh banana blos-soms, try a salad. Banana blossom sal-ad is one of my favorites, and I like tothink that Missee Lee might haveserved it to her captives. It’s a cinch tomake once the blossom is sliced andprepared.

Like many near-wild vegetables, thebanana bud is bitter and puckery andhas to be treated to get the puckerystuff out. Slice it as fine as you can,sprinkle with salt and let it maceratefor 10 minutes or so. Wring out theshreds (I twist them in a linen dish-towel, but be aware that the juice maystain it) and drop them into a pot ofsimmering water and let simmer untilthey’re tender. Drain into a colander,wring the shredsout again (barehandswork for me at this point), and letcool.

Meanwhile, heat a couple of table-spoons of oil (tasty unrefined peanutoil if youhave it), throw in a fewclovesofmincedgarlic towilt and turnbarelygolden, and let this cool while youchop or smash in a mortar a handfulof roasted peanuts.

Cut a tomato or two in half, squeezethe juice through a tea strainer over

the now-cooled garlic oil (or just livewith the seeds), throw this mix overthe banana blossom slivers and tosswith a handful of the chopped orsmashed roasted peanuts. A table-spoon or so of toasted sesame seed isa nice touch. Taste for salt and toss

some in if you think it needs it. Gar-nish with the juiced tomatoes cut intowedges and lime or lemonwedges forsqueezingover the salad ad libitum (asMissee Lee would say). Elizabeth Jol-ley's banana-blackberry mash couldalso be added…

Banana Blossom SaladBy Molly McGinnis

Banana tree showing the prominent blossoms.

Documents

Signals from TARSUS North Pole News - Arthur Ransome · pg. 17 pg. 18 Support the Nancy Blackett Trust 20th Anniversary Appeal. Find out more on page 16. Signals from TARSUS - North