Changes: Peter Duck

Revision as of 09:38, 3 August 2020

This article is about the book Peter Duck

For the character, see Mr Duck
For Arthur Ransome's yacht, see Peter Duck (yacht)
For Titty's imaginary friend, see Peter Duck (imaginary friend)
For metafiction ('story-within-a-story'), see Peter Duck story

Peter Duck is a metafictional book in the Swallows and Amazons series by Arthur Ransome. It was first published in 1932 and is about the Swallows and Amazons sailing to Crab Island with Captain Flint and Peter Duck to recover buried treasure. During the voyage the Wild Cat (Captain Flint's boat) is chased by another vessel, the Viper, whose piratical crew are also intending to recover the treasure.

Sources

The appearance, sailing background and many of the characteristics of Peter Duck are based on Captain Sehmel, an Estonian sailor who accompanied Ransome on a cruise aboard his yacht Racundra in the Baltic Sea, as documented in Ransome's sailing book, Racundra's First Cruise.

Ransome used as a major resource for Peter Duck a book by one of his favourite sailing authors, EF Knight, The cruise of the "Alerte". This describes a treasure seeking expedition on the volcanic island of Trindade, off Brazil (sometimes known as "Trinidad" but not to be confused with the larger Caribbean island of that name). Trindade has many features in common with Peter Duck's Crab Island, including mountains, landslides, jungles and loathsome land crabs.

Characters

Swallows (John, Susan, Titty, Roger [7 1/2 yrs. old] Walker)
- Polly the parrot, Gibber the monkey
Amazons (Nancy, Peggy Blackett)
Captain Flint
Mr Duck
- (his daughter in Beccles)
- characters in Mr Duck's yarn: First Mate Robert Charles Bowline (alias Capt Jonas Fielder), and Bowline's accomplice
Red-haired Bill
Black Jake
- Viper's crew including Black Jake's brother George, Fighting Mogandy, Simeon Boon, and a character referred to as the chucker out or the the bruiser from an un-named Lowestoft inn, nicknamed 'Ketch as Ketch Can'
minor characters (those in parentheses are "offstage"):
- porter who helps the Swallows with their luggage (PD1).
- Confectioner in Cowes shop who sells them ices and two beach spades (PD9).
- (telegraph boy on bicycle) (PD1).
- (Sam Bideford), who telegraphs to say he can't come (PD1).
- Lowestoft harbourmaster, who says that Peter Duck is the best seaman that's ever shipped out of Lowestoft, but doubts that Black Jake would push a boy into the harbour. He is described as the greatest man of the whole port, with gold on his cap and on his dark blue coat (PD1,2).

Boats

('offstage' boats listed in parentheses)

Wild Cat
Swallow
Viper
Wild Cat's dinghy,
(Peter Duck's wherry Arrow of Norwich)
(The young Peter Duck first goes to sea on a "coaster" from Lowestoft to Greenhithe, then on a "fine vessel" trading to the Brazils, which sinks in a hurricane near the island of Trinidade).
(The Thermopoylae, another vessel the young Peter Duck shipped in, which was a real clipper built in Aberdeen in 1868 and still holds the world sailing record of 63 days to Melbourne on her maiden voyage).
(Ships of the young Peter Duck's piratical rescuers, the Mary Cahoun and the old packet)
Also three (four?) dinghies of the Viper; the one sunk by the Wild Cat's anchor in Lowestoft, the one the crew of Wild Cat pick up Red-haired Bill from, and one (two?) that Viper's crew use at Crab Island.

Plot summary

The Swallows and Amazons are in Lowestoft, preparing for a cruise aboard a schooner, Wild Cat, with Captain Flint. Unfortunately another adult crewmember (Sam Bideford) cannot come, and so the cruise is threatened until Peter Duck, an elderly seaman who wants to see 'blue water once again, offers to come along as an A.B. or able seaman. In the harbour a larger black schooner, the Viper is fitting out for a voyage and Peter Duck's presence aboard the Wild Cat interests Black Jake, the Viper’s captain. Peter Duck spins a yarn about a treasure that he saw being buried long ago, when marooned on a desert island in the Caribbean Sea, and which Black Jake wants to find. When the Wild Cat sails, the Viper is quick to follow and trails her down the English Channel, at one point threatening to board her in the night. In a fog off Land's End, the crew of the Wild Cat give the Viper the slip but pick up the Viper’s cabin boy, Bill, who has been set adrift to try and fool the Wild Cat’s crew with false signals. They continue across the Atlantic Ocean to Crab Island where they spend several days searching in vain for Peter Duck's treasure.

When a hurricane blows up, Peter Duck and Captain Flint take the Wild Cat out to sea to ride out the storm, leaving the Swallows and Amazons ashore. There is an earthquake during the storm and when the schooner returns, all the paths to the treasure-hunting area are blocked by landslides and fallen trees. However, a fallen palm tree exposes a small box, Peter Duck's treasure, which the children recover. They decide to sail round to the anchorage as the land route is blocked.

While Captain Flint attempts to cross the island to rescue the Swallows and Amazons, the Viper arrives and Peter Duck and Bill are captured. The crew of the Viper also go ashore look for the treasure. The children rescue Peter Duck and Bill and then the Wild Cat sails back to the other side and pick up Captain Flint just before Black Jake arrives. They attempt to sail away from the island but the wind dies and the Viper looks like catching them when they are saved by a waterspout which sinks the Viper. They return home safely without further incident. The treasure proves to be a collection of pearls.

Timeline

(numbers are days, but not actual dates, names are chapter titles)

(A week before day 1: Amazons arrive)
(Three days ago day 1: Swallows arrive)

Quayside
Red-Haired Boy
Trial Trip, Washing the Anchor, Peter Duck Spins His Yarn, And Wraps It Up
Outward Bound, First Night at Sea
Beachy Head to the Wight
Captain Flint's Fidgets
Blind Man's Buff, Decision, Quit of the Viper
Bill Finds His Place
Bill Finds His Place
Bill Finds His Place
(then a period of unknown length) The Madieras at Dusk, Trade Wind

Land Ho!
Island Morning, Blazed Trail, Duckhaven, Goodbye To the Wild Cat
Goodbye To the Wild Cat, Swallow's Voyage, Digger's Camp
Diggers at Work
Diggers at Work
Threatening Weather, Great Guns, Dirty Work
The Finding of the Treasure, Spanish Galleon, Dirty Work, The Only Hope, Whose Steps In the Dark?, All Aboard Once More
Waterspout, "Bonies" and "Mallies"
(and onward) "Spanish Ladies"

Cross-references and chronology

By publication date, Peter Duck is the third book in the series, but the story was created by the Swallows and Amazons while staying on a Norfolk wherry with Captain Flint in the winter between the first two books. Two early chapters, called 'Their Own Story' describing this creation process taking place on board the Polly Ann were written by Arthur Ransome before he started Swallowdale. This opening was discarded from the final version of the book when it was published after Swallowdale. However, Peter Duck is mentioned in Swallowdale as Titty's imaginary friend.

References to and in other books in the Swallows and Amazons series place Peter Duck between Swallows and Amazons and Swallowdale, therefore in late 1929 or early 1930:

John was a little nervous at sailing "Swallow" in strange waters and for the first time for nearly a year (PD2).
Captain Flint had a grand new chapter to add to his book "Mixed Moss" ... as Nancy told him: Think of the chapter you can put in the next edition of "Mixed Moss" (PD35,36).
Roger is still the Ship's Boy; Hullo Roger, not yet tired of being a ship's boy says Captain Flint (PD1).
The most recent time the Swallows had sailed Swallow at the Lake was from Horseshoe Cove, an apparent reference to the end of SA: "And the last time we sailed her was in Lowestoft," she said. "And before that on the lake," said John. "We never thought when we were sailing home from Horseshoe Cove that this year we'd be landing her on a desert island."
John had taught Titty to sail the previous summer: "The only thing to remember in going about is not to change your mind half way." [said by Captain Flint] John grinned. He had said that himself to Titty last summer, when teaching her to sail. (PD23. Note: Daddy is said in SA1 to have taught Titty and Roger to sail, perhaps in Falmouth, in 1928)
During the storm on Crab Island, the storm on Wild Cat Island the previous summer is recalled: Remember what happened last summer? (PD24).
When they find gold (actually copper) Titty says We might make him (Captain Flint) a pair of gold earings .... Like Black Jake had in "Peter Duck" (PP21).

The writing of Peter Duck

Described in 'Their Own Story'. Also:

Stories made up by lantern light in the cabin of an old wherry in Norfolk (PP14)

Peter Duck the old sailor who had voyaged with them to the Caribbees in the story (and) had grown up gradually to be one of the able-seaman’s most constant companions, shared now and then by the boy, but not taken seriously by the others, though nobody laughed at him. He had been the most important character in the story they had made up during those winter evenings in the cabin of the wherry with Nancy and Peggy and Captain Flint. .... Peter Duck was a great deal more useful than any doll could have been. .... He never got lost. He had no sawdust to run out. (SD4)

Captain Flint said And you've left old Peter Duck behind .... But has he been up to much since he steered us home from the Caribbees when the waterspout came just in time and licked up the pirate ship though Titty had replied You know he's only for a story (SD7).

Peter Duck's yarn

The events in Mr Duck's yarn occurred fifty, sixty or maybe seventy years ago; Mr Duck told them to his daughters thirty years after, and maybe more than that (PD5). He first tells Captain Flint that he has sixty years of (deep sea) experience, and maybe then a bit more (PD1). Later he says Sixty good years I'd have missed if he had drowned instead of being washed ashore on the island (PD21). Captain Flint says of the "Roses" .... maybe sixty years ago they had been fine pearls enough, but faded now beyond recovery (PD35);

Notes

Peter Duck is the first Peter Duck story told by the holidaying Swallows and Amazons with Captain Flint during winter evenings
Susan had gotten her first aid box that Christmas
Sam Bideford was the extra adult who was supposed to crew but could not make it
red-haired Bill is not as big as John but a good deal bigger than Roger, he is not as old as Nancy
The Amazons had been aboard a bit less than a week before the Swallows and the beginning of the book
Captain Flint had altered the Baltic trading schooner by decking over the hold and given it a long skylight so as to have a saloon with four cabins and as many lockers and store cupboards off the saloon and fo'c'sle as possible. He had got rid of the carpenters a month before (PD1).
Peter Duck had been shipwrecked fifty, sixty, or maybe seventy years ago (PD5). If it was 50 years ago, then about 1870.
Only Peter Duck has unacceptable Drinking as seen by Peter Duck; both on the Viper and on the Mary Cahoun the ship he was on sixty or so years ago.

References

Arthur Ransome and Capt. Flint's Trunk by Christina Hardyment, 1984, ISBN 0-224-02590-2 includes the two discarded chapters with the back story of the creation of Peter Duck by the Swallows and Amazons.

Arthur Ransome's Swallows and Amazons series

This page uses Creative Commons Licensed content from Wikipedia (view authors).

This page uses content from Guide to Swallows and Amazons series by kind permission of Bill Wright.

@@ Line 15: / Line 15: @@
 ==Characters==
 *[[Swallows]] (John, Susan, Titty, Roger [7 1/2 yrs. old] Walker)
+**[[Polly]] the parrot, [[Gibber]] the monkey
 *[[Amazons]] (Nancy, Peggy Blackett)
 *[[Captain Flint]]
 *[[Mr Duck]]
+**(his daughter in Beccles)
+** characters in Mr Duck's yarn: First Mate [[Robert Charles Bowline]] (alias Capt Jonas Fielder), and Bowline's accomplice
 *[[Red-haired Bill]]
 *[[Black Jake]]
-*minor characters: Black Jake's brother George, Fighting Mogandy, Simeon Boon, "the bruiser from 'Ketch as Ketch Can'", [[Polly]] the parrot, [[Gibber]] the monkey
+**''Viper'''s crew including Black Jake's brother George, Fighting Mogandy, Simeon Boon, and a character referred to as the ''chucker out'' or the the ''bruiser'' from an un-named Lowestoft inn, nicknamed 'Ketch as Ketch Can'
+*minor characters (those in parentheses are "offstage"):
+**porter who helps the Swallows with their luggage ([[PD|PD1]]).
+**Confectioner in Cowes shop who sells them ices and two beach spades ([[PD|PD9]]).
+**(telegraph boy on bicycle) ([[PD|PD1]]).
+**(Sam Bideford), who telegraphs to say he can't come ([[PD|PD1]]).
+**Lowestoft harbourmaster, who says that ''Peter Duck'' is the best seaman that's ever shipped out of Lowestoft, but doubts that Black Jake would ''push a boy into the harbour''. He is described as ''the greatest man of the whole port, with gold on his cap and on his dark blue coat'' ([[PD|PD1,2]]).
 ==Boats==
+('offstage' boats listed in parentheses)
-''[[Wild Cat]]'', ''[[Swallow]]'', ''[[Viper]]'', ''[[Wild Cat]]'s'' dinghy, (Peter Duck's wherry ''[[Arrow of Norwich]]'')
+*''[[Wild Cat]]''
-:Also three (?) dinghys of the [[Viper]]; the one sunk by the Wild Cat's anchor in port, the one they pick up [[Red-haired Bill]] from, and one (two?) they use at Crab Island.
+*''[[Swallow]]''
+*''[[Viper]]''
+*''[[Wild Cat]]'s'' dinghy,
+*(Peter Duck's [[wherry]] ''[[Arrow of Norwich]]'')
+*(The young Peter Duck first goes to sea on a "coaster" from Lowestoft to Greenhithe, then on a "fine vessel" trading to the Brazils, which sinks in a hurricane near the island of Trinidade).
+*(The ''Thermopoylae, ''another vessel the young Peter Duck shipped in, which was a real clipper built in Aberdeen in 1868 and still holds the world sailing record of 63 days to Melbourne on her maiden voyage).
+*(Ships of the young Peter Duck's piratical rescuers, the ''[[Mary Cahoun]]'' and ''[[the old packet]]'')
+*Also three (four?) dinghies of the [[Viper]]; the one sunk by the Wild Cat's anchor in Lowestoft, the one the crew of ''Wild Cat'' pick up [[Red-haired Bill]] from, and one (two?) that ''Viper's'' crew use at [[Crab Island]].
 ==Plot summary==
@@ Line 30: / Line 47: @@
 The Swallows and Amazons are in [[Lowestoft]], preparing for a cruise aboard a [[schooner]], ''[[Wild Cat]]'', with [[Captain Flint]]. Unfortunately another adult crewmember (Sam Bideford) cannot come, and so the cruise is threatened until Peter Duck, an elderly seaman who wants to see '''blue water'' once again, offers to come along as an A.B. or [[able seaman]].
 In the harbour a larger black schooner, the ''[[Viper]]'' is fitting out for a voyage and Peter Duck's presence aboard the ''Wild Cat'' interests [[Black Jake]], the ''Viper''’s captain. Peter Duck spins a yarn about a treasure that he saw being buried long ago, when marooned on a desert island in the Caribbean Sea, and which Black Jake wants to find. When the ''Wild Cat'' sails, the ''Viper'' is quick to follow and trails her down the [[English Channel]], at one point threatening to board her in the night.
-In a fog off [[Land's End]], the crew of the ''Wild Cat'' give the ''Viper'' the slip but pick up the ''Viper''’s cabin boy, [[Red-haired Bill|Bill]], who has been set adrift to try and fool the ''Wild Cat''’s crew with false signals. They continue across the Atlantic Ocean to [[Crab Island]] where they spend several weeks searching in vain for Peter Duck's treasure.
+In a fog off [[Land's End]], the crew of the ''Wild Cat'' give the ''Viper'' the slip but pick up the ''Viper''’s cabin boy, [[Red-haired Bill|Bill]], who has been set adrift to try and fool the ''Wild Cat''’s crew with false signals. They continue across the Atlantic Ocean to [[Crab Island]] where they spend several days searching in vain for Peter Duck's treasure.
 When a hurricane blows up, Peter Duck and Captain Flint take the ''Wild Cat'' out to sea to ride out the storm, leaving the Swallows and Amazons ashore. There is an earthquake during the storm and when the schooner returns, all the paths to the treasure-hunting area are blocked by landslides and fallen trees. However, a fallen palm tree exposes a small box, [[Peter Duck's treasure]], which the children recover. They decide to sail round to the anchorage as the land route is blocked.
-While Captain Flint attempts to cross the island to rescue the Swallows and Amazons, the ''Viper'' arrives and Peter Duck and Bill are captured. The crew of the ''Viper'' also go ashore look for the treasure. The children rescue Peter Duck and Bill and then the ''Wild Cat'' sails back to the other side and pick up Captain Flint just before Black Jake arrives. They attempt to sail away from the island but the wind dies and the ''Viper'' looks like catching them when they are saved by a waterspout. They return home safely without further incident. The treasure proves to be a collection of pearls.
+While Captain Flint attempts to cross the island to rescue the Swallows and Amazons, the ''Viper'' arrives and Peter Duck and Bill are captured. The crew of the ''Viper'' also go ashore look for the treasure. The children rescue Peter Duck and Bill and then the ''Wild Cat'' sails back to the other side and pick up Captain Flint just before Black Jake arrives. They attempt to sail away from the island but the wind dies and the ''Viper'' looks like catching them when they are saved by a waterspout which sinks the ''Viper''. They return home safely without further incident. The treasure proves to be a collection of pearls.
 ==Timeline==
 (numbers are days, but not actual dates, names are chapter titles)
+*(''A week before'' day 1: [[Amazons]] arrive)
+*(''Three days ago'' day 1: [[Swallows]] arrive)
 #Quayside
 #Red-Haired Boy
@@ Line 67: / Line 85: @@
 By publication date, ''Peter Duck'' is the third book in the series, but the story was created by the [[Swallows]] and [[Amazons]] while staying on a Norfolk [[wherry]] with Captain Flint in the winter between the first two books. Two early chapters, called '[[Their Own Story]]' describing this creation process taking place on board the ''[[Polly Ann]]'' were written by Arthur Ransome before he started ''[[Swallowdale]]''. This opening was discarded from the final version of the book when it was published after ''Swallowdale''. However, Peter Duck is mentioned in ''Swallowdale'' as Titty's imaginary friend.
-References to other books in the [[Swallows and Amazons series]] place ''Peter Duck'' between ''[[Swallows and Amazons]]'' and ''[[Swallowdale]]:
+References to and in other books in the [[Swallows and Amazons series]] place ''Peter Duck'' between ''[[Swallows and Amazons]]'' and ''[[Swallowdale]]'', therefore in late [[1929]] or early [[1930]]:
 *John was a ''little nervous at sailing "Swallow" in strange waters and for the first time for nearly a year'' ([[PD|PD2]]).
 *Captain Flint had ''a grand new chapter to add to his book "Mixed Moss" ...'' as Nancy told him: ''Think of the chapter you can put in the next edition of "Mixed Moss"'' ([[PD|PD35,36]]).
 *Roger is still the [[Ship's Boy]]; ''Hullo Roger, not yet tired of being a ship's boy'' says Captain Flint ([[PD|PD1]]).
 *The most recent time the [[Swallows]] had sailed ''[[Swallow]]'' at [[the Lake]] was from [[Horseshoe Cove]], an apparent reference to the end of [[SA]]: ''"And the last time we sailed her was in [[Lowestoft]]," she said. "And before that on the lake," said John. "We never thought when we were sailing home from Horseshoe Cove that this year we'd be landing her on a desert island."''
-*John had taught Titty to sail the previous summer: ''"The only thing to remember in going about is not to change your mind half way."'' [said by Captain Flint] ''John grinned. He had said that himself to Titty last summer, when teaching her to sail.'' [Note: [[Daddy]] also taught Titty and Roger to sail, perhaps in Falmouth, in [[1928]] ([[SA]]1)]
+*John had taught Titty to sail the previous summer: ''"The only thing to remember in going about is not to change your mind half way."'' [said by Captain Flint] ''John grinned. He had said that himself to Titty last summer, when teaching her to sail.'' (PD23. Note: [[Daddy]] is said in [[SA]]1 to have taught Titty and Roger to sail, perhaps in Falmouth, in [[1928]])
+*During the storm on Crab Island, the storm on [[Wild Cat Island]] the previous summer is recalled: ''Remember what happened last summer?'' ([[PD]]24).
+*When they find gold (actually copper) Titty says ''We might make him (Captain Flint) a pair of gold earings .... Like Black Jake had in "Peter Duck"'' ([[PP|PP21]]).
 ===The writing of ''Peter Duck''===
 Described in '[[Their Own Story]]'. Also:
-* ''Stories made up by lantern light in the cabin of an [[Polly Ann|old wherry in Norfolk]]'' ([[PP]]14)
+* ''Stories made up by lantern light in the cabin of an [[Polly Ann|old wherry in Norfolk]]'' ([[PP|PP14]])
-* [[SD]]
+* ''Peter Duck'' the old sailor who had ''voyaged with them to the Caribbees in the story'' (and) ''had grown up gradually to be one of the able-seaman’s most constant companions, shared now and then by the boy, but not taken seriously by the others, though nobody laughed at him. He had been the most important character in the story they had made up during those winter evenings in the cabin of the wherry with Nancy and Peggy and Captain Flint. .... Peter Duck was a great deal more useful than any doll could have been. .... He never got lost. He had no sawdust to run out.'' ([[SD|SD4]])
+* Captain Flint said ''And you've left old Peter Duck behind .... But has he been up to much since he steered us home from the Caribbees when the waterspout came just in time and licked up the pirate ship'' though Titty had replied ''You know he's only for a story'' ([[SD|SD7]]).
+===Peter Duck's yarn===
+The events in [[Mr Duck]]'s yarn occurred ''fifty, sixty or maybe seventy years ago''; Mr Duck told them to his daughters ''thirty years after, and maybe more than that'' ([[PD|PD5]]). He first tells Captain Flint that he has ''sixty years of (deep sea) experience, and maybe then a bit more'' ([[PD|PD1]]). Later he says ''Sixty good years I'd have missed'' if he had drowned instead of being washed ashore on the island ([[PD|PD21]]). Captain Flint says of the "Roses" '' .... maybe sixty years ago they had been fine pearls enough, but faded now beyond recovery'' ([[PD|PD35]]);
 ==Notes==
-*''Peter Duck'' is the first of the [[Peter Duck stories]] told by the holidaying Swallows and Amazons with Captain Flint during winter evenings
+*''Peter Duck'' is the first [[Peter Duck story]] told by the holidaying Swallows and Amazons with Captain Flint during winter evenings
 *Susan had gotten her first aid box that Christmas
 *Sam Bideford was the extra adult who was supposed to crew but could not make it
 *red-haired Bill is not as big as John but a good deal bigger than Roger, he is not as old as Nancy
 *The Amazons had been aboard a bit less than a week before the Swallows and the beginning of the book
+*Captain Flint had altered the ''Baltic trading schooner'' by ''decking over the hold and given it a long skylight'' so as to have a saloon with four cabins and as many ''lockers and store cupboards off the saloon and fo'c'sle'' as possible. He had ''got rid of the carpenters a month before'' ([[PD|PD1]]).
 *Peter Duck had been shipwrecked ''fifty, sixty, or maybe seventy years ago'' ([[PD|PD5]]). If it was 50 years ago, then about [[1870s|1870]].
+*Only ''Peter Duck'' has unacceptable [[Drinking]] as seen by [[Mr Duck|Peter Duck]]; both on the [[Viper]] and on the [[Mary Cahoun]] the ship he was on sixty or so years ago.
 ==References==