Product Description

This new edition of Racundra’s First Cruise includes the original maps, text and photos from the 1923 first edition, of which only 1500 copies were printed.

The book also contains a detailed introduction detailing Ransome’s Baltic sailing in Slug and Kittiwake and includes unpublished articles and essays together with many original Ransome pictures and present day photographs of the area.

The manuscript has been researched, edited and introduced by Brian Hammett, who received critical acclaim for his work on Racundra’s Third Cruise. Details of Racundra’s life after Ransome are also included. It has the full support of Ransome’s literary executors who are delighted to see it republished.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #676536 in Books
• Published on: 2006-07-31
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 256 pages

From the Inside Flap
Did you know?

That Racundra's First Cruise:

• is Arthur Ransome's first really successful book
• is his first book on sailing
• is a classic cruising book
• took place in the aftermath of the first world war
• is one of the very few books about sailing in the Baltic
• formed the basis of his future writing
• taught Ransome cruising and changed the the course of his life

This new edition of Racundra's First Cruise includes the original maps, text and photographs from the 1923 edition, of which only 1500 copies were printed. The book was reprinted many time sin various edition and formats but never in its original form. Details of Ransome's first attempts at Baltic sailing, in his two previous boats slug and kittiwake, are included in the introduction.

About the building of Racundra, Ransome says:

"I took a deep breath and signed the contract. This was among the few wise things I have done in my life, for, more than anything else, this boat helped me to get back to my proper trade of writing."

From the Back Cover
RACUNDRA'S FIRST CRUISE starts with the famous words:

"Houses are but badly built boats so firmly aground that you cannot think of moving them. They are definitely inferior things, belonging to the vegetable not the animal world, rooted and stationary, incapable of gay transition. I admit, doubtfully, as exceptions, snail-shells and caravans. The desire to build a house is the tired wish of a man content thenceforward with a single anchorage. The desire to build a boat is the desire of youth, unwilling yet to accept the idea of a final resting-place."

Included in this new edition are the original maps, texts and photographs of the 1923 first edition of Racundra's First Cruise. There is an extended introduction, which includes details of Ransome's previous Baltic sailing, the story of Racundra, how he came to write the book, and previously unpublished Ransome essays and photographs.

About the Author
Brian Hammett has compiled this unique edition of Racundra's First Cruise. The preface leads us into a treasure trove of unpublished writings, essays and photographs. The life of Ransome's beloved Racundra is chronicled to its conclusion and there is an explanation of how he came to write the book. The original illustrations are enhanced by the inclusion of present-day photographs of the same locations. Brian Hammett researched the introduction by following Racundra's route through Latvia and Estonia in his 33 foot gaff AVOLA.

Customer Reviews

A book that has all the ingredients for a marvellous movie
I wonder why Hollywood has not yet discovered this book: it has all the ingredients for a box-office hit - sailing in the Baltics, scenic sea- and landscapes, a romantic love affair of a British writer and the private secretary of Leon Trotsky. And the background - the Russian revolution, Estonia's struggle for independence. Rare photos illustrate the book. A must for the romantic sailor!

Nostalgia, saltwater, the towns of the Baltic coast in the 1920's
I have a Penguin edition of 1956 without all the additional material of this new edition. But the basic story is the same.

This is a charming narrative of a cruise in a well-built little sailboat, in waters of the Baltic countries, to places the author clearly knows and loves.

Arthur Ransome later wrote a series of children's books focused on sailing. He would certainly have agreed with Kenneth Grahame's "Ratty" that ""There is nothing -- absolutely nothing -- half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats." One might qualify that, noting that in Ransome's books, the sailing is rather more directed and purposeful - but he always communicates the sheer joy of being on the water in a craft that responds to the elements, at your direction (He was not a fan of engines of any kind - a sometimes necessary evil. Sailing was the thing.)

"Racundra's First Cruise" was published in 1923. He had commissioned the building of Racundra, a thirty-foot ketch built for seaworthiness and comfort inside. With the "Ancient Mariner" - an old veteran of the days of sail in clipper ships - and "Cook" - probably the companion who was to become his second wife, but only identified by her unending task - he takes us through many sometimes tricky passages along the Baltic coast, visiting old cobblestoned towns and remote peasant villages.It is delightful to sink back into a time when the sea was still full of trading vessels under sail, though of course large and small steamers also abounded. Mentions of "during the war" refer of course to the Great War. Relics of older conflicts abound - Russian, Swedish, Latvian, Finnish, Estonian - and Ransome provides many interesting footnotes to their stories.

My favorite encounter is that with the enigmatic man who lives alone, building a ship, in the forest. The ship is at first seen as "a golden hull in the shadows among those tall trees" then we see that "the upper planking was new, certainly, ruddy gold where the sun caught it, but lower down her hull was weathered"...."The keel, laid on great stones, was joined to them by moss. There was lichen upon it, and on the foot of the stern-post was a large, bright cluster of scarlet toadstools."

Enjoy.

cruising
Great little book - takes you back to a different, simpler, world. You don't have to be a sailor to enjoy this.