NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
"Falcon on the Baltic"
From: George Huxtable
Date: 2005 Apr 27, 20:08 +0100
From: George Huxtable
Date: 2005 Apr 27, 20:08 +0100
Frank Reed recommended E F Knight's "Falcon on the Baltic", and I agree. This was a cruise from Southern England, through the inland waterways of Holland, and through the Eider to the Baltic; a route that predates the Kiel Canal and is still available. The voyage dates, as I recall, from around the 1890s, shortly after one of the regular wars between Germany and Denmark. No engine in those days, of course, so how did they manage in those Dutch canals? Sailed when they could; hired a tow-horse when they could; man-hauled when they had to; and often managed to hitch a tow behind a steam-tug with a string of barges. Knight had a hired hand, a shipmate with whom he had previously made a deep-water voyage. It's interesting to note the social distinctions of that period. Not on christian-name terms, each man had his own end of the (tiny) vessel. When Knight made an outing, or went to a cafe for a meal, his hand wasn't invited, but was expected to look after himself. Not that they were on bad terms; that was the way it was done in those days. Knight had written, earlier, "The Cruise of the Falcon", (a different, and larger Falcon), in which he explored quite far into the rivers of Uruguay: but I enjoyed his Baltic cruise by far the best. George. ================================================================ contact George Huxtable by email at george@huxtable.u-net.com, by phone at 01865 820222 (from outside UK, +44 1865 820222), or by mail at 1 Sandy Lane, Southmoor, Abingdon, Oxon OX13 5HX, UK. ================================================================