Riddle of the sands........new mystery

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Wansworth

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Due to slight damage to thumb caused by misjudgement with the axe I have been relieved of domestic duties.To pass the time I started to re read the riddle again.Apparently Caruthers turns up with a large Portmanture which is a case made of leather that opens in two halves.This causes friction between our characters and the last we hear of it Caruthers is sitting on it on deck ,alone.Then it disappears.Now there are two possibilities..... Caruthers after taking out his socks and underwear consign it to the Baltic probably pushing it off with a boat hook...... or Davis when he gets up to fix the leak over Caruthers berth sees the baggage and shoves it over the side.Next morning the portraiture is not mentioned.Considering the little tidal flow and calm onditions it should be floating within sight.The only possibility is a passing fisherman has found the trunk bobbing about and taken it home.Which of the two friends actually disputed the luggage we will never know but I reckon Caruthers probably did and Davis decided not to mention it.
 
The last reference to the luggage was that Caruthers was sitting on it in the dark.Davis had a perchant for flinging stuff overboard so he probably tipped it over the side.This is now become a degree course at Exeter Unit I have been told.
 
Zarro said:
A long time since I read it as well, but does it not all take place in the North Sea? Must have been a long boat hook to reach the Baltic!
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I think some of the early parts were in the Baltic, as I know I recognised a couple of the places and I have sailed in the Baltic a couple of times but never the North Sea.

Pete
 
Quite correct Pete, just Googled it and he joins the boat in the Baltic, but virtually all the action is in the Fresian Islands, except perhaps for the portmanteau episode! You must be younger than me as I brought a friend's yacht back from Sweden, through the Kiel Canal 40 years ago and cannot remember any of the places we stopped at apart from the recently closed British Kiel Yacht Club. Needless to say in a Nab 35 we did not try the inland routes amongst the islands, although the owner took her north through interior Holland.

In spite of the owner having up to date charts, we still touch the sand through what was supposed to be the best of three channels, turned 180º and went back for a couple of miles until safe to turn out to sea again and use a different channel!
 
Zarro said:
You must be younger than me as I brought a friend's yacht back from Sweden, through the Kiel Canal 40 years ago and cannot remember any of the places we stopped at apart from the recently closed British Kiel Yacht Club.
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40 years ago my parents had just got married - and they didn't have me for a few years yet :)

I sailed on several trips out of the BKYC, and a couple of years later also helped bring back a yacht from Sweden. We stopped for a night at the BKYC, then came through the Kiel Canal, then stopped at Cuxhaven for a crew change. All except the owner and his wife flew home from Hamburg, and another crew came out for the Channel leg, hence my not having sailed in the North Sea.

Pete
 
In 1973 Ito the Kiel canal company nd they sent very official document explaining the Tardif for my 15 foot cruiser........ a few years later a friend pointed out the Baltic was a bit of cult de sac for a world voyager
 
Anybody seen that Robert Redford film? He's sailing along in tropical seas under a blue sky and rams into an enormous floating portmanteau. Sinks his boat. He really ought to have transferred to the portmanteau - must've been all kinds of classy Edwardian gentswear inside, not to mention Raven mixture.

Every time I'm anywhere shallow enough that I can tie the boat to a rock, or drop the hook for half an hour and light a Havana, I find myself humming the music from the Sands film.

The novel is one of my favourites, and there are numerous criticisms I'd make of the film, but to me it captures the period nicely and conveys the fascination of shallows and fogs.
 
Having seen a brief post about "Riddle of the Sands" and the journalists who were trying to recreate the journey described in the book, I joined in with the adventure and helped them out with the yachting aspects of the trip based on my experiences in both the islands and in the fijords of Denmark.

The two guys involved were, and I suppose still are, great characters and obsessively interested in the minutiae of the trip - there WAS a Rippingill stove made in the period, for example and they tracked down an example of it. And they found out where the night steamer to Vlissingen departed from and went to have a look at the remains of the terminal

The whole site is well worth a visit and the podcasts are a joy to listen to. Unfortunately, they were not able to raise enough money to crowd-fund the trip they were proposing, so it remains a work in progress. I don't recall any discussion of the portmanteau, but its fate was probably as described above.

Have a look at it at www.riddleofthesands.net.
 
Wansworth said:
Due to slight damage to thumb caused by misjudgement with the axe I have been relieved of domestic duties.To pass the time I started to re read the riddle again.Apparently Caruthers turns up with a large Portmanture which is a case made of leather that opens in two halves.This causes friction between our characters and the last we hear of it Caruthers is sitting on it on deck ,alone.Then it disappears.Now there are two possibilities..... Caruthers after taking out his socks and underwear consign it to the Baltic probably pushing it off with a boat hook...... or Davis when he gets up to fix the leak over Caruthers berth sees the baggage and shoves it over the side.Next morning the portraiture is not mentioned.Considering the little tidal flow and calm onditions it should be floating within sight.The only possibility is a passing fisherman has found the trunk bobbing about and taken it home.Which of the two friends actually disputed the luggage we will never know but I reckon Caruthers probably did and Davis decided not to mention it.
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I've read the book several times and listend to the story on iPod on many a passage and it's the only part of the story that ever bothers me! It sticks out like a sore thumb ;)

Could it have been a collapsing portmanteau?
 
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