10 Nautical Terms from Riddle of the Sands

1. Davit - device for hoisting and lowering a boat

2. Taffrail - rail round the stern of a ship

3. Mizzen-mast - mast aft or next aft of the mainmast in a ship

4. Lee-boards - a lifting foil used by a sailboat, much like a centreboard, but located on the leeside

5. Bowsprit - spar that extends at bows of a ship

6. Jib - small triangular sail extending from the head of the foremast

7. Bumpkin - spar projecting from stern of ship

8. Schooner - a yacht with two masts of which the foremost is shorter than the mizzen (opposite of a ketch rig)

9. Yawl - ship’s small boat; sailboat carrying mainsail and one or more jibs

10. Ketch-rigged - this refers to how the sails are configured. A ketch is a two-masted sailing craft whose mainmast is taller than the mizzen mast. The name "ketch" is derived from "catch" or fishing boat

The Riddle of the Sands

I finished reading The Riddle of the Sands by Erskine Childers the other day. I picked it up and put it down several times in recent years but have finally finished it. It is a spy story in the style of a John Buchan novel I suppose. Such books are easier to watch as films than to read. The book uses a large number of nautical terms and so I had to look up several terms. I read most of it ona  kindle, which comes into its own in that situation as it is a simple matter of highlighting the word and reading the dictionary definition. The yarn is a good one adn worthy of its reputation. I seemed unable to find a copy with maps, which is a helpful extra in trying to follow the plot.

Novelists 42 R Erskine Childers

Robert Erskine Childers DSC (1870–1922), universally known as Erskine Childers, was the author of the influential novel The Riddle of the Sands a novel I have not read but am always intending to get round to. It has never gone out of print and is often cited in top novel lists. They say it was the first spy novel. An Irish nationalist he smuggled guns to Ireland in his sailing yacht Asgard. He was executed by the authorities of the nascent Irish Free State during the Irish Civil War. He was the son of British Orientalist scholar Robert Caesar Childers; the cousin of Hugh Childers and Robert Barton; and the father of the fourth President of Ireland, Erskine Hamilton Childers.