Dreadnought
Information about the fictional punt Dreadnought
Introduction
The Dreadnought is a punt that plays a brief but significant role in Coot Club.
Description
We are told that the Dreadnought is a long, black, flat-bottomed punt built by Tom Dudgeon. Tom powered it with a paddle, much like a Canadian canoe.
Ownership
Ransome tells us that Dreadnought was built by Tom Dudgeon and was the first boat he had owned.
Dreadnought appears in
Factual Inspiration
There is no known direct inspiration for the Dreadnought. We are told that "it was well named because, whatever happened to it, it could not be worse than it was" (Coot Club, Chapter 3). This suggests that the punt was not named after HMS Dreadnought, the revolutionary battleship that had, in 1906 made all existing battleships obsolete.
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