Wizard and Firefly

Introduction

Wizard and Firefly are the two dinghies used by the Swallows and Amazons in Secret Water. 

Description

Neither dinghy is described in great detail, although we are told that Wizard is "as big as Swallow" (Secret Water, Chapter 2) and that she has a brown sail, whilst Firefly has a white one. In many ways the two dinghies are straight forward replacements for the Walkers and Blacketts' usual ships, although it is clear that both boats have centre boards, so their characteristics are closer to Amazon and Scarab than Swallow.

See the information about Swallow, Amazon and Scarab for more details on the general design and characteristics of clinker-built lugsail boats.

Ownership

Not known. It appears that Commander Walker hired both boats in Pin Mill.

Wizard and Firefly appear in

Secret Water.

Factual Inspiration

At the time Ransome wrote Secret Water, he owned and sailed Nancy Blackett, and also had Coch-y-bonddhu (Cochy) as a dinghy and rather large tender. Wizard and Firefly may have been very like Cochy, although the real boat's main fictional offspring is Scarab.

The main inspiration for Wizard was probably the dinghy of the same name, owned by the Busk family, who also owned the yacht Lapwing.

It is also possible that Ransome based Wizard and Firefly on dinghies that he and the Busks borrowed for exploratory expeditions to the Walton Backwaters, undertaken at the time he was writing Secret Water. The Best of Childhood (Amazon Publications, p 220) suggests that one of these dinghies was called Joe, and that Ransome planned to use this name before changing his mind in favour of Firefly.

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