Literary References to Historic Vessels

Cutty Sark and Thermopylae

Both of these famous tall ships were Tea Clippers, designed to transport extremely valuable cargoes of tea from China to London. Cutty Sark was built in 1869 in Dunbarton, Thermopylae in 1868 in Aberdeen.

In 1872 the two vessels raced from Shanghai to London. Thermopylae arrived first by some seven days, although Cutty Sark had completed most of the journey with a jury-rigged rudder. The two vessels subsequently raced on the Australian wool trade.

Cutty Sark became a museum ship in London in 1954. Thermopylae was sold to the Portuguese navy in 1897 and torpedoed and sunk by them in 1907.

References:

In Swallows and Amazons, Chapter 1, Roger pretends that he is the Cutty Sark whilst tacking up the field to Holly Howe. 

In Peter Duck, the old sailor tells Captain Flint that he was an able-seaman aboard the Thermopylae.  

Pommern

Pommern was a four masted barque, built in 1903 in Glasgow for use by the German Mercantile Marine as a grain ship sailing between Australia and Europe. At the end of the First World War she was taken by the Allies and given to Greece. Subsequently put up for sale, she was bought by a Finnish shipping line in 1923 and went into service between the Baltic and England. She continued in this trade until the Second World War.

Pommern is now a museum ship in Mariehamn.

References:

In We Didn't Mean to Go to Sea, Chapter 24, the Goblin meets Pommern as the latter leaves Harwich Harbour. According to Ransome's sailing log, he met Pommern in identical circumstances on June 11, 1936, when on the return leg of his own voyage to Holland, undertaken as research for We Didn't Mean to Go to Sea.

Mayflower

The Mayflower was an early 17th Century cargo vessel. Full details of her design are unknown, but it is likely that she was not much longer than a Thames Barge, although her hull shape would have been different, with much greater draft. She was square-rigged and probably required a crew of between 20 and 30 men to handle her.

The Mayflower is most famous for her voyage from Britain to America in 1620, when she set off with 104 passengers for Jamestown Settlement, which had been established in 1607 at the mouth of the Hudson River. The Mayflower eventually landed in Massachusetts, where the passengers founded Plymouth Colony.

50 of the passengers were non-conformists, who wished to practise their religion outside the formal church in England. Their voyage is seen as a symbol of freedom available in the new colonies in America, which eventually became the United States.

References:

In The Big Six, Dorothea says that the pilgrims "just went off in the Mayflower and founded America" (Chapter 9).

Revenge

There have been 13 ships called Revenge that have served in the Royal Navy. The first of these was a galleon launched in 1577. A revolutionary design at the time, Revenge mounted 46 guns in broadsides, allowing her to offer concentrated fire at enemy ships.

Revenge served as Sir Francis Drake's flagship during 1588, where she played an important role during the Battle of Gravelines, the most significant encounter between the Royal Navy and the Spanish Armada.

In 1591, Revenge was under the command of Sir Richard Grenville, serving in a squadron in the Azores, which was attempting to block Spanish treasure ships from their empire in South America. The Spanish sent a fleet of 53 ships to attack the English. Revenge found herself isolated and Grenville attempted to escape by sailing through the heart of the Spanish Fleet. She is reputed to have fought off attacker after attacker for some fifteen hours, but was eventually dismasted with only a handful of her crew of some 250 still able to fight. Grenville's officers disuaded him from sinking his ship and they surrendered to the Spanish, making the Revenge the only English ship captured by the Spanish during the Elizabethan period.

Grenville died of his wounds a few days later, whilst Revenge sank on her voyage back to Spain, along with a number of her adversaries.

Lord Alfred Tennyson wrote a well-known poem, The Revenge: a Ballad of the Fleet which described these events and did much to ensure their lasting renown.  

References:

In We Didn't Mean to Go to Sea, Chapter 18, Titty compares Goblin's meeting with a fleet of Dutch fishing boats to that of Revenge's with the Spanish Fleet. She was almost certainly thinking of Tennyson's poem at the time.

The Watte

A Pinnace which, under the command of Master Thomas Masham, sailed to Guinea with Sir Walter Raleigh in 1596. This type of Pinnace would have been a small vessel, probably fitted with three masts.

Masham's report was, apparently, printed in "a volume of Hakluyt" kept in the Wild Cat's deckhouse.

There seems to be little onther infomation on The Watte, except that on March 16, 1602, she was involved in the capture of four Portuguse ships. 

References:

Mentioned in Peter Duck, Chapter 36, where The Watte's meeting with whales excites Titty's interest.   

Fram

The Fram was an exploration vessel, designed by Colin Archer and built for the Norwegian explorer Fridjof Nansen. Fram's design was revolutionary: although her hull was immensely strong, its main defence against Arctic pack ice lay in its shape, which was designed to let the Fram float ontop of the ice, rather than getting caught and crushed by it.

Nansen used the Fram on his abortive attempt to drift across the North Pole. Setting out in 1893, Fram spent nearly three years trapped on the Arctic Ice Cap. 

Fram was subsequently used by the explorer Otto Sverdrup to explore the Canadian Arctic in 1898, and by Roald Amundson as his expedition ship for the successful Norwegian expedition to the South Pole in 1910 - 12.

The Fram is now preserved as a museum ship in the Fram Museum, Oslo.

References:

In Winter Holiday, the explorers are inspired by the historical Fram and turn Captain Flint's Houseboat into their own version of Nansen's ship. 

Iron Duke

Iron Duke was a British battleship, nameship of the Iron Duke Class. Laid down in 1912, she was launched in March 1914. She was flagship of the British Grand Fleet at the Battle of Jutland in 1916.

By the end of the First World War, the Iron Duke Class were already approaching obsolescence and Iron Duke's sister ships were all scrapped in compliance with the Washington Naval Treaty. Iron Duke was retained, being converted in 1931 to a gunnery training ship. She spent the Second World War as a depot ship in Scapa Flow, before being sold for scrap in 1946.

References:

In Coot Club, Mrs Whittle mentions that her son is serving in the Iron Duke.  

Flying Dutchman

A fictitious ghost ship whose origins are buried in nautical folkore, but which is said to be doomed to sail the oceans forever, unable to return home. Her origins may lie in a Dutch Man-o-War lost off the Cape of Good Hope. There are many reported sightings of the Flying Dutchman, including by the future King George V when he was aboard HMS Bacchante off Australia in 1880.

References:

In Peter Duck (Chapter 17), where it is said that Peter Duck would have made a proper sailor for the Flying Dutchman, because he'd prefer to sail on, rather than reach land.  

Hispaniola

The fictional sailing vessel that stars in Treasure Island.

References

In Swallowdale, Chapter 31, Roger imagines himself as Long John Silver, "stumping the decks of the Hispaniola" with his new crutch.