We are very sorry to announce that we have failed to reach our financial target on the crowdfunding site Unbound in time for us to undertake the great ROTS Adventure in Sept/Oct this year. We’ve decided, therefore, not to try your patience any further, and are closing down this Unbound project. The money that many of youContinue reading “The end of the Unbound crowdfunding adventure: what happens now”
Tag Archives: featured
The 26th Adventure Podcast: Going Overboard in Ostmahorn
We’ve made it to the last day in the book – October 26. Our heroes, Carruthers and Davies, sail off into the sunset with the delightful Clara on board, and her dastardly dad Dollman overboard. In this podcast Lloyd notDavies plots out how to get back to Blighty via Ostmahorn, Holland. Tim notCarruthers, meanwhile, considersContinue reading “The 26th Adventure Podcast: Going Overboard in Ostmahorn”
‘an Englishman in disguise’
It turns out that Carruthers has a talent for disguise (as if, perhaps, he were some kind of real spy…). The rough marine garb he bought in a slop-shop in Amsterdam has served him well. Having successfully fooled a guesthouse owner in Esens and a drunk in Dornum that he’s some kind of German merchant sailor, he’sContinue reading “‘an Englishman in disguise’”
‘An armada of light-draught barges’
And so, as a stowaway in a ‘small tug’ in the evening of October 25th, or perhaps the early morning of the 26th, Carruthers discovers the Riddle at last. The secret plan is not defensive one, but offensive: To neglect obvious methods, to draw on the obscure resources of an obscure strip of coast, to improveContinue reading “‘An armada of light-draught barges’”
‘no simple Frisian, but an ill-looking rascal’
Is it me, or is Carruthers rather enjoying his sojourn on dry land after three weeks trapped on a small boat at sea with Davies? First, he heads off on the train for a night at luxury hotel in Amsterdam. The next day he returns to the region to breakfast in Esens, explore the BensertiefContinue reading “‘no simple Frisian, but an ill-looking rascal’”
The 25th Adventure Club Podcast: Dornum, Disguises, Ditches & Duck Soup
After weeks of sailing and suspense, ‘The Riddle of the Sands’ explodes into action on October 25. At last we discover what the ‘Riddle’ is. Sadly, as you will hear, Lloyd notDavies and Tim notCarruthers fall out quite badly – and loudly – about the basic credibility of Erskine Childers’s premise in describing the imminentContinue reading “The 25th Adventure Club Podcast: Dornum, Disguises, Ditches & Duck Soup”
‘Sending goods by the tief
M’learned colleague notCarruthers has thrown down the gauntlet in his post on the Benser Tief. He argues for the navigability of the East Frisian ‘tiefs’ – the stretches of water which are in fact drainage channels, not designed for navigation at all, though Tim does point out in his post on the subject that someContinue reading “‘Sending goods by the tief”
‘A submarine engineer I knew him to be before’
Calling Böhme a German submarine engineer in 1903 is a bit like calling him a North Korean nuclear scientist or a Premiership football club owner today. Immediately, he has the whiff of corruption and danger. Club member Adrian sums it up nicely in a recent comment: “It might not be clear to us now, butContinue reading “‘A submarine engineer I knew him to be before’”
‘the quiet cobbled streets of Esens’
The book tells us to look for the ‘very humblest Gasthaus’ in Esens on October 24, where we can partake of beer, bread and wurst. But we’re not allowed to stay the night. Instead, we have to go walking with Carruthers along the Bensertief in the dark, and then snuggle down for the night in aContinue reading “‘the quiet cobbled streets of Esens’”
‘the ‘Tief’; which was, in fact, a small canal’
It’s taken ’til October 24 in the book for Lloyd notDavies and I to fall out. We’ve done well to get this far. But how strange to find that the cause of our rift is, of all things,… canals! Canals – or ‘tiefs’ – are important in this book. Without canals there are no barges,Continue reading “‘the ‘Tief’; which was, in fact, a small canal’”
The Curiously Specific Book Club 