The Riddle of the Sands. Erskine Childers

ERSKINE CHILDERS

      The Riddle of the Sands

      THE RIDDLE OF THE SANDS

      The Frisian Islands lie along the North Sea coast of Holland and Germany, and sailing around these islands can be dangerous, especially in bad weather, because of the sandbanks that lie hidden beneath the shallow waters at high tide. The channels between the sandbanks are narrow and easy to miss, and the sandbanks themselves change with the wind and the tides.

      Arthur Davies is young, enthusiastic, and a brave and skilful sailor, who takes great delight in sailing his yacht Dulcibella through these difficult and dangerous waters. He asks his friend Carruthers to come out from London and join him for a sailing holiday, but his reasons for doing this only become clear to Carruthers after several days on board. It seems there is a riddle to solve, and a little mystery about a man called Dollmann. The two friends begin to investigate – and the commander of a German gunboat begins to take a close interest in them.

      For the year is 1902, and sandbanks are not the only danger on this coast. The gathering storm-clouds of the First World War are slowly growing darker, year by year …

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ISBN 978 0 19 479231 8

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Illustrations by: Paul Fisher Johnson

Maps by: Richard Ponsford

Word count (main text): 22,885 words

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e-Book first published 2012

      PEOPLE IN THIS STORY

      Carruthers, who tells the story

      Davies, his friend, and owner of the yacht Dulcibella

      Bartels, Davies’ friend, and captain of the Johannes

      Herr (Mr) Dollmann, owner of the Medusa

      Fräulein (Miss) Clara Dollmann, his daughter

      Frau (Mrs) Dollmann, Dollmann’s wife and Clara’s stepmother

      Commander von Brüning, a German naval officer, and captain of the gunboat Blitz

      Grimm, captain of the Kormoran

      Böhme, an engineer from Bremen

      THE REASON WHY

      Why has this book been written?

      In October 1902, my friend Carruthers came to my office, and told me the story of the yachting trip that he and his friend Mr Davies had recently taken in the Baltic and the North Sea.

      The account of his adventures both astonished and alarmed me, and when he asked for my help in preparing this book for publication, I agreed readily. It is well known that Britain’s coastal defences are dangerously weak, so the secret information discovered by Carruthers and Davies is of great importance, and I fully support their wish to make this information public.

      The difficulty they had was that an Englishman, from an old and famous family, would be shown in their story to be a traitor, and this would cause pain and misery to an innocent young lady, whom they are anxious to protect. The names Carruthers and Davies, therefore, are not their real ones, and the names of all other persons in this account have also been changed.

      But why publish secret information of national importance? Should it not be kept secret, known only to the government, whose job is to make good use of such information?

      Indeed, that would normally be the best thing to do, but not in this case. The government, although informed of the great danger facing this country, has chosen to do nothing – and that is the reason why this book has been written.

      London, 1903

      1

      An invitation to the Baltic Sea

      The letter arrived as I was dressing for dinner in my rooms in Pall Mall on the evening of 23rd September 1902. London was deserted at that time of the summer, and I had become very bored and depressed with my daily routine of work at the Foreign Office, and dinner at my club in the evening. All my friends were away enjoying themselves at country house parties, but here was I, a fashionable young man with a bright future, who knew all the best people and belonged to all the best clubs – and who was forced to remain in London because of my job.

      I had encouraged my friends to believe that the Foreign Office could not manage without me during the summer, but the plain truth was that my work was neither interesting nor important. It consisted mostly of taking messages for absent officials, whose own holiday plans had upset mine.

      Although my friends had sent me sympathetic letters, it was clear that I had not been greatly missed, and now, at the end of September, I realized another bitter truth. Two more days, and I would be free to start my holiday – but I had nowhere to go! The country house parties were all breaking up, and though I could always go home to Yorkshire, of course, which fashionable young man wants to spend his holiday with his own family?

      I was, without doubt, extremely depressed.

      So, when a letter, with a German stamp and marked ‘urgent’, arrived that evening, I felt a touch of interest, even excitement, as I opened it and read:

Yacht Dulcibella

Flensburg, 21st September

      Dear Carruthers,

      You will probably be surprised to hear from me, as it’s a long time since we met. But I write in the hope that you might like to come out here and join me in a little sailing and, perhaps, duck shooting. This part of the Baltic is very beautiful and there should be plenty of ducks soon, if it gets cold enough. The friend who was with me has had to leave, and I really need someone else, as I’d like to stay out here for a while.

      If you can come – and I do hope you can – send a telegram to the post office at Flensburg. I know you speak German perfectly, and that will be a great help.

      Yours ever,

      Arthur Davies

      Then followed directions as to how to reach him, and a long list of various things for the yacht that he would like me to buy and