A brief historical timeline of Arthur Ransome’s Nancy Blackett:
1931-35:
Built at Hillyards, Littlehampton, as Spindrift, for Seymour Tuely; subsequently sold back to Hillyards, and on to Paget Bowyer, who renamed her Electron and kept her in Poole Harbour.
1935, September:
Bought by Arthur Ransome, for £525 and renamed Nancy Blackett. Ransome sails her back, via Yarmouth, Isle of Wight, to seek shelter from a full gale, to Pin Mill.
1936:
Sailed by Ransome to Vlissengen (Flushing) as research for his new book, inspired by Nancy, “We Didn’t Mean to Go to Sea”, in which she will appear as the Goblin.
1937:
Ransome sails Nancy to Portsmouth and back. “We Didn’t Mean to Go to Sea” published.
1938, December:
Ransome sells Nancy, having ordered his next boat, Selina King.
1938-88:
Various owners:
– Reg Russell (1938-52)
– Francis and Myfanwy Knight (1952-57)
– Cdr Bernard MacIntyre DSC (1957-60)
– George Batters (1960-65)
– William Bentley (1965-88)
1988:
Mike Rines completes purchase, having discovered Nancy in near-derelict condition in Scarbrough Harbour, and returns her to the River Orwell (Fox’s yard) for restoration.
1989:
Nancy is sufficiently restored to display at the East Coast Boat Show; a celebration dinner is held at the Butt & Oyster, Pin Mill.
1990-91:
Nancy is launched, again for the show. In 1991, Mike puts her up for sale, and she is bought by Colin Winter.
1994:
The ‘Great Race’, organised by Eastern TARS – Nancy, crewed by Peter Roche, Martin Lewis and others, v. Peter Duck, under her owner Greg Palmer, down the Orwell, into the Stour and back to Woolverstone. Peter Duck wins.
1996:
Nancy is again for sale, at £30,000. Peter Willis contacts a number of TARS (The Arthur Ransome Society) members, suggesting purchase. Overall favourable response, and a little money. Following the TARS AGM that year, it is decided that the Nancy Blackett Trust be set up as a separate organisation to, if possible, buy Nancy and then manage her.
1997, April:
Colin Winter sets five-week deadline, reduces price to £25,000. Full-scale appeal launched. Donations roll in.
May:
Nancy Blackett Trust Limited formally established.
June 9th:
Purchase of Nancy Blackett completed.
June 28th-29th:
Nancy is displayed at Sail Ipswich festival, her first outing under the ‘flag’ of the NBT. BBC then films her for Bookworm programme.
1998:
Nancy sails to Falmouth, where Jim Brading and Uncle Bob once took the Goblin, and the Swallows learnt to sail, On the way back, she attends the first Portsmouth International Festival of the Sea (IFOS), and is visited by over 800 people.
1999:
Nancy is reunited with Ransome’s dinghy Coch y-Bonddhu for ‘Swamazons’, the Old Gaffers’ Round the Island race in the Walton Backwaters, and then at the second Ipswich maritime festival, but we mourn the death of our original Patron, Brigit Sanders, nee Altounyan, the Bridget of the Swallows.
2000:
The Trust presents the OGA’s Swamazons event with the Nancy Blackett Trophy, carved out of a piece of Nancy’s former mast; the third, and final, Maritime Ipswich, and a new Patron: Ellen MacArthur.
2001:
Nancy’s 70th birthday, celebrated with a dinner at the Butt & Oyster. The AGM includes the showing of recently discovered home-movie footage ofNancy in her pre-Nancy days, sailing in Poole Harbour and the Channel. Ellen MacArthur visits Nancy at the Yarmouth Old Gaffers weekend. Coch y-bonddhu returns to compete for the Nancy Blackett Trophy (but comes last). Nancy again takes part in IFOS, and we first hear ‘her’ shanty, Secret Water. Following the transfer of her winter lay-up to Woodbridge, and Robertsons, her rigging is restored to that of the Goblin, with masthead backstays, and this helps cure the kink in the top of the mast.
2004:
The first school trip – two dozen pupils from Thetford Grammar School enjoy two-hour sails on Nancy, alternating with walks along the coast path to Pin Mill. The trips have now become an annual event. Nancy is given a new staysail, following the observation that the existing one seems rather small, and a new jib, as a donation in memory of member Mike Burton. A donation to the Trust includes a first-edition “Secret Water” containing a postcard from Arthur Ransome with the intriguing hint – “it seems to me that eight are about enough” – that he might have intended that book to end the series.
2005:
The Trafalgar bicentenary – Nancy takes part in the Fleet Review in the Solent, and then, IFOS at Portsmouth again. She also visits her birthplace at Littlehampton, and heads downchannel as far as Plymouth. Her first full survey since purchase by the Trust reveals her to be in good condition.
2006:
Nancy’s 75th birthday – a commemorative trip to Holland and a new mainsail. School trips double in number. And a Dutch translation of “We Didn’t Mean to Go to Sea on the way.
2007:
The year’s tempestuous weather makes a trip to the Solent in time for the TARS AGM challenging, and scuppers later plans for trips to over Holland. In between, however, the sun shines on the 10th anniversary of the Nancy Blackett Trust.
The Nancy Blackett Trust 