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Racundra's First Cruise | 
 enlarge | Author: Arthur Ransome
Publisher: Wiley
Category: Book
List Price: $29.95
Buy New: $20.71
You Save: $9.24 (31%)
New (10) Used (9) from $18.75
Avg. Customer Rating:  3 reviews
Sales Rank: 756129
Media: Hardcover
Edition: New
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 256
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.5
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6.2 x 0.9
ISBN: 1898660964
Dewey Decimal Number: 914.8
EAN: 9781898660965
ASIN: 1898660964
Publication Date: July 31, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Brand New Book! Delivered direct from our US warehouse in 3-6 days (Expedited) or 10-14 days (Standard). Expedited shipping recommended for speedy delivery. Over 1 million satisfied customers.
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Product Description
This new edition of Racundra’s First Cruise includes the original maps, text and photos from the 1923 first edition, of which only 1500 copies were printed. The book also contains a detailed introduction detailing Ransome’s Baltic sailing in Slug and Kittiwake and includes unpublished articles and essays together with many original Ransome pictures and present day photographs of the area. The manuscript has been researched, edited and introduced by Brian Hammett, who received critical acclaim for his work on Racundra’s Third Cruise. Details of Racundra’s life after Ransome are also included. It has the full support of Ransome’s literary executors who are delighted to see it republished.
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| Customer Reviews:
 Nostalgia, saltwater, the towns of the Baltic coast in the 1920's September 18, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I have a Penguin edition of 1956 without all the additional material of this new edition. But the basic story is the same.
This is a charming narrative of a cruise in a well-built little sailboat, in waters of the Baltic countries, to places the author clearly knows and loves.
Arthur Ransome later wrote a series of children's books focused on sailing. He would certainly have agreed with Kenneth Grahame's "Ratty" that ""There is nothing -- absolutely nothing -- half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats." One might qualify that, noting that in Ransome's books, the sailing is rather more directed and purposeful - but he always communicates the sheer joy of being on the water in a craft that responds to the elements, at your direction (He was not a fan of engines of any kind - a sometimes necessary evil. Sailing was the thing.)
"Racundra's First Cruise" was published in 1923. He had commissioned the building of Racundra, a thirty-foot ketch built for seaworthiness and comfort inside. With the "Ancient Mariner" - an old veteran of the days of sail in clipper ships - and "Cook" - probably the companion who was to become his second wife, but only identified by her unending task - he takes us through many sometimes tricky passages along the Baltic coast, visiting old cobblestoned towns and remote peasant villages.It is delightful to sink back into a time when the sea was still full of trading vessels under sail, though of course large and small steamers also abounded. Mentions of "during the war" refer of course to the Great War. Relics of older conflicts abound - Russian, Swedish, Latvian, Finnish, Estonian - and Ransome provides many interesting footnotes to their stories.
My favorite encounter is that with the enigmatic man who lives alone, building a ship, in the forest. The ship is at first seen as "a golden hull in the shadows among those tall trees" then we see that "the upper planking was new, certainly, ruddy gold where the sun caught it, but lower down her hull was weathered"...."The keel, laid on great stones, was joined to them by moss. There was lichen upon it, and on the foot of the stern-post was a large, bright cluster of scarlet toadstools."
Enjoy.
 cruising May 10, 2007
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Great little book - takes you back to a different, simpler, world. You don't have to be a sailor to enjoy this.
A book that has all the ingredients for a marvellous movie December 1, 1997
9 out of 9 found this review helpful
I wonder why Hollywood has not yet discovered this book: it has all the ingredients for a box-office hit - sailing in the Baltics, scenic sea- and landscapes, a romantic love affair of a British writer and the private secretary of Leon Trotsky. And the background - the Russian revolution, Estonia's struggle for independence. Rare photos illustrate the book. A must for the romantic sailor!
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