You may now make donations to the Nancy Blackett Trust via the Charities Aid Foundation.
If you are a United Kingdom taxpayer, we can also claim back the tax you have already paid on the amount you donate, thus increasing the total value of your donation.
To make a donation, click on the link below, which will open in a new window. Then select "Make a donation" and follow the instructions.
"Around the Coast" with Paul Heiney (Anglia TV - synopsis of the episode featuring the Nancy Blackett)
"Charlie's Arun's Darlin for the Day" ('Littlehampton Today' - article about Charlies Dimmock's filming of Nancy Blackett and the River Arun for 'River Walks' - see below)
"Ransome's Book Comes to Life" ('Suffolk Evening Star' - article about "We Didn't Mean to Go to Sea" being staged during July and August 2008 - April 2008)
"River Walks" with Charlie Dimmock (Meridian TV series, featuring Nancy Blackett at Littlehampton - episode: 'River Arun', November 2005)
"Secret Water" - Wikipedia article about "Secret Water", the sequel to "We Didn't Mean to Go to Sea", featuring Nancy Blackett as Goblin.
"We Didn't Mean to Go to Sea" - Wikipedia article about "We Didn't Mean to Go to Sea", the first Arthur Ransome novel featuring Nancy Blackett as Goblin.
- Ellen MacArthur (patron of the Nancy Blackett Trust)
All Things Ransome - repository and compendium of Arthur Ransome literary resources
The Arthur Ransome Society (TARS)- a charity founded to "celebrate and promote the life and works" of Arthur Ransome, the author of the world-famous 'Swallows and Amazons' series of books for children.
The John Tusa Interviews: Tom Stoppard -transcript of an interview in which the playwright discusses one of his major childhood pasions and favourite author, Arthur Ransome (BBC Radio 3)
Every year members of the Nancy Blackett Trust enjoy the unique experience of sailing and or staying overnight aboard a classic yacht which is also part of our literary heritage. We cater for all levels of experience, including none and all ages, especially the young.
What's on Offer There are opportunities for 'taster' trips, typically 1-2 hours, and normally associated with events such as our Annual General Meeting, and for longer passages (half-day, day, overnight, several days) where everyone participates as a member of Nancy Blackett's crew. Overnight stays at selected events or places (without sailing) may also be arranged.
Booking for Sailing or Staying You must be a member of the Nancy Blackett Trust in order to be eligible to to apply for a place on Nancy Blackett. For more information about becoming a member, please see
If you are a member, you can make a booking with this Sail or Stay Booking Form (Rich Text or PDF File).
Benefits of Registering as Crew A Crew Registration Form will be sent to you on joining, providing that you tick the 'Sailing' box on the Membership Form. It requests, amongst other cheerful information such as next of kin, details of your qualifications - don't worry if you have none, there are opportunities for learning.
Registered sailors receive an additional occasional newsletter, 'Sailing Nancy', and the opportunity to bid for sailing slots within Nancy Blackett's programme. Crewing is paid-for on a cost-contribution basis, at a standard daily rate.
Potential skippers, and mates, are always welcome. All applicants are carefully appraised by existing senior Skippers (who normally have Yachtmaster Instructor qualifications). We look for RYA Yachtmaster or Coastal Skipper qualifications, plus personal qualities including most importantly empathy with the boat and the Trust's objectives. Skippers working with children are required to have CRB Disclosure. Applicant skippers are invited to
get in touch, or attach a note when returning their Crew Registration forms.
Membership of the Nancy Blackett Trust is open to anyone who wishes to help in the upkeep of Nancy - the work is funded mainly through individual contributions.
Benefits of membership include regular newsletters, the opportunity to attend social events, and the chance, for those who wish it, to actually sail aboard Nancy Blackett.
For many though, the chief benefit of membership is the satisfaction of knowing that you are directly helping to preserve a beautiful and important part of our literary and maritime heritage.
The subscription rate is £15.00 a year , although additional donations are gratefully received - maintaining a wooden boat of Nancy's age in good condition is inevitably a costly process.
For UK taxpayers, using Gift Aid increases the value of your subscription/do
Rich Text File or PDF file), returning it with either your Banker's Order instructions completed, or your cheque (We are unable to handle online applications or electronic payments at present).
Note: The PDF version of the Membership Form requires the
Nancy Blackett was Arthur Ransome's favourite amongst the various cruising yachts he owned during his lifetime. He named her after his favourite character, the adventurous, irrepressible leader of the Amazon Pirates who first appears in 'Swallows and Amazons', and again in several of his other books for children.
She provided him with the inspiration for possibly his best book, 'We Didn't Mean to Go to Sea', widely regarded as a classic of both children's and seafaring literature, and appears in it, lightly disguised as the Goblin, which plays a leading role in the book. Its action takes place almost entirely aboard the little boat, as the four children seek to sail her across the North Sea, at night, in a storm without any adult aboard. Ransome sailed the course himself in Nancy, and worked on the book aboard her, while living near Pin Mill on the River Orwell in Suffolk, where the story starts.
Nancy is immediately recognisable from Ransome’s description, illustrations and many key details:
"I say, just look down,"said Titty. They looked down into the cabin of the little ship, at blue mattresses on bunks on either side, at a little table with a chart tied down to it with string, at a roll of blankets in one of the bunks, at a foghorn in another, and at a heap of dirty plates and cups and spoons in a little white sink opposite the tiny galley, where a saucepan of water was simmering on one of the two burners of a little cooking stove. Many visitors to Nancy like to identify the bunks used by the individual Walker children (girls in particular have a penchant for Titty’s bunk - fore-cabin, port) and other features.
Origins and Life With the Ransomes
Nancy Blackett was built in 1931, by Hillyards of Littlehampton. She is 28ft long, plus bowsprit, with an unusual Bermudian cutter rig. Exactly like the Goblin, she has roller-reefing, operated by a little brass handle, and, down below, four bunks with blue mattresses, and a little white sink opposite a tiny galley.
She had already had two owners, and two names - Spindrift and Electron - before Ransome found and bought her in 1934, for £525. He was at the time in the process of moving from the Lake District to East Anglia, with the aim of doing some sea sailing. His delivery voyage with his new boat, from Poole Harbour to the East Coast, was hair-raising, as his Biography and Letters reveal: gales, damage, and an occasion where the navigation lights blew out, and he used a torch shone through a red plastic plate to ‘frighten off the Flushing-Harwich steamer’ - an incident which eventually appeared in 'We Didn’t Mean to Go to Sea'. Ransome got plenty of good sailing out of Nancy.
As well as his research trip to Holland, he took her round to Portsmouth and back with his friend Richard Rouse, a voyage he wrote up under the title 'Saturday to Saturday' for the Cruising Association Bulletin. But one of his favourite destinations was the Walton Backwaters, just a few miles down the coast from his home on the Orwell. He would sail down, and anchor there, ostensibly to work, but often yielded to the temptation to do a little exploring in his dinghy, Coch-y-Bonddhu. The Backwaters formed the setting for his next book, 'Secret Water', which includes a brief appearance by the Goblin.
The Ransomes rarely hung on to boats, or houses, for very long. By 1937, in deference to his wife Evgenia’s desire for a larger galley, Arthur had ordered a larger yacht, Selina King, to be built at King’s boatyard in Pin Mill, and sold Nancy in 1938. He retained his affection for her, however - perhaps because she was the one boat out of the seven he owned which he had not bought new.
"Fools build and wise men buy," he once said, but it was advice he rarely followed himself.
Rescue and Restoration
Over the following half-century, Nancy Blackett had five different owners, who mostly cared for and enjoyed her. But by 1988 she had been allowed to deteriorate in Scarborough harbour, and it was here that she was discovered in near-derelict condition - planks worn and holed, hatch-covers gone, water pouring in and out of her - by Michael Rines, who decided to purchase and restore her, though at that time, knowing nothing of Arthur Ransome or her connection with him. By pure chance, he lived on the Orwell, almost next-door to the house Ransome had lived in when he owned Nancy, and he brought her back to the Orwell to be restored.
After a year of hard work, she was in good enough condition to be exhibited at the East Coast Boat Show, and Mike Rines held a celebratory dinner at the Butt & Oyster in Pin Mill, to which he invited many influential Arthur Ransome devotees (including members of the original family on which the 'Swallows' were based) with whom he had corresponded during the restoration. Many of them had not met each other previously, and a year later, triggered by another restoration, this time of the dinghy Amazon, they went on to form the Arthur Ransome Society.
Once Nancy Blackett was fully restored, Mike Rines put her up for sale. The newly-formed Arthur Ransome Society was given the option to purchase, but was not then in a financial position to do so, and so she went to another private owner. It was when he put her on the market, in 1996, that the dream of preserving her for posterity, and of owning her for the enjoyment of all Arthur Ransome fans, was born.
The result was an appeal which raised the purchase price of £25,000 in five weeks, and which became the Nancy Blackett Trust. Under its care, Nancy’s future is assured; she is sailing again, and will remain recognisable as the boat Ransome knew and loved. In the summer of 2002 she retraced Goblin’s fictional route from Pin Mill to Flushing (Vlissingen) in Holland.
Nancy Blackett is one of the boats once owned by Arthur Ransome, author of the 'Swallows and Amazons' books. He named her after his favourite character, and he put her in his book 'We Didn’t Mean to Go to Sea', as the Goblin, the boat in which four children sail across the North Sea to Holland.
Recently rescued and restored, Nancy Blackett is now preserved and maintained by The Nancy Blackett Trust, as a beautiful and important part of our literary and maritime heritage, and with the aims of inspiring interest in Arthur Ransome and his books, and encouraging young people to enjoy sailing.
The Nancy Blackett is regularly on show at maritime festivals, and sails hundreds of miles each year, crewed by Trust members. When not attending public events or in use for private trips, she is based during the summer season just up the River Orwell from Pin Mill at Woolverstone. To find out more about the Nancy Blackett, and how you can become involved with her, please look around this site.
If you would like to arrange a private visit (subject to location and availability), or a private sailing trip (subject to membership and availability),
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 down channel 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.
