Dutch 14-year-old Laura Dekker sets sail on Wednesday 4th August on the shakedown passage to Portugal for the start of her planned solo round-the-world voyage.

A modern Nancy Blackett? Perhaps so – she certainly shows the same admirable spirit and determination, and the link with Ransome's characters has not been lost on Peter Hitchens, who writes in today's Mail on Sunday:

"A book for the voyage, Laura

Good luck to Laura Dekker, the 14-year-old Dutch girl who wants to sail round the world on her own. Laura was born on a yacht, had her own boat by the time she was six, and began sailing alone when she was ten. How I envy her. The last time I tried to sail alone, I was clinging to the wreckage within five minutes.

The efforts of the authorities to stop her were obviously motivated by reasonable concern. Imagine what the British state would have done. But children can do so much more than we think they can and grow with responsibility. Once, this attitude was common. Does anyone now read Arthur Ransome’s "Swallows And Amazons", in which the children’s father is asked for his permission for the youngest to sail unsupervised, and replies in a telegram ‘If not duffers, won’t drown. Better drowned than duffers’.

In a later book, the wonderful "We Didn’t Mean To Go To Sea", the same children unintentionally sail across the North Sea to Holland, when they accidentally slip anchor. They arrive safely, entirely because they have been trusted in the past. Someone should send Laura Dekker a copy."

I can't fault that. The key difference between Laura and the Swallows is that she seriously does mean to go to sea, and has already displayed immense capability, determination and confidence.

Check her blog for her description of tackling fishing nets around the prop in the North Sea shipping lanes.

And good luck, Laura – grab a chance!

– Peter Willis