Rescue and Restoration

NANCY BLACKETT: More About Nancy

Nancy Blackett & Arthur Ransome | Origins & Life With the Ransomes | Nancy Blackett Facts

Rescue and Restoration

Over the following half-century, Nancy 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 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.

Nancy Blackett on the River

Orwell - May 2003

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.

Origins and Life With the Ransomes

Nancy Blackett Facts