[alberg30] Re: Childers and The Riddle Of The Sands

[Scott Wallace]

From: Scott Wallace <tristan at one.net>

More on Childers...from The Riddle of the Sands by Erskine Childers, published
by Penguin Books - Forward _

"...Erskine Childers was born in 1870 (June 25, 1870 from library research) to
Anglo-Irish parents and brought up in Ireland.
He was educated at Haileybury and Trinity College, Cambridge and from 1895 to
1910 was a clerk in the House of Commons, spending part of his holidays sailing
the North Sea and the Channel in a tiny yacht and exploring the shoals of the
German, Dutch and Danish coasts.  He volunteered at the outbreak of the South
African war, and afterwards wrote a personal record, In the Ranks of the C.I.V.
the fifth volume of the Times History of the War in South Africa, and two other
books exposing the antiquated use of the Calvary against modern armaments.  The
Riddle of the Sands appeared in 1903.  On a visit to Boston (Massachusetts - see
what a hotbead of Irish unrest Boston is!) he met Mary (Molly) Alden Osgood,
whom he married in 1904.  In 1910 he resigned his post in the House of Commons
to be free to work for the Irish cause, and in 1911 published The Framework of
Home Rule, advocating full dominion status for Ireland.  In World War I he did
reconnaisance work in the R.N.A.S., served in the R.N.V.R., and as Intelligence
Officer.  He was awarded the D.S.C. (Distinguished Service Cross).  After the
war was completed he settled in Ireland to work and write for its complete
independence.  When the Free State was established he joined the Republican
Army, and was one of the many leaders who were arrested and shot in the tragic
civil war the followed.  John Buchanan later wrote of him 'no revolution ever
produced a nobler or purer spirit'"

Foreward by Geoffrey Household, 1978
Reprinted 1987, Penguin BooksLtd., 27 Wright's Lane, London England

I really enjoyed reading the book and have reread it probably three times so
far!

Scott Wallace, sailor of Spindrift, Pearson Electra 216 designed by Carl
Alberg...first there was the Triton, then the 22'6" Electra midget cruiser, then
the daysailer version of the Electra, the Ensign, largest keelboat class in
America.

SandersM at aol.com wrote:

> From: SandersM at aol.com
>
> In a message dated 1/21/00 11:21:11 AM, Sunstone at idirect.com writes:
>
> >Erskin Childers was executed for High Treason against the Crown for
> >smuggling arms into Ireland.
>
> Okay, I hate to sound pedantic, and I'm not about to advocate revolution
> (although a little now and then hasn't been such a bad thing over the
> centuries), but as a former resident of Ireland and holder of a degree in
> Irish literature from Trinity, I cannot let Erskine's shadow be
> misrepresented in such a manner.  Erskine Childers was an Englishman who
> harbored strong Irish nationalistic sympathies.  He did run guns for the
> Irish rebels in 1914 aboard his yawl, ASGARD, but the English never caught
> him -- or if they did, they certainly didn't execute him.  That nasty task
> was left to the Irish themselves.  Ireland fell into civil war following the
> south's independence from England in 1922, when hardliners formed the IRA to
> fight those who had advocated the "compromise" that led to the division of
> Ireland as the price of her independence.
>
> Like many revolutionaries before him, Childers was ultimately consumed by the
> forces he helped unleash.  Dissatisfied by the division of of Ireland as the
> price of independence, Childers joined the IRA (a very different group then
> than now) and became its official propagandist.  (Hey, it's a title to which
> I aspire.)  The Irish Free State, disregarding his many contributions to
> Irish independence (imagine, for example, running rifles in your Alberg 30,
> out of principle, to be used in armed revolt against your own country of
> birth), arrested and executed him by firing squad on November 24, 1922.
> Despite (or, to some, because of) his fate, Childers is today seen as
> something of a martyr/hero in Ireland.
>
> For a giggle -- I do NOT endorse the IRA! -- surf over to
>
> http://members.aol.com/ifcnj/
>
> where you can see the home page of the "Irish Freedom Committee of NJ," and
> which features a nice picture of Erskine titled, "An Englishman who was one
> of Ireland's proudest sons.  A true fallen son of the Republic."
>
> Okay, enough!  The bottom line is that Riddle of the Sands is just about the
> only book I've ever read that gives an authentic sense of cruising aboard a
> 30-foot sailboat.  Childers isn't Joyce or Shaw; the writing has more in
> common with Ambler or Le Carre; but it's a great way to put yourself on the
> water without leaving the warmth of your living room.  If anyone has any good
> suggestions for others that do the same, I'm all ears!
>
> Sandes McNew
> WILD ELF  (# 297)
> Oyster Bay, New York
>
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