Nancy Blackett
Nancy Blackett is a 28 feet long, 7 ton, Bermuda rigged Hillyard sailing cutter built in 1931 and now owned and operated by the Nancy Blackett Trust. Originally named Electron, she was bought by children’s author Arthur Ransome in 1935 and renamed Nancy Blackett after a major character in his Swallows and Amazons series of children’s books. He sailed her mostly on the east coast of England and the southern North Sea from her home port of Pin Mill near Harwich. She is most notable for being the original for the fictional yacht Goblin in Ransome’s book We Didn’t Mean to Go to Sea which recounts a voyage across the North Sea to the Dutch port of Flushing. Ransome's cruises also provided material for another book Secret Water set in the Walton backwaters. Ransome sold Nancy Blackett in 1939 but always said that she was "the best little ship". In 1997, she was found rotting in Scarborough and restored. The Nancy Blackett Trust was formed as a charitable organization to preserve and sail her and to promote the sort of sailing activities dear to Ransome. The trust's patron is Ellen MacArthur.
External links The Nancy Blackett Trust The Arthur Ransome Site, a Web site devoted to Arthur Ransome with links to other sites
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