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Interesting Questions, Facts and Information
- There are a total of 70 general entries. We are selecting 30 for display.
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 Interesting Questions, Facts, and Information
 Ransome, Arthur
Peggy. Nancy calls her the "tame galloot!" in the books.
Wild Cat. The boat is named after their island, Wild Cat Island.
James Turner. We are told this is the first book, Nancy and Peggy called him "Uncle Jim".
Bows and Arrows. The arrows are attached to green feathers.
"We Didn't Mean to Go to Sea". In "We Didn't Mean to Go to Sea" the Amazons are on holiday ( I think)
Swallow and Amazons. The Swallows find themselves under attack from the fierce Amazon pirates.
Great Northern. Dick's birdwatching discovery turns the cruise of the "Sea Bear" into a desperate chase.
They are looking at the stars.. Dick has got a book about astronomy and he is trying to find all the major stars that can be seen from the northern hemisphere in the winter months. Unfortunately the book is also filled with lots of distracting poetry as well as the star charts Dick wants to use.
Holly Howe Farmhouse. For Nancy all the houses have become Eskimo settlements. In winter there can be no sleeping outside even when you are on a polar expedition. Dick begins the signalling by using the lantern and the Swallows down at Holly Howe flash their torches back from the bedroom. Unfortunately Dick doesn't know morse code and can't read their message.
Nancy and Peggy. John and Susan are far too sensible to get their feet wet in this way and they would make sure that Titty and Roger would keep well back from the edge of the tarn. It is the Amazons, impetuous as ever, who think nothing of trying the ice and falling through.
Dick. The Swallows and the Amazons are stunned to see Dick take to skating as easily as breathing. Nancy and Peggy have skated before during other cold winters in the past but Dick has practised nearly every day at the indoor rink near his home.
The Igloo. Of course when they first see it Dick and Dorothea realise it can only look like a real igloo when it has snow piled on top of it.
Peggy. This is the moment that we first get the suspicion that all is not well with Nancy. Peggy has to take the place of her elder sister and John does not take command because it is a Beckfoot boat. Nancy is at home with a "jaw-ache".
The doctor. The difference between Peggy and Susan is shown in the way the ambush is arranged. To Peggy it is the opportunity for a dramatic surprise and she wants to leap out of hiding. For Susan it is a situation that might become fraught with danger with a lot of them on a narrow snowy road.
mumps. Self-sacrificing Nancy declares that this is the very best thing that could have happened. The other explorers will now be able to use the time and make a proper polar expedition instead of going back to school before the whole lake freezes over.
Dick. Dicks climbs up, ties a rope round the sheep and lowers it down to Dorothea, Titty and Roger. In gratitude Mr. Dixon makes a small sledge just for Dick and Dorothea.
Spitzbergen. Even the maps in the endpapers of the books make the usual Lake territory look different. Spitzbergen is marked as is the usual Long Island and the new Cache Island.
Fram. The key was the key to the houseboat and the "Fram" was the name of the boat used by the explorer Nansen. It got frozen into the polar sea. Even though she is laid up with mumps Nancy is still planning the adventures for the others.
It was impossible to tack into the wind or to steer it.. The sledge isn't really broad enough in the beam for it to provide much resistance when the wind came from the sides. A wind directly behind would suit a square sail such as the one that was fitted to the sledge Dick and Dorothea used.
She's deliberately put it backwards.. They all know the semaphore code and Dick is the first one to realise that the waving figures are meant to represent letters in different words. However, it takes a while for them to understand that the sentence has been reversed. A signpost in the picture in fact shows the right way to read it. Even then they misunderstand Nancy's meaning.
Captain Flint. Nancy and Peggy's Uncle Jim (Captain Flint) had come home early from his continental holiday because he had heard the lake was frozen. He found Dick and Dorothea on board his houseboat and took them back to Dixon's farm. The following day he pretended to Peggy and the others that he had hanged the trespassers.
Dick sees a flag at Beckfoot which is the sign to start.. It's really all Nancy's fault. She had forgotten that a flag at Beckfoot meant to start for the pole. Thus Dick and Dorothea set off in good faith and are the first to arrive there in the blizzard.
the green feathers from the parrot so they can make more arrows. Titty's parrot used to live on the houseboat with Nancy and Peggy's Uncle Jim (or Captain Flint). Captain Flint gave the green parrot to Titty because she had found his missing manuscript. Polly always gets angry when she sees some of her own feathers.
that there would be no more night sailing. The previous summer John had sailed the Swallow on the lake in the middle of the night and had nearly got into a dangerous situation. Most of the time Mrs. Walker trusts her family to use their common sense. They are always polite because that is the way they have been brought up.
a new torture for the Great Aunt to suffer. The Great Aunt is such an imperious person that Nancy tries to devise ways of making her suffer for the way in which she is spoiling their holiday. None of these dreams are realistic but they satisfy Nancy's pirate sense of honour."We'd feed her to the sharks.We'd leave her on a rock to be eaten by land crabs. We'd hang her in a tree for crows."
Titty and Roger. Whilst John and Susan and Nancy and Peggy talk over what has happened at their schools during term time Titty and Roger leave the lakeside at Horsehoe Cove and go exploring up the valley and they pass under the road bridge and climb higher up the mountainside. It is then that they find the secret valley.
John failed to reef the sail and the strong wind whirled the boat round.. It was John who had failed to reduce the area of sail by reefing who was really responsible for the shipwreck. Captain Flint comforts him by saying that everybody is a "duffer" sometimes in their life but you don't always get caught out in your mistakes as poor John has been. "Worrying never made a sailor."
the telescope. As the Swallow slips below the surface each of the Walker children makes their way ashore. Roger gets towed the final few yards by Nancy and Peggy who have fetched a rope. John has spent his time throwing out the anchor so he can find it later and try to tow the sunken dinghy into shallower water.
singing different songs from his youth. Roger is the child who gets on best with Mr.Swainson because he likes to go along to the farm and join in with his songs.
| When they saw a certain person in the boat Susan and Titty knew that their mother was going to let them stay in a camp after the shipwreck. Which person was this? | "Swallowdale" by Arthur Ransome
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Their baby sister, Bridget.. John, Susan and Titty knew that their mother wouldn't have brought Bridget with her if she was going to order them all to pack up their tents to go home.
They had to fetch wood all the time for camp fires.. The Swallows had to introduce a rule that whenever they went down to Swainson's Farm to fetch the milk they had to bring back some wood as well.
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