We Didn't Mean to Go to Sea

The Swallows break a promise to their mother and the four young sailors find themselves drifting out to sea--and then sweeping across to Holland in the midst of a full gale

The Swallows only meant to sail within an estuary on a borrowed boat. They didn't mean to get stranded in the fog, lose their anchor in a storm, and be driven out into the North Sea. John is nearly swept overboard, their ship almost capsizes--and Susan really regrets not doing as their mother asked. And their father, Navy Commander Ted Walker, is due back from his posting in Hong Kong any time and they might miss seeing him.

Family, resourcefulness, and sailing, too: Arthur Ransome's Swallows and Amazons series has stood the test of time. More than just great stories, each one celebrates independence and initiative with a colorful, large cast of characters. We Didn't Mean to Go to Sea (originally published in 1937) is the seventh title in the Swallows and Amazons series, books for children or grownups, anyone captivated by a world of adventure, exploration, and imagination.


About the Author
ARTHUR RANSOME was born in Leeds in 1884. He had an adventurous life -- as a baby he was carried by his father to the top of the Old Man of Coniston, a peak that is 2,276 ft high! He went to Russia in 1913 to study folklore and in 1914, at the start of World War I he became a foreign correspondent for the "Daily News." In 1917 when the Russian Revolution began he became a journalist and was a special correspondent of the "Guardian." He played chess with Lenin and married Trotsky's personal secretary, Evgenia Petrovna Shelepina. On his return to England, he bought a cottage near Windermere in the Lake District and began writing children's stories. He published the first of his children's classics, the twelve Swallows and Amazons books, in 1930. In 1936 he won the first ever Carnegie Medal for his book, "Pigeon Post." He died in 1967.