houseboat – intheboatshed.net

Captain Flint’s houseboat explained

Weblogger, author and TV producer Sophie Neville unpicks the real story behind the legend of Captain Flint’s houseboat.

‘When people see the SY Gondola on Coniston today, in all her re-built glory, she seems rather plush to have been cast by Arthur Ransome as Captain Flint’s houseboat. The main reason for assuming that she was used as the model for the illustrations is because Arthur Ransome grabbed a post card of the Gondola and drew on it to give the first illustrators of Swallows and Amazons some idea of his vision. However Ransome’s biographer Roger Wardale tells me it was a former steamer on Windermere that he had in mind: the SL Esperance.’

Old film about the Ionian at Aldeborough

Here’s another film treat, this time about a trawler converted to a houseboat on the beach at Aldeborough. Does anyone have memories and stories to share?

As a young boy holidaying with my family in the area in the 1960s, I remember being intrigued by the old hulk – but my parents warnings and the strong smell of wee kept me out of there.