Potty Breaks

How did the Swallows and Amazons go to the bathroom? I was reading Pigeon Post this morning, and I realized that none of the books ever mention anybody needing to "go." Does anybody know why this is?

I think you will find there is very rarely in fiction a mention of how the characters handle this very human need, I assume the authors feel the readers can use their imagination in this regard, if in fact the reader even thinks about it.

 

The simple answer was that although Ransome liked to give details about a lot of things, this was one area which he thought better kept private. After all in how many books do we read details of the people needing to "go". I can't think of any children's books and only a few adult ones.

Even though there are bathroom scenes in the Harry Potter books, they do not involve "that", but other activities such as potion brewing, so Ransome is hardly unique.

No author would speak of such distasteful things in the 1930s! However, I don't suppose I was the only child who wondered what on earth they did for a week on an island...

Things would have been worse aboard the Goblin. No bushes, just a bucket. This video shows the slightly more civilised (yet insanely cramped) modern option in Nancy Blackett today.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXOwL8ks-Gs

I think I'm right in saying that Goblin (or rather Nancy Blackett) had a Baby Blake toilet from the time she was built. AR artfully hid details on the interior drawing he did for WDMTGTS, as well as in the text.

I can confirm from experience that it is pretty cramped but still practical for someone over 6 feet tall. How AR and Evgenia managed, being several inches taller than me, I'm not sure. But then they do say that necessity is the mother of invention...

Presumably their camping equipment included a spade, but once again AR was careful not to explore this aspect of campcraft.

 

Previously Magnus Smith wrote:

No author would speak of such distasteful things in the 1930s! However, I don't suppose I was the only child who wondered what on earth they did for a week on an island...

Things would have been worse aboard the Goblin. No bushes, just a bucket. This video shows the slightly more civilised (yet insanely cramped) modern option in Nancy Blackett today.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXOwL8ks-Gs

 

Gosh, she had that right from the start? You are right about the headroom!

The other thing you notice comparing the real Nancy with the Goblin drawings is the omission of the table. Jim would not have been able to sleep on the floor otherwise (or was it removable?) as the mast foot sits between the fore bunks.

Previously Geraint Lewis wrote:

I think I'm right in saying that Goblin (or rather Nancy Blackett) had a Baby Blake toilet from the time she was built. AR artfully hid details on the interior drawing he did for WDMTGTS, as well as in the text.

 

If Goblin crossing the North Sea was bad enough, imagine what it would have been like crossing the Atlantic aboard Wild Cat, not a head in sight in the interior diagram provided by Ransome, and using a bucket on the deck in the storm crossing the Bay of Biscay would have been extremely hazardous.

 

Good point, Adam, although I suppose it is possible that Captain Flint put a head somewhere in the fo'c'sle when he refurbished the Wild Cat, only for AR to miss that detail out on his (pretty basic) interior plans. However, even if he did, the Shining Moon wouldn't have had any facilities. 

However, this perhaps only brings us back to 1930s authors not talking about such things; perhaps wisely...

Previously Adam Quinan wrote:

Previously Geraint Lewis wrote:

I think I'm right in saying that Goblin (or rather Nancy Blackett) had a Baby Blake toilet from the time she was built. AR artfully hid details on the interior drawing he did for WDMTGTS, as well as in the text.

 

If Goblin crossing the North Sea was bad enough, imagine what it would have been like crossing the Atlantic aboard Wild Cat, not a head in sight in the interior diagram provided by Ransome, and using a bucket on the deck in the storm crossing the Bay of Biscay would have been extremely hazardous.

 

 

Maybe they used the plank method. I remember in reading about Captain Cook the head was a plank sticking over the sea and one had to sit on that to do what comes naturally, apparently they lost a few crew that way in rough weather, puts a whole new meaning on walking the plank.

Does anyone remember the book "Let's be Broad Minded" by Dennis Rooke, written in 1948, about a sailing week on the Broads. I bought a copy when I was about 10 on such a holiday:

"The partitions are inclined to be thin... During the cruise of the Beautiful Lady it became convention that, on demand, the rest of the ship's company would burst into song. The request, "would you mind singing please", immediately brought dulcet voices into tuneful harmony, so that the less melodious sounds of pump and foot-pedal went unheard."

Nicely observed.

Rob

 

I like that Rob, has anyone read any camping books of the 30s to see how they suggested handling this issue.

Robin

My granny once commented that in a Broads yacht you could cook your breakfast whilst sitting on the toilet, it was so cramped.

One of the Bunkle books (MM Pardoe, 1950s I think) had a wonderful scene predicated on the need to 'go' in which the characters remark on the absence of such detail in the children's books they've read

I am extremely grateful to Swill for naming the 'Bunkle' author - I have been trying for ages to remember. I have just googled on Margot Pardoe and found all the details, including Bunkle book titles. I remember being given 'Bunkle Butts In', and there were others. For some reason, the Bunkle series was a particular favourite on the radio 'Children's Hour' - justifiably so, because I do remember the suspense of waiting a week for the next episode. I recall one episode which ended with Bunkle and friends lost in a huge forest somewhere, knowing that the only other person in the forest was "a man with a rifle". . . . . . . Happy days!

 

Wikipaedia compares the Pardoe books with AR's and also Enid Blyton's, but it asserts that there are differences in the Pardoe books which set them apart, eg the children were free from supervision and allowed to age. I need to read them again, after XX years . . . . .

Magnus -

we hired one of the Lady boats from Potter Heigham about 8 years ago, and we can confirm that it is possible (depending on the design), to sit on the loo and reach the cooker.  I'm not sure I'd describe it as 'cramped' so much as compact...

Rob

The one we hired still had the original 1920s china bowl/pan and flushed straight into the river. My wife refused to use it and we cruised from pub to pub the entire week (no alcohol before you ask).

Previously Robin Marshall wrote:

I like that Rob, has anyone read any camping books of the 30s to see how they suggested handling this issue.

Robin

My early camping experience is limited to the 1960s but learned from people who camped in the 1930s. The official Scouts/Guides (my grandmother was a County Commissioner in the Girl guides) method was to dig a pit at least two feet deep and use it for a week or so covering the material with the soil from the pit to reduce the offensive smell and appearance. At the end of the week, the rest of the pit was filled in and the turf replaced. No doubt it grew a bit greener for a year or two.

This was done in a famer's field not on a rather rocky island where digging a deep enough pit would probably have required the services of Slater Bob and his explosives.

In spite of no reference to certain facilities, such a lack of such would be a problem that would seemed to be emphasized by the fact that Mrs. Tyson served stewed PRUNES to them. So I am sure that things went on that were never brought up as a discussed topic in the books. For that matter, we never were privy to the financial arrangements between Mrs. Blackett and Mrs. Tyson, or similar arrangements about Peggy staying at Holly Howe. Such was native business, and of no concern to the explorers, sailors, and prospectors. Some things are best left unsaid, or just merely implied. We are allowed to witness the digging of the Titty's Well, with the difficulty with so many stones in the way needing the use of a pickax, so we can certainly appreciate the difficulty of digging a suitable facility in such rocky terrain. That certainly also took a bit of work, the description of which would not further the purpose of the plot. Such personal private subject matter is best left alone. But from time to time, the various Ransome related forums do seem to raise the question.