Arthur Ransome · 1937 · sea

The seventh Swallows and Amazons book, and the one that goes furthest. Four children promise their mother not to take the Goblin outside Harwich harbour, and then the skipper goes ashore for petrol and does not come back - the fog comes down, the anchor drags, and the tide takes them out into the North Sea. Ransome sailed the crossing himself in his own boat to get it right.

1. 1
   Pin Mill

   The hard at Pin Mill on the Orwell, waiting for a father coming home from Hong Kong - and Jim Brading offering the four Walkers a night aboard the Goblin, on a promise to their mother not to go outside the harbour.

2. 2
   Shotley

   They sail down the river and anchor off Shotley Spit with the naval college on the shore - the last of the safe water, and the point past which they have promised not to go without a grown-up aboard.

3. 3
   Harwich

   Jim rows ashore for petrol and does not come back - knocked down by a bus, though the children do not know that - and the fog comes down, and the anchor drags, and the Goblin goes out on the ebb with nobody in charge.

4. 4
   The Beach End buoy

   Out past the harbour mark in fog, and John's decision: the shoals are astern and a gale is coming, so the only safe thing is to keep going out to sea - which is the moment a boy of twelve becomes the skipper.

5. 5
   The Cork lightship

   The lightship off Cork Sand, and past it the open North Sea in a rising gale - four children in an unfamiliar cutter with a kitten, taking turns at the tiller through a night none of them will forget.

6. 6
   The North Hinder

   The Dutch lightship, and a steamer that nearly runs them down - and the wave that takes their own dinghy away, which is when the crossing stops being an accident and becomes a passage.

7. 7
   Flushing

   They signal for a pilot off Vlissingen and are brought into the lock - and their father, on the Harwich ferry leaving that same morning, sees the Goblin and gets off the ship in time to walk down the quay.

8. 8
   The Sunk lightship

   Homeward with their father aboard and five pairs of Dutch clogs in the cabin, past the Sunk in a fair wind - and this time the navigation is a pleasure rather than a matter of survival.

9. 9
   Harwich

   In past the Beach End buoy for customs, where the officers find nothing to declare but the clogs - and Jim rows out from the hospital to meet them, having spent two days believing he had lost them all.

10. 10
    Pin Mill

    Up the Orwell on the tide to the hard they left from, and Susan cooks dinner for the whole family - and nobody has to explain to their mother where they have been, because their father is there to do it.