The Riddle of the Sands: A Record of Secret ServiceArthur Davies and Carruthers reconnoiter the German Frisian coast as amateur spies aboard the yacht Dulcibella. |
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Common terms and phrases
anchor asked Balje Baltic Baltrum bank Bartels began Bensersiel better boat Böhme booms Borkum Brüning Brunsbüttel cabin canal Carruthers channel chart coast Commander compass course cruise Cuxhaven dark Davies's deck deep dinghy Dollmann Dornum ducks Dulcibella dyke east Eider River Elbe Emden English Esens estuary eyes felt fiord Flensburg Frisian galliot German Grimm half Hamburg hand harbour heard Herr Davies Hohenhörn hour islands Juist knew Kormoran land Langeoog laughed light lighter look low water matter Medusa Memmert miles mind minutes never night Norden Norderney North Sea oilskin once passed quay Rottum round sail sand sculls seemed shore shouted side skylight soon sort Spiekeroog steamer suppose talk There's thing thought tide Tief told took turned von Brüning wait Wangeroog weather whole Wilhelmshaven wind wreck yacht
Popular passages
Page 86 - I figured to myself one of those romantic gentlemen that one reads of in sixpenny magazines, with a kodak in his tie-pin, a sketchbook in the lining of his coat, and a selection of disguises in his hand luggage.
Page 84 - Here's this huge empire, stretching half over central Europe — an empire growing like wildfire, I believe, in people, and wealth, and everything. They've licked the French and the Austrians, and are the greatest military power in Europe. I wish I knew more about all that, but what I'm concerned with is their sea-power. It's a new thing with them, but it's going strong, and that Emperor of theirs is running it for all it's worth. He's a splendid chap, and anyone can see he's right. They've got no...
Page 37 - We had a splendid sail to the East Scheldt, but then, like fools, decided to go through Holland by canal and river. It was good fun enough navigating the estuary — the tides and banks there are appalling — but further inland it was a wretched business, nothing but paying lock-dues, bumping against schuyts and towing down stinking canals.
Page 141 - ... and beyond that by Holland, and on the east by the Jade estuary ; a low-lying country, containing great tracts of marsh and heath, and few towns of any size ; on the north side none. Seven islands lie off the coast. All, except Borkum, which is round, are attenuated strips, slightly crescent-shaped, rarely more than a mile broad, and tapering at the ends ; in length averaging about six miles, from Norderney and Juist, which are seven and nine respectively, to little Baltrum, which is only two...
Page 336 - There is no means of knowing what this recommendation will lead to ; let us hope not to the fiasco of the last badly conceived experiment. Is it not becoming patent that the time has come for training all Englishmen systematically either for the sea or for the rifle ? THE END FHIXTTO BY 8POTT1BWOODB AND CO.
Page 1 - I HAVE read of men who, when forced by their calling to live for long periods in utter solitude — save for a few black faces — have made it a rule to dress regularly for dinner in order to maintain their self-respect and prevent a relapse into barbarism.
Page 18 - You hand them up,' he ordered, 'and I'll take them.' It was a laborious task, with the one relief that it was not far to hand them — a doubtful compensation, for other reasons distantly shaping themselves. When the stack was transferred to the deck, I followed it, tripping over the flabby meat parcel, which was already showing ghastly signs of disintegration under the dew. Hazily there floated through my mind my last embarkation on a yacht : my faultless attire, the trim gig and obsequious sailors,...
Page 309 - ... of coal, should issue simultaneously, in seven ordered fleets, from seven shallow outlets, and, under escort of the Imperial Navy, traverse the North Sea and throw themselves bodily upon English shores.
Page 76 - I wired to you. You see, I had come to the conclusion that that chap was a spy." In the end it came out quite quietly and suddenly, and left me in profound amazement. "I wired to you— that chap was a spy." It was the close association of these two ideas that hit me hardest at the moment. For a second I was back in the dreary splendour of the London club-room, spelling out that crabbed scrawl from Davies, and fastidiously criticising its proposal in the light of a holiday. Holiday! What was to be...
Page 141 - Carruthers,' were dry at low water, when the ' remaining third becomes a system of lagoons whose distribution is controlled by the natural drift of the North Sea as it forces its way through the intervals between the islands. Each of these intervals resembles the bar of a river, and is obstructed by dangerous banks over which the sea pours at every tide scooping out a deep pool. This fans out and ramifies to east and west as the pent-up current frees itself, encircles the islands and spreads over...