Riddle of the Sands Adventure Club

We’re back! Having come to the end of ‘The Riddle of the Sands’, we find another book that is ‘curiously specific about dates and locations’. A day-trip to Woking, Weybridge and Shepperton allows us to map out the action of the opening chapters of H. G. Wells’s ’The War of the Worlds’. Lloyd explains how Woking, since Victorian times, has been a town marked by death, and goes in search of the first working mosque in Western Europe outside of Moorish Spain. Tim addresses the basic questions of exactly when the Martians might have landed in Woking, how long it would have taken them to fly from Mars to Earth, and how big a Martian tripod is (not the size of the model one in Woking shopping centre btw). First up, we explain how and why our attempt at crowdfunding at Unbound has come to an end, and how our supporters can get their money back (00:25). We affirm our intention to keep noodling around with old books, and focus on ‘The War of the Worlds’ (02:57). Our first impressions of Woking (04:17); the story of how a pub in Woking got to be named after Ogilvy the astronomer (05:41); Woking as a town of death (07:07); a tip of the hat to Woking boy, Paul Weller (08:54); a visit to Horsell Common, where the Martians landed (10:32). Tim’s thoughts about when the Martians might have landed (12:00), including information about the Opposition of Mars (13:21), a proposed launch date from Mars of 12th February 1901 (14:54), a discussion about how fast objects fly through space (17:28), a proposed landing date of 7th or 14th June 1901 (21:56). Lloyd reveals the history of the Woking mosque (22:20), and the town’s long association with Islamism (24:36); the extraordinary life of Gottleib Leitner and the creation of the Oriental College (27:23). Having razed Woking, we move on to the destruction of Weybridge and Shepperton, and try to work out how big a Martian tripod actually is (30:51); a few interesting and mainly useless facts about Shepperton (33:15); estimating a tripod’s stride and height (36:05); tall buildings of Britain that a tripod might tower over, including the tallest building in the UK in 1895 (38:02). No Club Business - but many many thanks to everyone who has written to us, and to all who have supported us over the last 18 months. MUSIC CREDITS Great Open Sea by the Wellington Sea Shanty Society: http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Wellington_Sea_Shanty_Society/none_given_1098/12_-_Wellington_Sea_Shanty_Society_-_Great_Open_Sea Jeff Wayne’s War of the Worlds - https://youtu.be/6fnPn9Xr7fI Funeral Pyre - The Jam : https://youtu.be/EndqhHJx-Ko (filmed at the sandpits on Horsell Common, where the Martians landed)

We’ve made it to the last day in the book - October 26. Our heroes, Carruthers and Davies, sail off into the sunset with the delightful Clara on board, and her dastardly dad, Dollman, overboard. In this podcast Lloyd notDavies plots out how to get us back to Blighty via Ostmahorn, Holland. Tim notCarruthers, meanwhile, considers the end of Dollman, and the potentially tricky subject of suicide at sea. First up, we make yet another plea to the listeners to support us on Unbound (02:52), where we’re trying to raise money to produce a beautiful new book and online adventure for you. Sign up here: https://unbound.co.uk/books/riddle-of-the-sands Lloyd charts the route from Norderney to Ostmahorn via the island of Rottum (04:56); a brief description of Rottum & its warden (06:42); the tale of the ‘crazy Earl’ who once owned the place (08:12); how we might sail past Rottum today (10:28); how the SS held out in this part of the world at the end of WW2 (12:20). Tim talks about Dollman ‘falling’ overboard (14:00); people who fall off cruise ships (15:46); people who jump off the Staten Island ferry (18:06); the strange tale of Donald Crowhurst (18:58). Tim talks about late-19th century attitudes to suicide (21:56); the move to treating would-be suicides as mental patients rather than criminals (23:26); where would Dollman’s body have ended up anyway?(25:35); how ‘The Mikado’ ridiculed English attitudes to anti-suicide laws (27:37). Lloyd tries to get us to Ostmahorn but finds there’s a dyke in the way (29:56). Musical Interlude: the legendary Ostmahorn/Gröningen folk scene of the ‘70s featuring Törf and Fungus (33:19). Tim is puzzled as to whether Dollman really is a double agent (36:04); examples of real-life German double agents of the period (37:41); stories of criminals, madmen and fantasists working as spies (40:55). Lloyd consults his Bradshaws (again) about trains, and steamers from Harlingen to London (45:41); our landing point at Tower Bridge (46:49); a problem with getting back to London before October 29 (47:56). Club Business - Kim’s fears for ship’s dog allayed (50:54); Nick on the Battle of Dorking (51:40). Having brought this narrative to an end, there are no missions for next week! Thank you everyone for your contributions. MUSIC CREDITS Great Open Sea by the Wellington Sea Shanty Society: http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Wellington_Sea_Shanty_Society/none_given_1098/12_-_Wellington_Sea_Shanty_Society_-_Great_Open_Sea The Mikado - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLOY_R5XIJ8 Törf - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7F9l-zk7Qk Fungus - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qr9voaqgSIw

After weeks of sailing and suspense, ‘The Riddle of the Sands’ explodes into action on October 25. At last we discover what the ‘Riddle’ is. Sadly, as you will hear, Lloyd notDavies and Tim notCarruthers fall out quite badly - and loudly - about the basic credibility of Erskine Childers’s premise in describing the imminent German threat. We start the podcast, though, by plotting out the day for Carruthers, starting with an extended pub/gin bar crawl in Dornumerland, followed by an arduous cross-country walk to Hage, a fair deal of train travel in heavy disguise, and finally a bold act of sabotage on a galliot and a confrontation with, of all people, the Kaiser. We quickly descend into chaos when Lloyd notDavies becomes aerated by the presence of ‘lighters’ in Bensersiel harbour (05:43); a heated discussion of the canal vs ditch issue ensues (07:50); Club Member Ian provides useful information about riverine vessels of the period (10:18); Club Member Tony sides with notCarruthers (12:37). Lloyd notDavies then turns his attention to the viability (or not) of amphibious warfare and invasion by rowboat, using Gallipoli as his main case study (16:21). Tim notCarruthers changes the tone by referencing the Marx Brothers (23:04), and talking about the use of disguises in late Victorian literature. (24:44) Finally, we address the pub crawl in Dornum and how to recreate it (or not) in modern times (30:03); a connection is made back to the Marx Brothers (34:03), and the true story of Groucho’s one visit to Dornum is revealed (36:14). As if the tone couldn’t get any lower, we then discuss the 1970s sex comedy The EastFriesland Report (39:07), filmed on location in exactly the same places that Carruthers visits on October 25. Club Business (45:14) - Adrian on why submarines were considered to be underhand and ‘unEnglish’ (45.26); Brian & John correct us on what a submarine engineer actually is (46:31); the status of marine engineers generally in 1903 (47:25); we find a real-life German diving/wreck engineer - living in Lambeth (48:39); Nick on TS Eliot and Baedecker (51:20); Ian on ejaculation(52:27); Ben and Fiona support us on Unbound (52:54); Peter finds us a Munich beer house in London (53:24). MUSIC CREDITS Great Open Sea by the Wellington Sea Shanty Society: http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Wellington_Sea_Shanty_Society/none_given_1098/12_-_Wellington_Sea_Shanty_Society_-_Great_Open_Sea Mr Gallagher and Mr Shean (from Ziegfield Girls): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HkzAEGarl9Q

Finally, on October 24 with only two days to go in the book, we get to discuss the actual riddle of ‘The Riddle of the Sands’. Lloyd notDavies uses his train timetables to get us to Esens. Minus a moustache, Tim notCarruthers points out the cultural highlights of this ancient Frisian town. And then both men argue at length about the proper use of canals. Finally the talk turns to the significance of submarines. First, a plug for our Unbound project. Just £25 will get you a beautiful ROTS Handbook, an ebook, an audiobook and access to the month-long online adventure in September. (02:00) https://unbound.co.uk/books/riddle-of-the-sands We start the podcast proper, as we often do, by referring to train timetables (05:19). We discover it isn’t as easy to get to Esens by rail as it was one hundred years ago. We find the humblest guesthouse in Esens where we can eat wurst and drink beer (10:29); Tim notCarruthers tells tales of the Frisian pirate Junkers Balthasar (16:35) and, friend of Wagner, Theodore Thomas (17:29). A long conversation about canals ensues (20:35) including: memories of the newsreader Peter Sissons (21:32); the geological history of Frisia (23:20); a canoeing trip down the Bensertief (27:30); German enthusiasm for navigable canal-building (29:15); the plan to ‘kill’ Rotterdam (30:42); how to get from Bensersiel to Aurich by barge (the long way round) (32:43). We return to last podcast’s subject - the villainous engineer Böhme (38:12). If he hails from Bremen and is a submarine engineer, he can only have worked at one place. Tim notCarruthers follows this clue back to West Norwood (41:58), and ends up talking about an American-Irish engineer who imust have been known to Childers(43:03). Club Business: Brian offers us a chance to row in the North Sea (45:18); Pat also talks rowing, and his brief time as a hero (47:33); Jeff gives us a chance to tell you about the mysterious annotated 1920s edition of ‘The Riddle of the Sands’ which has inspired this whole project(49:07). MUSIC CREDITS Great Open Sea by the Wellington Sea Shanty Society: http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Wellington_Sea_Shanty_Society/none_given_1098/12_-_Wellington_Sea_Shanty_Society_-_Great_Open_Sea Flying Dutchman Overture by Wagner: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HqezCR_XzaI

It’s October 23 in ‘The Riddle of the Sands’, a day when Carruthers takes advantage of the mighty German railways to speed his way to Amsterdam for a night in a proper bed. The only downside? He has to endure half the journey with the creepy engineer, Böhme: “Don’t forget to go to Lloyds…” So, it’s railways, luxury hotels by the Amstel River, and possible real-life role models for Böhme. If that floats your boat, don’t forget to pledge your support for the Adventure Club Handbook on https://unbound.co.uk/books/riddle-of-the-sands. Just £25 gets you a Handbook, a Field Audiobook, an e-book and full web access to our live web adventure. First up, Lloyd NotDavies gets his Bradshaw’s out and indulges his obsession for timetables (07:34). We discover how Carruthers would have got from Nordeney to Amsterdam in real life in 1898 - and how Tim NotCarruthers can ride (roughly) the same route today. Astute readers will notice how quickly a German army could travel through Holland and Belgium by train. Lloyd refers to the famous historian AJP Taylor to show the importance of train timetables in army mobilisation and the start of World War One (14:05). Tim NotCarruthers ignores the rattling of sabres and researches, instead, the nicest possible hotels to stay at by the Amstel River (19:35). He finds a historic hostelry with basement showers and a unique line in deep massage and physical therapy. Tim also goes looking for a slop-shop in the Jewish Quarter in Amsterdam, and uncovers the dark reasons for why he can’t find one (24:38). And so to real life examples of Böhme the military engineer - Böhme the Nazi war criminal (28:08); von Pressel the chief architect of the Baghdad Railway (31:30), von der Goltz Inspector-General of Fortifications in 1898, and lover of young Turks (33:13); Krupp the steel magnate, and lover of young Corsicans (36:23). Club Business: John Ironside on German comedy videos (39:43); Zydny on Lancaster guns (40:41); Tony F on rowing speeds (41:36); Kass reports calmly on a proper sailing (mis)adventure (43:43); Jeff loves our Memmert episode (45:28); Brian offers to set us up with rowing lessons (45:40); Jon joins in with tales of Thames sculling at speed (46:33); a special ‘Ahoy’ to Adrian for finally tracking down the original Queenborough steamer pier (48:30). MUSIC CREDITS Great Open Sea by the Wellington Sea Shanty Society: http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Wellington_Sea_Shanty_Society/none_given_1098/12_-_Wellington_Sea_Shanty_Society_-_Great_Open_Sea Waiting for a Train - Flash and the Pan: https://youtu.be/skVv0__xKdY