RIDDLE OF THE PLANS
Above: Erskine at
the helm of Vixen
Below: Vixen off
Ryde, Isle of
Wight, on 30
April 1899, with
Erskine ChildersChannel. At that time Childers was a lieutenant with the
RNVR aboard the seaplane carrier HMS Engadine.
His war journals, read by CB, which are now held at
London’s Imperial War Museum reveal the sailor’s
continued interest in the Frisian Islands:
December 2 1914 (Harwich)
‘Another gale, terrible weather.
‘I have been having talks with the Captain about the
subject of expeditions on the German Coast.
‘He recommends sending the ship to a location
“outside the German minefield” to pick up the planes
which have been on bombing raids off Wangeroog and
Nordeney.
‘The idea is that it will be an easier journey for the
pilots with land marshes to pick up and no more difficult
or risky for the squadron.
‘Another question is that of seizing an island on the
Schleswig Coast and using it as a temporary base for
land aeroplanes.
‘Suderoog is suggested and the suggestion is good. I
am studying the location closely.’
Dec 9. 1914
‘Further discussions with the Captain about the
Suderoog plan. He has broached it at the Admiralty and
learns that there is even an idea of seizing Baltrum in the
East Frisian Islands, a proposal which I myself had
advocated to the Captain some time ago.’
Dec 31. 1914
‘I asked opinion of a plan by which a submarine should
carry one seaplane to a point within reach of Borkum
with a view to a raid mainly for reconnaissance on that
island and Ems and Emden. He thinks it is quite
feasible.’
Erskine Childers learned to sail in the Thames
Estuary on a ‘scrubby little yacht’ called Shulah
which he handled solo.
He also sailed a Dublin Bay Water Wag
13-footer while in Ireland, the birthplace of his
mother and later took a half-decker, Marguerite,
across the English Channel for the first time
before sailing Vixen to the Frisian Islands.
While the owner of Vixen he changed her name
to Dulcibella after one of his sisters. This was the
name used for the yacht in his novel The Riddle of
the Sands and also the name which featured in the
1979 film of the book which starred Michael York,
Simon MacCorkindale and Jenny Agutter.
Childers later re-visited the Frisian Islands with
his wife Molly in Sunbeam, a 15- ton yawl.
His last boat was the Colin Archer-designed
Asgard in which he smuggled rifles from the
continent to Howth for the Irish Volunteers in
June 1914.
Childers was tried by a military court in the
Irish Free State for possession of a firearm in
violation of the Emergency Powers Resolution and
executed by firing squad in 1922.
Dulcibella, the re-named Vixen, was burnt in
Lymington in 1948.ERSKINE CHILDERS
1870-1922THE RIDDLETHE RIDDLE