Description
Transcur is an Essex fishing smack built at the turn of the century. Between Essex and Denmark lie 350 miles of the boisterous North Sea. Frank Mulville, with his wife Celia, Celia’s cousin Anne, and their two small boys Patrick and Adrian, had absolute confidence in Transcur and no hesitation in setting out for the cruise to Denmark in her. They did not know how drastically that confidence would be tested. The voyage started well, but small things went wrong and led cumulatively to near-disaster, when Transcur fetched up aground on the wicked Terschelling sandbank, and was hammered almost to destruction by the violent waves of the North Sea.
The heroine of this story is certainly the boat, though her crew must share the credit. There are no heroics, but the courage and determination of all five people (not least of the small boys) shine through the modesty of the writing. The moment when the women and children have to abandon Transcur and trust themselves to an untested rubber dinghy, while Mulville remains on board alone in the hope of saving his boat, is made as exciting and poignant as any in the history of the sea.
By luck and consummate seamanship Transcur and her master are saved, but there is a breathless time before the family is reunited and the laborious task begun of getting Transcur patched up and the voyage resumed.
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