This classic of maritime fiction is also considered to be among the first modern spy novels in English literature. Many of the tropes that we now associate with the spy genre—e.g., the clever hero, the suave villain, the gradual unfolding of clues, and the suspenseful reconnaissance missions under the nose of the enemy—all find their forebear in The Riddle of the Sands.
In 1902, when this book is set, Britain’s imperial power was at its height, but a growing German navy threatened to upend Britain's command of the seas. The story begins when the narrator, a young civil servant named Carruthers, receives an invitation from an old college acquaintance, Davies, to join him for some “yachting” and duck hunting on the German coast. Having no other vacation plans, Carruthers takes up the offer and sets off for the Baltic.
Expecting to spend the next few weeks in oceanic luxury, Carruthers is mortified to step off the train and find a “scrubby” little yawl. The Dulcibella, as it is called, is so small that he can’t even fit his trunk down the hatch to his cramped quarters. Needless to say, there are no servants, deckhands, or fellow passengers; Carruthers would be Davies's lone companion, even though he knows next to nothing about sailing.
In spite of everything, Carruthers resolves to enjoy himself, and he sets out with Davies through the fjords of Schleswig-Holstein. Davies, it turns out, is a good enough sailor, and Carruthers gradually learns to make himself useful aboard the yacht. He can’t help noticing, however, that Davies doesn't seem very interested in the ducks, which are few at this time of year anyway. He is also reticent to share much information about a recent excursion through the North Sea sandbanks, the description of which was torn out of his logbook and rewritten.
A chance encounter with another sailor reveals that Davies had run aground during a gale and would certainly have been killed if the other sailor hadn't towed him to safety. This finally forces Davies to tell Carruthers the real reason for asking him to come to Germany. A mysterious yachtsman named Dollmann had tried to murder Davies by deliberately guiding him into a wall of rocks during a storm. Davies suspects that Dollmann may also be an English traitor who is conspiring with the Germans on some secret naval project that has something to do with the sandbanks of the North Sea coast. Might Germany be preparing secret coastal defenses in case of war with England? Carruthers, who knows German, might be able to help Davies solve this mystery.
For the rest of the story, you will have to read the book for yourself. I assure you that it will be worth your while. The story compelling, and the writing itself is witty and robust. The novel is also “riddled” with nautical jargon and marvelously detailed descriptions of the rugged life aboard the Dulcibella. It invites the reader to participate in the harrowing trials of navigating the North Sea in tumultuous October weather.
For me, the novel’s real pièce de résistance is the character Davies, who is so much like many of the true old salts I’ve met. By now you’ve guessed that he is no white-capped sailor in blue serge. Instead, he is short, disheveled, and strongly disdainful of the shore. His little boat is an extension of his being. It may look “scrubby” to the untrained eye, and so might he, but they are both perfectly well cut out for the task of coastal sailing. Davies's shrewd knowledge of the sea guides the pair through many a rough passage to allow Carruthers to investigate the mystery more closely.
In its day, The Riddle of the Sands was more than an adventurous and innovative sea story. It was also a highly topical and much discussed political work, for it threw light on England’s woeful lack of preparedness for an eventual war with Germany. Davies and Carruthers both admire Germany, which had only recently unified and was now industrializing and militarizing rapidly. Hidden in their admiration was a thinly veiled warning to British readers about their own country’s worrisome state of affairs. This makes it a rather timely political novel, for in it we find a tense mood not unlike our own, as we contrast China’s inexorable economic and military progress to our own languid and dismal situation in the United States.
The Riddle of the Sands is a book that has it all: excellent writing, a pioneering plot line, vivid sailing descriptions, and a political significance that is relevant even today. All of these serve to make it a masterful and classic novel and a great nautical read.
N.B.: The life of author, Erskine Childers, is a story unto itself. He was a civil servant and Boer War veteran who had taken up sailing after a sciatic injury precluded other sporting options. He cruised extensively throughout the German coastal islands that served as his novel’s backdrop and was a Royal Navy intelligence officer during the First World War. Afterward, he became an Irish nationalist and revolutionary leader and was arrested and executed by firing squad. He was the father of a future president of Ireland, Erskine Hamilton Childers.
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