Racundra's First Cruise take him, "I, of course, agreed with joy, as there is no such rigger in the Baltic as the Ancient Mariner". His real name was Captain Carl Sehmel and his character is also featured in several of the Swallows and Amazons books as Peter Duck and Simon, a wherry sailor in "Coot Club". Racundra's First Cruise Racundra's First Cruise is the first book about sailing written by Arthur Ransome, author of the "Swallows and Amazons" series. It describes a trip he made across the Baltic Sea from Riga in Latvia to Helsinki in Finland and back in a 9 metre
Swallows and Amazons series Many places in the books can be identified with real locations in the area, though Ransome has modified the real location in producing his fictional setting. Generally, the geography of the lake resembles Windermere (though Wild Cat Island has a number of important elements from Peel Island on Coniston Water) while the fells and hills surrounding it more closely resemble the area around Coniston. "Coot Club" and "The Big Six" are set in an accurate representation of the Norfolk Broads, particularly the small village of Horning and its surrounding rivers and broads. "Coots in the North" also begins in the