Re[2]: The Riddle of the Date

Forrest Brownell (forrest@slic.com)
Fri, 04 Dec 1998 11:43:43 -0500


- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
West Wight Potter Website at URL
http://www.lesbois.com/wwpotter/
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Hoist by my own petard! Andy Krumpe's careful reading of _The Riddle of
the Sands_ does indeed prove my overconfident dating of the action to
1902 to be in error. What, then, is the date? No earlier than 1897,
certainly -- there is a copy of Mahan's _Life of Nelson_ on Davies'
bookshelf -- but when, exactly? The text gives few clues. A study of
tide tables and Bradshaw might answer, if Childers' didn't deliberately
(or accidently) muddle his times, but that's more than I can manage at
the moment.

I'm left to guess, and I'll hazard 1901. Queen Victoria dead some eight
months, Edward's coronation almost a year away, the prospect of an
Anglo-German alliance increasingly remote ... 1901 would seem to fit the
bill. Any other ideas?

Forrest Brownell

South Colton NY
forrest@slic.com