We Didn't Mean to Go to Sea

infobox Book |
name = We Didn't Mean To Go To Sea
title_orig =
translator =


image_caption =
author = Arthur Ransome
cover_artist = Arthur Ransome
country = United Kingdom
language = English
series = Swallows and Amazons
genre = Children's books
publisher = Jonathan Cape
release_date = 1937
media_type = Print (Hardcover & Paperback)
pages =
isbn = ISBN 0-613-77239-3
preceded_by = Pigeon Post
followed_by = Secret Water

"We Didn't Mean To Go To Sea" is the seventh book in Arthur Ransome's Swallows and Amazons series of children's books. It was published in 1937. In this book, the Swallows (Walker family) are the only recurring characters. They are staying in a new location, Pin Mill on the River Orwell upstream from the ports of Felixstowe and Harwich.

The book features a small sailing cutter, the "Goblin", which is almost identical to Ransome's own boat "Nancy Blackett". This book also features accurate geography unlike the Lakes books. Ransome sailed "Nancy Blackett" across to Flushing by the same route as part of his research for the book.

Plot summary

The Walkers help Jim Brading moor his sailing cutter "Goblin" when he misses the buoy. In return he invites them to go sailing aboard "Goblin". Their mother agrees provided that they stay within the estuary of the rivers Orwell and Stour and do not pass the Beach End buoy at the mouth of the rivers, and do not 'go out to sea'. These conditions are caused by the imminent arrival of the Walkers' father, after many years of absence, is expected to return by ferry at any hour via the Continent of Europe. (It is implied that he has been posted in the Orient.)

The children agree to these conditions. However, on the second morning during a calm, after using the engine for some time, the petrol runs out; Jim, who is serving as captain, rows ashore in the yacht's dinghy from the anchored "Goblin" to buy more, but does not return, and an unexpected bank of fog drifts over the scene. The "Goblin" is now without a captain. Some hours later, after hearing the anchor drag in the fog, the Walkers realise that the tide has risen; the anchor chain is now too short and they are drifting. Then, in an attempt to put out more chain, the anchor is lost; and the yacht drifts out beyond Beach End into the North Sea. The children, aboard the drifting boat, decide that it is safer to hoist the sails and go farther out to sea rather than stay near the shore in the sandbanks and shoals of the estuary, which would involve the risk of being wrecked in the fog. Their intention is to put about at daybreak and regain the shore. But as the night continues, the wind rises and it becomes impossible for them to turn around once the fog lifts.

John, who is presented as the most responsible of the children, serves as the 'de facto' captain of the "Goblin", but everyone plays an essential role in the adventurous voyage. Running eastward before the wind, the Walkers and "Goblin" sail through the night in hazardous conditions. On the following morning, they find themselves approaching the coast of southern Netherlands. Having little choice but to accept the adventure onto which they have been launched, they pick up a Dutch pilot and arrive safely in Flushing.

The climax of the story has now been reached, for the young Walkers have come to Flushing at the same moment as their long-absent father. John sees the father embarking on a steam ferry bound for Harwich; the father must jump ship to reunite with his family and organize the return voyage aboard "Goblin". On returning to the Harwich estuary, the "Goblin" and its crew are reunited with Jim Brading, who is looking for his missing yacht. In a final point of plot resolution, it is revealed that the absent captain had been unconscious in hospital, suffering from concussion after being involved in a collision with a motor bus.