I remember how, reading this as a child, the opening pages kindled my imagination so that I was transported on board the little schooner "Wild Cat", watching gleefully as stores were brought on board at its Lowestoft quay and the companions-in-adventure arrived. Ransome's words are supported by a number of drawings executed in his usual style (deck plans showing berths, stores, shipmates etc), perfectly designed to draw susceptible youngsters into the enclosed world of the schooner. On reading this beginning, any child who has enjoyed other books in the series can't help but know they have a treat in store.
And Ransome proceeds to deliver, as events fall into place that turn what was meant to be a pleasure cruise into a quest to recover buried treasure. There's a suitably ruthless piratical adversary called Black Jake who, with his equally black-hearted crew, challenge the crew of the "Wild Cat" in a race to Crab Island in the exotic Caribees, to seek whatever Peter Duck saw buried there, decades before.
This novel, along with one or two other titles (Missee Lee and We Didn't Mean to Go to Sea come to mind) take a different turn from the "traditional" Swallows and Amazons adventure with their Cumbrian holiday settings. Here, there are fantastic yarns being spun, with real sea-going and blood-and-thunder piracy. And there's also Peter Duck -- who readers will recall from Swallowdale as the imaginary friend of one of the Swallows -- coming to life in order to stride through the pages (or at least, up and down the deck) of this first rate children's adventure.
