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The Riddle of the Sands

Erskine Childers · 1903

A bored young Foreign Office clerk accepts a friend's invitation to a dull-sounding yachting holiday among the Frisian Islands, only to discover that his companion, the shrewd amateur sailor Davies, suspects a German yacht-owner of surveying the coast for a coming invasion of England. Told with painstaking, authentic small-boat seamanship, Erskine Childers's novel is widely credited as the first modern spy thriller, and its warnings about naval unpreparedness were taken seriously enough by the British government of the day that the book influenced real defense planning. A gripping, meticulously observed tale of amateur detection carried out entirely by chart, tide-table, and compass.

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Contents

  1. Opening pages
  2. 1Preface
  3. 2CHAPTER I. The Letter
  4. 3CHAPTER II. The Dulcibella
  5. 4CHAPTER III. Davies
  6. 5CHAPTER IV. Retrospect
  7. 6CHAPTER V. Wanted, a North Wind
  8. 7CHAPTER VI. Schlei Fiord
  9. 8CHAPTER VII. The Missing Page
  10. 9CHAPTER VIII. The Theory
  11. 10CHAPTER IX. I Sign Articles
  12. 11CHAPTER X. His Chance
  13. 12CHAPTER XI. The Pathfinders
  14. 13CHAPTER XII. My Initiation
  15. 14CHAPTER XIII. The Meaning of our Work
  16. 15CHAPTER XIV. The First Night in the Islands
  17. 16CHAPTER XV. Bensersiel
  18. 17CHAPTER XVI. Commander von Brüning
  19. 18CHAPTER XVII. Clearing the Air
  20. 19CHAPTER XVIII. Imperial Escort
  21. 20CHAPTER XIX. The Rubicon
  22. 21CHAPTER XX. The Little Drab Book
  23. 22CHAPTER XXI. Blindfold to Memmert
  24. 23CHAPTER XXII. The Quartette
  25. 24CHAPTER XXIII. A Change of Tactics
  26. 25CHAPTER XXIV. Finesse
  27. 26CHAPTER XXV. I Double Back
  28. 27CHAPTER XXVI. The Seven Siels
  29. 28CHAPTER XXVII. The Luck of the Stowaway
  30. 29CHAPTER XXVIII. We Achieve our Double Aim
  31. 30Epilogue
  32. 31Postscript (March 1903)

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