We Didn't Mean to Go to Sea
Swallows and Amazons Series
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Narrated by:
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Alison Larkin
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By:
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Arthur Ransome
About this listen
As in all of Ransome's books, the emphasis is on self-reliance, courage, and resourcefulness. We Didn't Mean to Go to Sea is a story to warm any mariner's heart. Full of nautical lore and adventure, it will appeal to young armchair sailors and seasoned sailors alike.
Listen to more in the Swallows and Amazons series.©1994 David R. Godine (P)2009 Audible, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
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Victor Hugo wrote this wonderful story while living in exile on the island of Guernsey, which is where the adventure unfolds. Set in the early 1800s, The Toilers of the Sea tells off a young reclusive fisherman who falls dangerously in love with a beautiful island girl. Her uncle, himself an intrepid seafarer, is the owner of a paddle-steamer, which plies its trade to and from St. Malo on the coast of Brittany.
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Interesting, could without the special effects
- By Louise on 07-21-16
By: Victor Hugo
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Alison Larkin Presents: Moby Dick and Two Poems by Herman Melville
- By: Herman Melville
- Narrated by: Jonathan Epstein
- Length: 25 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Melville’s epic tale of one man versus a great white whale will delight Melville devotees as well as those who have yet to sail on this adventure in this mesmerizing new recording read by Jonathan Epstein. The mountain whose whale-like shape first gave Melville the idea of writing Moby Dick rests in the Berkshire Hills, Massachusetts, a short drive away from The Alison Larkin Presents recording studio. At the end of the recording, Larkin interviews Jonathan Epstein and recording engineer Galen Wade about the experience recording the great novel.
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Absolutely outstanding
- By Mary Katherine Worth on 03-05-21
By: Herman Melville
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Caught by the Sea
- My Life on Boats
- By: Gary Paulsen
- Narrated by: Patrick Lawlor
- Length: 2 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Gary Paulsen takes listeners along on his maiden voyage, proving that ignorance can be bliss. Also really stupid and incredibly dangerous. He tells of boats that owned him, good, bad, and beloved, and how they got him through terrifying storms that he survived by sheer luck. His spare prose conjures up shark surprises and killer waves as well as moonlight on the sea, and makes listeners feel what it’s like to sail under the stars or to lie at anchor in a tropical lagoon where dolphins leap, bathed in silver.
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Real Life Stories!
- By Roseclan on 10-25-22
By: Gary Paulsen
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The Secret Sharer
- By: Joseph Conrad
- Narrated by: Wendy Ellison Mullen
- Length: 1 hr and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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A young sea captain discovers a stowaway - and allows him to stay, eventually seeing in him a reflection of himself. Or perhaps that's all there ever was. Wendy Mullen's contralto voice captures the music of the sea; you'll be mesmerized by the telling and the tale. Conrad is at his best, and Mullen's reading captivates.
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Conrad's literary rigging is tight.
- By Darwin8u on 04-06-13
By: Joseph Conrad
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The Mutiny of the Elsinore
- By: Jack London
- Narrated by: John Bolen
- Length: 11 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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Life has lost its savor for Mr. Pathurst. New York, fame, women, the arts, have all become tedious. Searching for excitement, he books passage on a cargo vessel sailing from Baltimore to Seattle on a route that travels around the treacherous Cape Horn.
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Just can't listen
- By Michael on 06-25-05
By: Jack London
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Offshore
- By: Penelope Fitzgerald, Stephanie Racine, Alan Hollinghurst - introduction
- Narrated by: Jot Davies, Alan Hollinghurst
- Length: 5 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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On Battersea Reach, a mixed bag of the temporarily lost and the patently eccentric live on houseboats, rising and falling with the tide of the Thames. There is good-natured Maurice, by occupation a male prostitute, by chance a receiver of stolen goods. And Richard, an ex-navy man whose boat, much like its owner, dominates the Reach.
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S.O.S
- By SB on 03-26-22
By: Penelope Fitzgerald, and others
What listeners say about We Didn't Mean to Go to Sea
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- chickahdee
- 07-29-19
fantastical and believable
We love this series, riveting, the right balance of detail and suspense to stay engaged. Our kids are early elementary school-aged and this is at the top of their reading comprehension level and well above current reading abilities. Investing time and audible credits in this nearly 100-year-old anthology has been the best way to get away from tv fodder this summer.
The Walker children are never the victims of their circumstances, are thoughtful and kind to each other, own their mistakes without being crippled by them, eagerly learn difficult sailing and navigational skills, and are the high-quality character and role model I hope for in literature. While the story was a life or death tale, Ransome kept his whimsical and realistic tone. We did dialog with our kids about the secondary storyline about keeping information from the mom until she could understand the whole story without fear for her kid's lives and how the scarcity and expense of detailed communication was a deciding factor (when international calls can be made with small cost from our personal devices today). In summary - spellbound lesson to "use your brain and call your mom".
We love Alison Larkin's narration. There could not be a better job than her dramatic and clear reading with her distinguishable (never annoying) voices for each character.
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- Glenna
- 08-20-12
The entire series is wonderful!
Would you consider the audio edition of We Didn't Mean to Go to Sea to be better than the print version?
Unfortunately I couldn't get the print version unless by mail order. The audio version of all of the books in the series is awesome!
Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?
Definitely! I generally listen to audio books on long drives but I had this on all the time.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Valerie
- 07-06-23
I’m so happy that I have it
The first time I listened to it I was so excited to hear the second one
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- preferred user
- 04-29-18
Is a 'darker' story than the others so far.
Would you consider the audio edition of We Didn't Mean to Go to Sea to be better than the print version?
I haven't read the print version because it's become difficult for me to read.
Who was your favorite character and why?
John is the true hero of this episode
Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?
had to be the ending when 'all was well'
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- Amazon Customer
- 03-27-19
Best Arthur Ransome book
This is Ransome's best Swallows and Amazons story. The Walker children are heroic, the storyline clever, and the descriptions of sailing fascinating. A wonderful book!
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- Amazon Customer
- 07-23-23
Great story!
We read this book, and the whole series, out loud to our kids when they were young. We all loved them! They inspired us to get a little sailboat and have some wonderful adventures of our own. Great story, well read. Highly recommend!
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- Gentle Reader Jill
- 06-29-09
Satisfying and Engaging
In this book the four Walker children move from the half-imaginary adventures they enjoyed in SWALLOWS AND AMAZONS and its sequals, to coping with a real, life-threatening emergency: they're alone in a small but sea-worthy craft on the open sea, at night in a high wind. To survive, they draw on all their experience and reading, and especially the boating and life skills they've learned from their adventurous Australian mother and their British naval officer father. They take responsibility, care about each other, and work together. An enjoyable, well-written, well-read book.
There is, however, a bit of a culture gap that may need explaining to children listening to the book, or they'll think the story is more far-fetched than it was in its own time. Today, five children would be considered a large family. When the book was written, five wasn't unusual. Children were also given more responsibility than today, and, correspondingly, more independence.
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- Toddhb
- 01-27-21
This might be the best of the series
The story is funny but realistic and the reader is great. This is a book I would recommend to any one whether they no anything about sailing or not. Great book for all.
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- Eric Anderson
- 06-26-21
My favorite childhood series
Fell in love with it all over again.
May youger children find this wonderful book, and fall in love too.
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