The Riddle of the Sands: An Espionage Thriller With Implications of a Greater German Threat
by
Sasha
WHO IS ERSKINE CHILDERS?
Richard Erskine Childers was born on the 25th of June, 1870 to Robert Ceaser Childers and Anna Childers and was raised in Glendalough, Dublin. Childers was a very keen yachter, often going on trips in his yacht, the Vixen, during his education at Trinity College. The Vixen, Childers’ first yacht, was the prototype for the yacht Dulcibella in his espionage invasion literature novel The Riddle of the Sands.[1]
He began working as a clerk in the House of Commons (lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom) in 1895. He briefly participated in the Boer War in 1899 as a volunteer in the City Imperial Volunteers, serving as an artillery driver. A year later, Childers published a memoir of his experiences in the Boer war in a book called In the ranks of the C.I.V. [City of London Imperial Volunteers] (1900), as well as contributed to The [London] Times History of the War in South Africa where Childers specialized in guerilla warfare. This book did not live up to the success of The Riddle of the Sands, published in 1903, an espionage-thriller about two ametuer yachtsmen and distant friends on a vacation off the coast of Germany’s shores who end up on a mission spying on the Germans. In the same year he published The Riddle of the Sands, Childers met Mary Alden (Molly) Osgood, whom he would marry in 1904, on a visit to Massachusetts.[2] After a tour of Ireland’s counties in the southwest, Erskine shifted his attention from the German threat, which was highlighted in his book The Riddle of the Sands, to the freedom of Ireland. He completely devoted himself to the cause, resigning from his senior clerkship post in the House of Commons in 1910 so he could focus on writing The Framework of Home Rule, which advocated to give Ireland independence of internal affairs while still governed by British, also known as dominion status. In July of 1914, Childers and Conor O’Briens smuggled 1,500 Mauser rifles and 45,000 rounds of ammunition on their yachts Asgard and Kelpie to help arm the volunteers in Southern Ireland.[3]
When the First World War was declared shortly after the smuggling of ammunition and guns, Erskine Childers volunteered in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve as a part of the RNAS (Royal Naval Air Service). He participated in many aspects of the war, switching posts occasionally over the four years he served. His knowledge of the German coast that he had acquired from yachting trips was sought after for seaplane reconnaissance as well as planning campaigns such as the Dardanelles. As well as working in naval and air intelligence, Childers participated in the Cuxhaven raid in November 1914 as towards the end of the war helped establish and provided intelligence for the newly formed Royal Air Force (RAF).[4] [5]
After retiring from the military as a major with a Distinguished Service Cross in 1919, Erskine Childers moved himself, his wife and two children to Ireland, settling in Dublin. He now became once again completely invested in the Irish cause, working with top officials, writing and helping distribute propaganda and helping with Irish affairs. Despite all this, the Irish people saw him as a traitor and foreigner because he acted like an Englishman and was still a Protestant, and even thought he was possibly a British spy due to his previous work in the British government.[6] On the other hand he was viewed as the “most dangerous man in the country” by the provisional government in Ireland.[7] Though Childers had received warnings of danger not once, he only fled to his childhood home on November 10, 1922. On the same night his house was surrounded by Free State soldiers and was taken to prison and a week later charged and sentenced to death for unlawful possession of an automatic pistol. His execution was scheduled for 7 a.m., November 24, 1922.[8]
SYNOPSIS OF RIDDLE OF THE SANDS
The novel begins when a young gentleman by the name of Carruthers gets an invitation along with a list of obscure supplies from a distant friend, Arthur Davies to go on yachting and duck hunting trip in the Schleswig fjords located in the Baltics during late August and September. When he gets to the yacht, he is slightly disappointed and shocked for his previous experiences yachting involved a crew and a clean, good looking yacht, unlike the Dulcibella which Davies owned. Though the atmosphere between the two men on the trip is awkward and reticent, they become more comfortable as time passes and Davies, who has been at the Baltics for some time started to reveal his observations and speculations of suspicious German activity in the Frisian Islands located to the North. Utilizing Carruther’s ability to speak German, they decide to investigate applying amatuer spying skill.
LEGACY AND CULTURAL AND MILITARY IMPORTANCE OF THE RIDDLE OF THE SANDS
The reason The Riddle of the Sands, published in 1903 was so influential in both short term and long term aspects was because it was the first novel of its kind, an espionage thriller novel, becoming the prototype of many novels to come after the book’s publication. As well as creating its own genre, the book was also a subset of the genre of invasion literature, which was most popular between 1871 when the book The Battle of Dorking was published until the end of World War Ⅰ. What was notable about The Battle of Dorking and books similar to it, like The Riddle of the Sands, that the authors took inspiration from what they observed and experienced around them and put into literature so that they could better communicate it to the population of Great Britain and help them realize the threats their country is facing. Especially emphasized in these works of literature was the threat of the newly unified Germany. Not only was this unification due to multiple military campaigns, the final one being the Franco-Prussian war (July 19, 1870 - November 10, 1871). [9] At the time of the publications of these books, novels and short stories the British Government was not very worried about their military situation and focused greatly on their long-established enemy, France.[10] These works of literature drew the attention away from France, only recently devastated by the Franco-Prussian war, to a more worrisome threat, Germany. A common theme is the military and technological superiority, in The Riddle of the Sands it is naval power. Three years before the publication of Childers’ book, Bernard von Bülow, the German Chancellor serving from 1900 to 1909[11], promoted a law called the Navy Law which was a plan to increase the current German fleet in size and power to rival to that of the British, which at the time was the most powerful fleet in the world. Also noting that the novel was based off of true events and experiences of the authors friend[12] and the influence of other works of invasion literature the British Government decided to review the preparedness of their military forces.
The novel, The Riddle of the Sands, had notable influences on both modern day spy and espionage thrillers as well as military affairs and national security of Great Britain during the early 1900’s. Taking his experiences in yachting and the experiences of his friend, Carruthers, which had been the basis of his novel, Childers was able to write a piece of literature that would shape and create a new genre of literature, his book being the prototype novel, as well as help shine the spotlight onto the great threat that Germany posed in the waking years of the World War to Great Britain alongside other authors of invasion literature.
Sources
Footnotes
[1] Erskine Childers, The Riddle of the Sands (Mineola, NY: Dover, 1903),vii
[2] “Erskine Childers Papers”, National Library of Ireland, 2010, http://www.nli.ie/pdfs/mss%20lists/161_ErskineChilders.pdf (accessed February 18, 2018).
[3] Childers, The Riddle of the Sands., viiii
[4] Ibid., viiii
[5] “Erskine Childers Papers”, National Library of Ireland, 2010, http://www.nli.ie/pdfs/mss%20lists/161_ErskineChilders.pdf (accessed February 18, 2018).
[6] “ Erskine Childers Papers”, National Library of Ireland, 2010, http://www.nli.ie/pdfs/mss%20lists/161_ErskineChilders.pdf (accessed February 18, 2018).
[7] Childers, The Riddle of the Sands, xi
[8] Ibid., xii
[9] “The Franco-Prussian War”, International World History Project, http://history-world.org/franco_prussian_war.htm, (accessed February 19, 2018)
[10] Childers, The Riddle of the Sands, xv
[11] “Bernard von Bülow”, Oxford Reference, http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803095535140, (accessed February 19, 2018)
[12] Erskine Childers, The Riddle of the Sands (New York, NY: Dodd, Mead and Company, 1915), v
Richard Erskine Childers was born on the 25th of June, 1870 to Robert Ceaser Childers and Anna Childers and was raised in Glendalough, Dublin. Childers was a very keen yachter, often going on trips in his yacht, the Vixen, during his education at Trinity College. The Vixen, Childers’ first yacht, was the prototype for the yacht Dulcibella in his espionage invasion literature novel The Riddle of the Sands.[1]
He began working as a clerk in the House of Commons (lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom) in 1895. He briefly participated in the Boer War in 1899 as a volunteer in the City Imperial Volunteers, serving as an artillery driver. A year later, Childers published a memoir of his experiences in the Boer war in a book called In the ranks of the C.I.V. [City of London Imperial Volunteers] (1900), as well as contributed to The [London] Times History of the War in South Africa where Childers specialized in guerilla warfare. This book did not live up to the success of The Riddle of the Sands, published in 1903, an espionage-thriller about two ametuer yachtsmen and distant friends on a vacation off the coast of Germany’s shores who end up on a mission spying on the Germans. In the same year he published The Riddle of the Sands, Childers met Mary Alden (Molly) Osgood, whom he would marry in 1904, on a visit to Massachusetts.[2] After a tour of Ireland’s counties in the southwest, Erskine shifted his attention from the German threat, which was highlighted in his book The Riddle of the Sands, to the freedom of Ireland. He completely devoted himself to the cause, resigning from his senior clerkship post in the House of Commons in 1910 so he could focus on writing The Framework of Home Rule, which advocated to give Ireland independence of internal affairs while still governed by British, also known as dominion status. In July of 1914, Childers and Conor O’Briens smuggled 1,500 Mauser rifles and 45,000 rounds of ammunition on their yachts Asgard and Kelpie to help arm the volunteers in Southern Ireland.[3]
When the First World War was declared shortly after the smuggling of ammunition and guns, Erskine Childers volunteered in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve as a part of the RNAS (Royal Naval Air Service). He participated in many aspects of the war, switching posts occasionally over the four years he served. His knowledge of the German coast that he had acquired from yachting trips was sought after for seaplane reconnaissance as well as planning campaigns such as the Dardanelles. As well as working in naval and air intelligence, Childers participated in the Cuxhaven raid in November 1914 as towards the end of the war helped establish and provided intelligence for the newly formed Royal Air Force (RAF).[4] [5]
After retiring from the military as a major with a Distinguished Service Cross in 1919, Erskine Childers moved himself, his wife and two children to Ireland, settling in Dublin. He now became once again completely invested in the Irish cause, working with top officials, writing and helping distribute propaganda and helping with Irish affairs. Despite all this, the Irish people saw him as a traitor and foreigner because he acted like an Englishman and was still a Protestant, and even thought he was possibly a British spy due to his previous work in the British government.[6] On the other hand he was viewed as the “most dangerous man in the country” by the provisional government in Ireland.[7] Though Childers had received warnings of danger not once, he only fled to his childhood home on November 10, 1922. On the same night his house was surrounded by Free State soldiers and was taken to prison and a week later charged and sentenced to death for unlawful possession of an automatic pistol. His execution was scheduled for 7 a.m., November 24, 1922.[8]
SYNOPSIS OF RIDDLE OF THE SANDS
The novel begins when a young gentleman by the name of Carruthers gets an invitation along with a list of obscure supplies from a distant friend, Arthur Davies to go on yachting and duck hunting trip in the Schleswig fjords located in the Baltics during late August and September. When he gets to the yacht, he is slightly disappointed and shocked for his previous experiences yachting involved a crew and a clean, good looking yacht, unlike the Dulcibella which Davies owned. Though the atmosphere between the two men on the trip is awkward and reticent, they become more comfortable as time passes and Davies, who has been at the Baltics for some time started to reveal his observations and speculations of suspicious German activity in the Frisian Islands located to the North. Utilizing Carruther’s ability to speak German, they decide to investigate applying amatuer spying skill.
LEGACY AND CULTURAL AND MILITARY IMPORTANCE OF THE RIDDLE OF THE SANDS
The reason The Riddle of the Sands, published in 1903 was so influential in both short term and long term aspects was because it was the first novel of its kind, an espionage thriller novel, becoming the prototype of many novels to come after the book’s publication. As well as creating its own genre, the book was also a subset of the genre of invasion literature, which was most popular between 1871 when the book The Battle of Dorking was published until the end of World War Ⅰ. What was notable about The Battle of Dorking and books similar to it, like The Riddle of the Sands, that the authors took inspiration from what they observed and experienced around them and put into literature so that they could better communicate it to the population of Great Britain and help them realize the threats their country is facing. Especially emphasized in these works of literature was the threat of the newly unified Germany. Not only was this unification due to multiple military campaigns, the final one being the Franco-Prussian war (July 19, 1870 - November 10, 1871). [9] At the time of the publications of these books, novels and short stories the British Government was not very worried about their military situation and focused greatly on their long-established enemy, France.[10] These works of literature drew the attention away from France, only recently devastated by the Franco-Prussian war, to a more worrisome threat, Germany. A common theme is the military and technological superiority, in The Riddle of the Sands it is naval power. Three years before the publication of Childers’ book, Bernard von Bülow, the German Chancellor serving from 1900 to 1909[11], promoted a law called the Navy Law which was a plan to increase the current German fleet in size and power to rival to that of the British, which at the time was the most powerful fleet in the world. Also noting that the novel was based off of true events and experiences of the authors friend[12] and the influence of other works of invasion literature the British Government decided to review the preparedness of their military forces.
The novel, The Riddle of the Sands, had notable influences on both modern day spy and espionage thrillers as well as military affairs and national security of Great Britain during the early 1900’s. Taking his experiences in yachting and the experiences of his friend, Carruthers, which had been the basis of his novel, Childers was able to write a piece of literature that would shape and create a new genre of literature, his book being the prototype novel, as well as help shine the spotlight onto the great threat that Germany posed in the waking years of the World War to Great Britain alongside other authors of invasion literature.
Sources
- “Bernard von Bülow”, Oxford Reference. http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803095535140 (accessed February 19, 2018)
- Childers, Erskine. The Riddle of the Sands. Mineola, NY: Dover, 1903.
- Childers, Erskine. The Riddle of the Sands. New York, NY: Dodd, Mead and Company, 1915.
- “Erskine Childers Papers”, National Library of Ireland, 2010, http://www.nli.ie/pdfs/mss%20lists/161_ErskineChilders.pdf (accessed February 18, 2018).
- “The Fear of Invasion”, The British Library, May 15, 2014. https://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/the-fear-of-invasion (accessed February 19, 2018)
- “The Franco-Prussian War”, International World History Project. http://history-world.org/franco_prussian_war.htm, (accessed February 19, 2018)
Footnotes
[1] Erskine Childers, The Riddle of the Sands (Mineola, NY: Dover, 1903),vii
[2] “Erskine Childers Papers”, National Library of Ireland, 2010, http://www.nli.ie/pdfs/mss%20lists/161_ErskineChilders.pdf (accessed February 18, 2018).
[3] Childers, The Riddle of the Sands., viiii
[4] Ibid., viiii
[5] “Erskine Childers Papers”, National Library of Ireland, 2010, http://www.nli.ie/pdfs/mss%20lists/161_ErskineChilders.pdf (accessed February 18, 2018).
[6] “ Erskine Childers Papers”, National Library of Ireland, 2010, http://www.nli.ie/pdfs/mss%20lists/161_ErskineChilders.pdf (accessed February 18, 2018).
[7] Childers, The Riddle of the Sands, xi
[8] Ibid., xii
[9] “The Franco-Prussian War”, International World History Project, http://history-world.org/franco_prussian_war.htm, (accessed February 19, 2018)
[10] Childers, The Riddle of the Sands, xv
[11] “Bernard von Bülow”, Oxford Reference, http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803095535140, (accessed February 19, 2018)
[12] Erskine Childers, The Riddle of the Sands (New York, NY: Dodd, Mead and Company, 1915), v