When people see the Steam Yacht Gondola on Coniston today, in all her re-built glory, she seems rather plush to have been cast by Arthur Ransome as Captain Flint’s houseboat in Swallows and Amazons. The main reason for assuming that she was used as the model for the illustrations is because Arthur Ransome grabbed a post card of the Gondola and drew on it to give the first illustrators of Swallows and Amazons some idea of his vision. However Ransome’s biographer Roger Wardale told me that it was a former steamer on Windermere that he had in mind: the S.Y. Esperance. Ransome was known to have been spotted looking through her cabin windows and much admired her distinctive bow, designed to cut through cat ice on her way to Lakeside Railway station.
When I was first taken up to the Lake District in 1963, my father found what he thought was houseboat bay on Windermere and took this shot of SL Esperance moored in Rayrigg Bay. She does look very like the first professional drawing submitted to illustrate Swallows and Amazons.
Arthur Ransome’s terse note reads: ‘The ass has forgotten the mast’. I went to see the Esperance when she was lying at the Steamboat Museum on Windermere with the film producer Nick Barton in 2011. Built at Rutherglen in 1869 she is nearly 65 foot long with a 10 foot beam.
She did not always have such a traditional appearance. Roger Wardale kindly sent me this photograph showing what she looked like in the 1930s.
The cabin has since been removed from her rear end.
SY Esperance now looks more like this illustration – or could do. Although she has a setting for a mast the reality is that she has seven windows, whereas Clifford Webb’s illustration shows her with only six.
I have no idea if anyone could film aboard her today when marine safety regulations are so strict. We couldn’t in 1973.
When we made the original film of ‘Swallows and Amazons’, the producer Richard Pilbrow was obliged to use the Lady Derwentwater, owned by the Keswick Launch Co. She has quite a different stern from the illustrations but was licensed to carry 90 passengers, which must have allowed him to take a seventy-strong film crew on board. At least she was given a mast. You can envisage Ronald Fraser, as Captain Flint, angrily stamping out the firework on the roof.
One advantage of the Lady Derwentwater was that the windows of her cabin enabled the director to get a good view of the lake, which he made use of when Captain John rowed over from Peel Island to visit Captain Flint and pass on the charcoal burners’ warning. She couldn’t be moved to another lake, but Derwentwater is surrounded by such dramatic fells that the director, Claude Whatham used this to his advantage during the final scenes of the classic film. The Lady Derwentwater has been given a transome but is still in commission and you can take a trip on her today.
Was the Gondola so very different? Ransome had known the steam launch since spending his own childhood holidays on Coniston, when she was in service. While staying at Nibthwaite he became a good friend of the Captain, or so the story goes. Back in 1973 the Gondola looked like this – her roof too curved to run along, her bow rising up a little too dramatically to accommodate the foredeck of a retired pirate busy writing up his devilish crimes while his a cannon lies glinting in the sunlight, ready to fire.
To read more about Esperance, please click here
For more about the Steamboat Museum with a photograph of SY Esperance, please click here
For a lovely photo of SY Esperance and to read more, from another perspective please click here
The full story of the making of the classic film Swallows and Amazons (1974)’ can be read in this ebook costing £2.99. You can read the first section for free here:
Sophie Neville 
Thank you for a well illustrated,carefully researched, original article which really brought a fresh light on the subject and was a joy to read. Your illustrations are particularly helpful, and I am convinced that your father’s snap of Houseboat Bay is “right”.
The thanks goes to Roger Wardale and to my father who took the photos in 1963 and 1973. You must let me know if you have any questions about the filming.
As always, Sophie, on the button. This is the sort of well-researched material that adds dimension to our envisioning of the places and ‘props’ in the books; Roger W is a master at it too. Keep it up!
Thank you. I am currently re-reading ‘Missee Lee’ so have a leaning towards junks.
Another great piece of background info on the film, thank you again, Sophie. I also like your father’s photo of Houseboat Bay.
I’m glad you enjoyed it. So glad he took that photo. I think there is another of the houseboat on Windermere.