The Riddle of the Sands

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This article is about the 1903 adventure novel. For the 1979 film based on the novel, see The Riddle of the
Sands (film). For the 1984 Jimmy Buffett album, see Riddles in the Sand.

The Riddle of the Sands: A Record of Secret Service is a 1903 novel by Erskine Childers. The book, which
enjoyed immense popularity in the years before World War I, is an early example of the espionage novel and
was extremely influential in the genre of spy fiction. It has been made into feature-length films for both cinema
and television.

The novel "owes a lot to the wonderful adventure novels of writers like Rider Haggard, that were a staple of
Victorian Britain".[1] It was a spy novel that "established a formula that included a mass of verifiable detail,
which gave authenticity to the story – the same ploy that would be used so well by John Buchan, Ian Fleming,
John le Carré and many others."[1]

Contents
 1Plot summary  4Film, television, and  6References
 2Literary criticism theatrical adaptations  7External links
 3Historical context  5Sequel
Plot summary
Carruthers, a minor official in the Foreign Office, is contacted by an acquaintance, Davies, asking him to join in
a yachting holiday in the Baltic Sea. Carruthers agrees, as his other plans for a holiday have fallen through.

He arrives to find that Davies has a small sailing boat (the vessel is named Dulcibella, a reference to Childers's
own sister of that name), not the comfortable crewed yacht that he expected. However Carruthers agrees to go
on the trip and joins Davies in Flensburg on the Baltic, whence they head for the Frisian Islands, off the coast of
Germany. Carruthers has to learn quickly how to sail the small boat.

Davies gradually reveals that he suspects that the Germans are undertaking something sinister in the German
Frisian islands. This is based on his belief that he was nearly wrecked by a German yacht luring him into a shoal
in rough weather during a previous trip. Davies is suspicious about what would motivate the Germans to try to
kill him. Having failed to interest anyone in the government in the incident, he feels it is his patriotic duty to
investigate further – hence the invitation to Carruthers.

Carruthers and Davies spend some time exploring the shallow tidal waters of the Frisian Islands, moving closer
to the mysterious site where there is a rumoured secret treasure recovery project in progress on the island of
Memmert. The two men discover that an expatriate Englishman, Dollmann, is involved in the recovery project.
Carruthers realises that Davies is in love with Dollmann's daughter, Clara. Carruthers and Davies try to
approach Memmert. They're warned away by a German navy patrol boat, the Blitz, and its commander Von
Bruning. This makes them all the more sure that there is something more than a treasure dig on the island.

Taking advantage of a thick fog, Davies navigates them covertly through the complicated sandbanks in a small
boat to investigate the site. Carruthers investigates the island. He overhears Von Bruning and Dollmann
discussing something more than treasure hunting, including cryptic references to "Chatham", "Seven" and "the
tide serving". The pair return through the fog to the Dulcibella. There, they find Dollmann and Von Bruning
have beaten them and are seemingly suspicious.
Von Bruning invites them to Dollmann's villa for a dinner, where he attempts to subtly cross-examine them to
find out if they are British spies. Carruthers plays a dangerous game, admitting they are curious. But he
convinces Von Bruning that he believes the cover story about treasure and merely wants to see the imaginary
"wreck". Carruthers announces that the Foreign Office has recalled him to England. He heads off, then doubles
back to follow Von Bruning and his men. He trails them to a port where they board a tugboat towing a barge.
Carruthers sneaks aboard and hides, and the convoy heads to sea.

Carruthers finally puts the riddle together. The Germans are linking the canals and the railways, dredging
passages through the shifting sands and hiding a fleet of tugs and barges. The only explanation is that they are
going to secretly transport a powerful German army across the North Sea to invade Britain's east coast. He
escapes after grounding the tugboat and rushes back to Davies. He finds him and explains how they must flee
before the Germans come after them. They convince Dollmann and Clara to come with them to avoid
Dollmann's being arrested by the Germans, who will think he has changed sides again. As they sail across the
North Sea, Dollmann commits suicide by jumping overboard, presumably to avoid disgrace and probable arrest
for treason.

An epilogue by the "editor" examines the details of a report prepared by Dollmann, outlining his plan for the
invasion force. A postscript notes that the Royal Navy is finally taking countermeasures to intercept any
German invasion fleet and urges haste.

Literary criticism
Childers's biographer Andrew Boyle noted: "For the next ten years Childers's book remained the most powerful
contribution of any English writer to the debate on Britain's alleged military unpreparedness."[2] It was a notable
influence on John Buchan, and on Ken Follett, who described it as "an open-air adventure thriller about two
young men who stumble upon a German armada preparing to invade England."[3][4] Follett has also called it "the
first modern thriller".[3]

Rhodri Jeffreys-Jones listed The Riddle of the Sands as one of the ten classic spy novels, in The Guardian's best
spy novel list.[5] Robert McCrum of The Observer included it in his list of the 100 greatest novels of all time.[6]

The Daily Telegraph has cited the book as the second best spy novel of all time, after Kipling's Kim.[7]

Historical context
It was one of the early invasion novels, "... a story with a purpose" in the author's own words, written from "a
patriot's natural sense of duty", which predicted war with Germany and called for British preparedness.[8] The
whole genre of "invasion novels" raised the public's awareness of the "potential threat" of Imperial Germany.
Although the belief has grown that the book was responsible for the development of the naval base at Rosyth,
the novel was published in May 1903, two months after the purchase of the land for the Rosyth naval base was
announced in Parliament (5 March 1903) and some time after secret negotiations for the purchase had begun.
Although Winston Churchill later credited the book as a major reason why the Admiralty had decided to
establish the new naval bases, this seems unlikely. When war was declared he ordered the Director of Naval
Intelligence to find Childers, whom he had met when the author was campaigning to represent a naval seat in
Parliament, and employ him.[9][10] At the time Childers was writing Riddle he was also contributing to a factual
book published by The Times in which he warned of outdated British army tactics in the event of "conflicts of
the future".[11] He developed this theme in two further works he published in 1911: War and the Arme Blanche
and German Influence on British Cavalry.[12]

The novel contains many realistic details based on Childers's own sailing trips along the East Frisia coast and
large parts of his logbook entries from an 1897 Baltic cruise "appear almost unedited in the book."[1] The yacht
Dulcibella in the novel is based upon Vixen, the boat Childers used for his exploration.[13] In August 1910,
inspired by the work, two British amateur yachtsmen, Captain Bernard Trench RM and Lieutenant Vivian
Brandon RN, undertook a sailing holiday along the same section of the Frisian coast, during which they
collected information about German naval installations. The two men were sentenced to four years custody by a
military court in Leipzig, but they were pardoned by the Emperor in 1913. They joined "Room 40", the
intelligence and decoding section of the British Admiralty, on the outbreak of war.[14]

Film, television, and theatrical adaptations

The Riddle of the Sands (1979) is a film adaptation of the book, starring Michael York as Charles Carruthers
and Simon MacCorkindale as Arthur Davies.[15] In Germany, the novel was popularised by the TV movie Das
Rätsel der Sandbank (1984), produced by the public television and radio station Radio Bremen, and starring
Burghart Klaußner as Davies and Peter Sattmann as Carruthers.[16]

Sequel
In 1998, nautical writer Sam Llewellyn wrote a continuation of the story named The Shadow in the Sands. This
is subtitled "being an account of the cruise of the yacht Gloria in the Frisian Islands in April of 1903 and the
Conclusion of the Events described by Erskine Childers."[17]