The Ditty Locker

Since the publication of Uncommon Courage: the Yachtsmen Volunteers of WW2 I’ve become more and more aware how little I know. I worked hard to research the book and can confidently say that I left out much more than I put in. The source material fills several shelves; the book itself is a single volume. That put the thought in my mind that there should be some accessible point where the discoveries of others could be shared. One of the pleasures of being invited to give talks about the book is the people who comment afterwards, bringing their own family knowledge of the period. But there’s never enough time to have a proper conversation and my brain won’t always retain all the detail.

Captain Chris O’Flaherty had sent a generous message to our host at the Little Ship Club in which he mentioned my accumulation of ‘a locker of dits’. This was a word I connected with the old-fashioned seaman’s ‘ditty bag’, in which scraps of material and potentially useful bits and pieces might be stored. I’d like to use the Golden Duck website to offer a space where people can share their ‘dits’ - not their tall tales, excuses or unsubstantiated gossip - but their valuable pieces of personal knowledge, research and expertise. We can also exchange practical research advice, book and website recommendations.

From Julia Jones, “A Ditty Locker for the Yachtsmen Volunteers”, Authors Electric, 2022.