Lottie Blossom was in fact two sloops, the first in 1952, and the second which Arthur and Genia Ransome had from 1953 to 1954 was their last boat. The first Lottie Blossom, a five ton sloop with a centre cockpit, was built largely to Evgenia’s specifications, including only two berths ("We don’t want friends"). Evegenia named her after a character from one of their cherished books The Luck of the Bodkins by P. G. Wodehouse (Lottie Blossom was an American film star who kept an alligator in a wicker basket to deter Customs men from uncovering her smuggling operation). She was built by Hillyard’s of Littlehampton who had built the Nancy Blackett, and first went to sea on 19 April 1952. But they wanted a really spacious cabin, and with a centre cockpit she could not be a true single-hander. Sh