Send your letters (and replies) to: Classic Boat,


Liscartan House, 127-131 Sloane Street, London SW1X 9AS email: cb@classicboat.co.uk


Setting the record about Tai-Mo- Shan’s Japanese spy mission Classic Boat stands accused of “a


Red Ryder’s son, Canon Lisle glamorously romantic


misunderstanding”. In his new biography of Robert ‘Red’ Ryder VC, one of the most accomplished yachtsmen of the twentieth century, military historian Richard Hopton has challenged a claim put forward by myself in CB231.


The fi ve-page story, ‘Riddle of Japan’, suggested that the 16,217- mile 1933 voyage of the ketch Tai-Mo-Shan, one of the greatest blue-water voyages of the interwar years, appeared to have been


something more than an outstanding yachting exploit by fi ve young naval offi cers. Instead, it


“involved espionage in Japanese waters, carried out in the amateur spirit of the Riddle of the Sands, but with


extraordinary skill under the extreme economy forced on the Royal Navy between the wars.” Hopton concludes that in the absence of Admiralty records of a secret mission, Classic Boat must have been under a “glamorously romantic misunderstanding that the crew of the Tai-Mo-Shan were in some way involved in spying for British naval intelligence”. However, it was from documents in the papers of Robert Ryder himself, sailing master of the Tai-Mo-Shan, that our own conclusions were drawn.


Ryder, found an intelligence report signed by each of the fi ve young offi cers aboard the Tai-Mo-Shan on their great voyage. He discovered his father’s planning document stating that the fi rst priority was to deliver:


“1. Intelligence: Report on all places visited, in particular of Ganges Island, if discovered. Observing any possible advanced base for submarine operations, or as a W/T or W/T F. station in the event of hostilities against Japan or between Japan and America.” We also quoted a letter from Ryder to Edward Cock,


builder and co-designer of the 54-foot ketch: “The yacht is required for an expedition which is to explore and chart certain anchorages in the Aleutian Islands, which


matter we are endeavouring to keep confi dential. “I should like to


emphasise that Tai-Mo-Shan is not being built merely to sail home to England in as a stunt as is commonly supposed, and would ask you to treat our real intentions as confi dential.”


Knowing that the crew of Tai had planned a landing in the Kurile Islands, used eight years later as a secret anchorage for the Japanese surprise attack on the US fl eet at Pearl Harbor, Richard Hopton notes that the yachtsmen had made no


Japan’s Admiral Yamamoto – launched Pearl Harbor attack from the Kuriles


Above: Opening spread of Andrew Rosthorn’s article on Tai-Mo-Shan in CB231 Left: Cover of Richard Hopton’s biography of ‘Red’ Ryder


landing in the Japanese Kuriles. He fi nds no “espionage” and no “dash of glamour”. However, the reason neither CB, nor the reporters from The Times who followed up our story, mentioned any covert landing was because that proposal had been abandoned, as explained in the Tai-Mo-Shan intelligence report: “The Kuriles are patrolled by the


“I... would ask you to keep our real intentions


confi dential”


fi shery protection MV Shinkatsu Maru, which left the day before us. The possibility of paying Paramushir a nocturnal visit was under consideration prior to our arrival at Nemuro but it was so obvious that the Shinkatsu Maru would be waiting for us at any hour that the project was abandoned.” Reluctant Hero: The Life of Captain Robert Ryder VC is a terrifi c story, well told by Richard Hopton, but when it comes to naval intelligence work in the dark waters of the Kurile Islands, Classic Boat rests its case.


Andrew Rosthorn, by email READER’S BOAT OF THE MONTH


Cachalot Attached is a photo of my Prawner Cachalot, designed by John Ingam and built by the Limit Power Boat Co, Barrow-in-Furness, 1929-30. I spent seven years, part time, rebuilding her from a total loss. She is 34ft 6in (10.5m) on deck, 44ft (13.4m) over spars with a beam of 10ft 3in (3.1m) and draws 3ft 6in (1.1m). She is larch on oak and has a short triangular garboard at the stern post with eight planks being fastened by their hood ends; the ninth plank is the fi rst to go stem to stern. Andy Williams, by email


CLASSIC BOAT MAY 2012 97


Riddle of Japan O ne of the greatest blue water voy-


ages of the inter-war years appears to have been something more


than an outstanding yachting exploit by five young naval officers. Documents in the papers of Robert


Ryder VC have revealed that the 16,217 mile 1933 voyage of the ketch Tai-Mo- Shan involved espionage in Japanese waters, carried out in the amateur spirit of the Riddle of the Sands, but with extraordi- nary skill under the extreme economy forced on the Royal Navy between the wars. Lt Cdr Martyn Sherwood’s 1935 book


The Voyage of the Tai-Mo-Shan tells a straightforward story of a voyage of explo- ration and high adventure, from Hong Kong to Dartmouth “wrong-way-round the world without an engine or heads”. Four adventurous submariners financed


the building of a 54ft (16.5m) ocean racer in the Kowloon yard of the Hong Kong & Whampoa Dock Co Ltd, to plans drawn by HS ‘Uncle’ Rouse, vice-commodore of the Hong Kong Yacht Club, and Mr E Cock, manager of the great shipyard that became part of the Hutchison Whampoa combine. The yacht was named Tai-Mo-Shan (High Hat Hill), after Hong Kong’s highest mountain. Lt RED ‘Red’ Ryder, aged 24, super-


vised her construction: teak hull, camphor wood and ipol frames, a huge one-piece camphor stem, yacal sternpost, pine decks and a massive 7 tonne lead keel.


38 CLASSIC BOAT SEPTEMBER 2007


Tai-Mo-Shan’s Hong Kong-UK yacht cruise in 1933 included espionage in the fog-shrouded Kurile islands, base for Japan’s later attack on Pearl Harbor, reveals Andrew Rosthorn Sailmaker Ah Lung made them 16 sails


in 8oz cotton duck, entirely hand-stitched, after rejecting the first batch of canvas offered as “all can-do for play-pidgin har- bourside, no can-do outside”. The officers asked for permission to sail


home to England by an unorthodox route, against the prevailing winds, via Japan, the Kuriles, the Bering Sea, the Aleutians, California, Panama and the West Indies. They went camping with tribesmen in


the Aleutians and met Bette Davis in Hollywood. Economising by sailing with- out a motor, they were stranded for 16 days on Crooked Island in the Bahamas. “Quite rightly,” wrote Mar tyn


Sherwood later, “We were placed on half- pay for the entire voyage.” But their return to Britain after a year at sea was celebrated by a telegram from King George V. Tai-Mo-Shan was then sold to the Royal Naval Sailing Association,


for exactly what she had cost, to the near- est penny. Martyn Sherwood left the ‘silent service’ for a while, publishing his account of the voyage but giving no hint of any clandestine purpose. This has now been revealed, from close


reading of the late Red Ryder’s docu- ments, as a search for advance UK/US submarine bases for attacks on the Japanese Navy. The original exploration plan, discov-


ered by Red Ryder’s son, Canon Lisle Ryder, targeted two groups of islands – the Kuriles and the Aleutians. Eight years later it was the mysterious


and sparsely-populated Kuriles, shrouded in fog and rain for six days in every seven, that Japan’s Admiral Yamamoto chose as the hiding place for its aircraft carriers before the surprise attack on the American fleet in Pearl Harbor. The Aleutian Islands were invaded by Japan in 1942. On page viii of his planning note, Red


Ryder stated the first aim of the voyage: ‘1. Intelligence Report on all places vis-


ited, in particular of Ganges Island, if discovered. Observing any possibilities advanced base for submarine operations, or as a W/T or W/T F. station in the event of hostilities against Japan or between Japan and America.” The Kuriles, he noted, were “said to be


inhabited by a few dozen natives called Kurilsky speaking Russian and Ainu”. But there was only a narrow weather


Tai-Mo-Shan’s crew, from left: Surgeon-Lt Bertie


Ommanney-Davis; Lt Cdr Martyn Sherwood; Lt Robert ‘Red’ Ryder;Lt George Salt; Lt Philip Francis


CLASSIC BOAT SEPTEMBER 2007 39


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