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The riverboat they had hired was really a bit large for only the six of them to manage, particularly since they had belatedly discovered that none of them had any experience of handling large boats. Maud and Sheldrake had travelled on ships and the occasional boat but always with someone else at the helm. Jackson had rowed small boats as a lad on holidays with his father, but never on his own.
Luckily, the river just below Bridgetown flowed sluggishly and they were able to drift down with the current, using the rudders to keep her to the right-hand side of the river, without the need for oars.
The Woodland Rover was a sturdy wooden boat, thirty feet long, with a small cabin towards the rear, inside which a companionway led down to space belowdecks, where there was a small galley, oar
