They encounter the Swallows, Amazons and Ds sailing on the lake and make an attempt to rescue Nancy after her boat capsizes.

At this point the story as published ends, though notes indicate that Ransome was struggling to develop a suitable plot line and a way of arranging for the Death and Glories to get home without their impoverished parents having to pay the fare.

Various scenarios are mentioned, including the salvage of Captain Flint's houseboat when its anchor chain breaks in a squall.

Prior to this in 2009 a synopsis of a continuation of the story was published in Mixed Moss,[1] "Ship's Girl" (Anon), the literary journal of the Arthur Ransome Society.

Coots in the North also includes two extracts that Hugh Brogan rescued from an unfinished Victorian ‘Bevis’-style novel, a fishing tale called "The River Comes First", plus several short stories that Arthur Ransome published in magazines: