Steven Spurrier (1879 - 1961) was a painter and illustrator and worked to help design dazzle camouflage for ships in World War One. He followed in his father's footsteps by being trained as a silver smith and produced both oil paintings and illustrations for books and posters. He produce the original illustations for Swallows and Amazons but Ransome didn't like his illustration so only used the map and (in early editions) the front cover, the map is still the one used in modern editions.