Canadian Champion Sculler Ned Hanlan

A statue of Ned Hanlan. To honour his achievements, the City of Toronto erected a monument of Hanlan by sculptor Emanuel Hahn in 1926. Photo courtesy rowing historian Bill Lanouette.

As the frequent reader of HTBS knows by now, this blog is about, among other things, rowing history. If we happen to come across a piece of rowing history elsewhere, we gladly point our readers in that direction. Therefore, in last Saturday's Torontoist, a blog/newspaper/magazine (take your pick), Kevin Plummer wrote a piece about Ned Hanlan, "Historicist: The People's Champion". It is a well-written article (we forgive Plummer for calling 'sculling': 'single-sculls rowing'), though Hanlan historians will not find anything new about the Canadian sculling champion, but the article is interesting, also for its illustrations. Enjoy Kevin Plummer's article by reading it here.

Serendipity in Vancouver

A panoramic view of Vancouver Rowing Club, Coal Harbour and the downtown Vancouver skyline. (Like all HTBS pictures, double click to enlarge).

Tim Koch writes from Victoria, British Columbia:

On Thursday, 16 May, six days into my trip from Calgary, Alberta to Victoria, Vancouver Island, I arrived in Vancouver, the beautiful and cosmopolitan city set between the Pacific Ocean and the Costal Range Mountains on Canada’s west coast.  I was aware that there was a Vancouver Rowing Club and had vague hopes of perhaps seeing it in passing but, not only did I get to visit VRC and find it a welcoming and thriving club with a strong awareness of its history but, by a lucky chance, I was also able to witness a very special event in the club’s 128 year existence.

Tim points out the location of VRC which adjoins the beautiful Stanley Park and overlooks Coal Harbour and downtown Vancouver.

Exploring the Downtown area of Vancouver I naturally found my way to the adjoining waterfront, a modern and expanding business, leisure and residential area overlooking Coal Harbour. Just to the north of this, I came to the headland that is the expansive Stanley Park. Studying a map of the area, I found the Vancouver Rowing Club clearly marked, sited in the inner harbour on the edge of the park. Approaching it I found a delightful ‘mock Tudor’ boathouse with six boat bays and a terrace with commanding views of the harbour and of the Vancouver skyline.

Vancouver Rowing Club. The present building dates from 1911.

The VRC Clubhouse from the side showing its view of the Vancouver waterfront.

At the boathouse, I encountered an unexpectedly busy scene for a Thursday afternoon. I found that they were expecting a visit from Prince Andrew, Duke of York, who was making a four-day visit to British Columbia. He is Queen Elizabeth’s third child and forth-in line to the throne of the United Kingdom – and of Canada (sadly, in North America, he is perhaps best known as the former husband of Sarah ‘Fergie’ Ferguson). Prince Andrew’s father, Prince Phillip, Duke of Edinburgh is a patron of the club.  Greeted by an honour guard of rowers holding oars erect, the Prince Andrew spent half an hour at the club of which he is an honorary life member. He had previously visited it in 1978, then accompanying his father.

A VRC Honour Guard prepares for the arrival of Prince Andrew.

HRH Prince Andrew (right) talks to members of the Honour Guard on his departure.

After the departure of the Royal Party, I was shown great hospitality by Nathan Kraft and Bill Myra. Bill is Captain of Rowing and it was soon clear that he, Nathan and others are striving to maintain and develop VRC as an all-inclusive club serving all sections of the community. There are very popular learn-to-row classes and the members range from 14-year-olds to people in their 70s. The proper establishment of adaptive rowing is one of Bill’s current projects. VRC seems to offer a programme to suit most abilities and ambitions.

Bill Myra, VRC Rowing Captain (left) and Nathan Kraft (Board Liaison). Both are part of a team that strives to make VRC a fully inclusive club.

Sculler Eugine Cheng with some of VRC's fleet of 30 Hudsons, Pococks and WIntechs.

Master rowers David Rahn (left) and Gordan Chutter (right).

Active members of the club belong to one of four sporting sections for, in addition to the founding sport, VRC also offers rugby (originally introduced for the rowers to play in the winter), yachting and field hockey. There is also a thriving social membership for those wanting to take advantage of the splendid facilities offered in an historic setting.  The three main social areas are the Trophy Lounge which, as the name suggests, has a fine display of silver rowing trophies, the dining room / dance hall known as the Harbour Room and the ‘pub style’ Carver Room. All have fine displays of historic photographs, trophies and memorabilia (including Ned Hanlan’s cane) and are immaculately maintained. 

Some of VRC's social offerings.

The Trophy Lounge. The floors in the three main function rooms are made from Canadian hardwoods.

From a HTBS point of view it is good to see that such a modern and forward thinking club also has such an awareness of its history and heritage. The website has an excellent history section as does its Wikipedia entry. There is a hard to find book by Jack Carver entitled The Vancouver Rowing Club – A History 1886-1980 (1980).

In brief summery of the highlights of the club’s history, the ‘Vancouver Boating Club’ was formed in 1886 and soon built its own floating boathouse.

A picture of the first boathouse in 1888.

Four years later a rival club, Burrard Inlet RC, was formed nearby and Coal Harbour was the scene of many hard fought races between the two clubs. However, following success with composite crews, in 1889, the two merged to form the present club.

Initially the floating boathouses were towed to the present site but in 1910 plans were made for a new clubhouse with ‘a reading room, reception hall, ballroom, gymnasium and accommodation for all racing boats, canoes, and training quarters for the crews’. In 1911, what is essentially today’s building was opened for business having cost $15,000.

The club flourished but the membership was decimated in the 1914–1918 War where a membership of 200 produced 164 volunteers to the armed forces. By the 1920s the club had recovered to the extent that a VRC four won a silver medal in the 1924 Paris Olympics. In 1927, Colonel Spencer of the VRC arranged for the Major Goodsell of Australia to make his fourth defence of his World Professional Sculling Championship title on Vancouver’s Burrand inlet. This was unusual in that races were normally held in the Champion’s home country. Goodsell (‘Major’ was his given name, not a rank) easily defeated the Englishman Bert Barry. However in a return match three months later, also on the Burrand, the result was reversed. Whatever the result, the interest generated was a boost to rowing and sculling in the city.

The inter-war years saw may successes despite the restrictions imposed by the Great Depression but the post 1939–1945 War period saw the need to share the club’s facilities with the University of British Columbia in order to survive. In any event, in the 1954 British Empire Games held in Vancouver, a very raw VRC/UBC crew coached by the legendry Frank Read soundly defeated a much fancied and very experienced English eight (essentially a Thames Rowing Club crew) despite catching two crabs in the first eight strokes. In the next year the same crew beat the ‘undefeatable’ Soviets in the semi-final of the Grand at Henley.  Film of their race in the final is here. They returned home national heroes. In the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne, Frank Read produced the four that won Gold and the eight that won Silver. More national heroes returned to Vancouver. In the 1960 Rome Olympics another Frank Read four won Silver, Canada’s only medal of the Games. In the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, a UBC/VRC pair won Gold. Remarkably the two men were the spares from the eight who had only raced together twice, the second time being the Olympic final.

To quote the VRC website:

The Vancouver Rowing Club’s Olympic record of two gold, three silver and one bronze tops all other rowing clubs in Canada, accounting for six of the thirteen medals won from 1904 to 1964 and all of the country’s gold medal victories up to that date.

A VRC double in Coal Harbour.

In my very short visit to Vancouver I gained a very favourable impression both of the city and of the VRC. I left feeling that other urban developments and other rowing clubs around the world could learn a lot from these splendid Canadian examples and I look forward to a return visit someday.

© Photographs Tim Koch 

My thanks to all those at VRC who showed me such hospitality, to Prince Andrew for the royal wave and to Maggie and Andreas for their patience while I indulged in boaty things.

Rowing History Footnote: Towns Followed by Mishaps in London

George Towns

In April 1897, the 28-year-old professional sculler George Towns of Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia, who had learned to scull on the Hunter River, arrived to England. At the time, he was regarded as a ‘coming man’ and his financial backers back home in Newcastle had been eager to send him to England to be able to prove himself worthy to row for the World Professional Sculling Championships in a year or two.

Australian oarsmen had dominated the professional sport of sculling since August 1884, when William Beach beat the Canadian Ned Hanlan on the Parramatta River. But in September 1896, the World title went back to Canada when Jake Gaudaur of Ontario, defeated Jim Stanbury of New South Wales on the River Thames in London. In Australia, the hopes were set for Towns to reclaim the World title. In a race on 21 September, 1898, William ‘Bill’ Barry of Putney (Ernest Barry’s older brother) beat Towns on the Championship course between Putney and Mortlake for the Championship of England. Then, on 1 May, 1899, Towns beat Barry for the title, which should, if Towns and his backers played their cards right, open the doors for Towns to challenge Gaudaur for the World title.

 Jake Gauduar

However, Towns’s stay in England was followed by mishaps, the Australian newspaper The Star reported to its readers in an article published on 24 July (but dated 9 June), 1899. The paper’s correspondent wrote that Towns had been run into by an eight when he was training for his first meeting with Barry. Luckily, Towns only received minor injuries, though his boat got badly damaged. Then Towns had to pay foreit to William Haines of Old Winsor as the Australian was ill in influenza and could not race Haines. In another race Towns rowed into a big lump of wood which damaged his boat so he had to abandon the race (and by that losing money in stakes and bets).

In the beginning of June 1899, Towns could do with some extra cash. This was easily picked up by giving private lessons to amateur scullers who could pay his fees. One of these scullers was the young sculler Benjamin Hunting Howell (of New York, USA), who could do with some technical hints on a warm, nice day on the Thames. The article incorrectly mentioned him as a member of Trinity Hall, which he had rowed for between 1894 and 1898, but now rowed for Thames RC. The paper at least gave his championship titles correctly: ‘English amateur champion and holder of the Diamond Sculls.’

 Hunting Howell

Towns and Howell set off from the Leander boathouse in the afternoon, sculling up the river against the tide, rowing side by side, with Towns closes to the Surrey shore. At Barn Elms, a coxed four came down with the tide, and before anyone understood the dire situation, the four ran into Towns. The larger craft’s ironshod bow hit the Australian sculler in the back and missed his spine with a couple of inches, but broke two of his ribs. Towns fell overboard but managed, despite that he was half unconscious, to grab hold of an oar in the four. The oarsmen in the boat managed to pull him into their boat, while Hunting gave them order to row to Thames boathouse. We can only imagining what went through Howell’s mind at this point, as he had a scar on his right lower part of his leg to remind him about his own accident in October 1897. Then another sculler had rowed right into Howell, who had got the other sculler’s bow right through his calf of his right leg just below his knee.

After Towns received first aid at Thames RC, he was taken to the professional sculler Tom Sullivan’s house at Battersea to be examined by a doctor. Beyond the broken ribs, the part of the back where he was hit was bruised and swollen. The Star wrote: ‘The accident caused a tremendous sensation at Putney, where, by reason of his good nature and gentlemanly behaviour, Towns has become a great favourite amongst ‘wet-bobs’ of all classes.’ The author of the article goes on by speculating how this accident might effect Towns's future career. He even goes on saying that ‘it is quite possible that his career as a first-class sculler has closed.’

Luckily, Towns career as first-rate sculler did not come to an end that day in June. A year later, on 10 September, 1900, he defended his English championship title on the Championship course against his countryman J. Wray. The next year, on 7 September, 1901, Towns beat Gaudaur for the World championship title on Lake of the Woods, Canada.

Greetings From Toronto!

Rowing historian Bill Lanouette, expert on professional rowing, sent me an e-mail with greetings from Toronto, where he is on business.

“I couldn’t resist a ferry ride to Hanlan’s Point,” he writes. About Toronto’s great son and the statue erected to honour him, Bill points me in the directions of a web site, which states: “Raised on the Toronto Islands, Ned Hanlan [1855-1908] became a World Champion sculler in 1880. He is one of Canada’s most loved sports heroes of all time. To honour his achievements, the City of Toronto erected a monument to Ned Hanlan carved by famed sculptor Emanuel Hahn in 1926. Formerly on the grounds of the Canadian National Exhibition, this monument has been relocated to the site that bears his family name.” Hanlan’s Point is where Ned’s father had a hotel. Read more here.




Lovely photographs, Bill – thank you very much, indeed!

The Boycott Of Charles Courtney

Some years back, I did a lot of research for an article about Charles E. Courtney (1849-1920; up on the left) and professional rowing in America. While there are quite a few books and articles about professional oarsmanship in North America, there are not that many books about Courtney, which surprised me. After all, he was the most famous and successful sculler on the south side of the Canadian border; of course, Ned Hanlan (1855-1908; up on the right) of Toronto being the most famous sculler north of the Canadian border, and probably in the world when he was World Sculling Champion in 1880 to 1884. My article, “Charles Courtney and the Decline of Professional Sculling in America”, which was published in The Log of Mystic Seaport, Vol. 56, No. 1, 2005, is, as the title suggests, also about the deterioration of American professional sculling.

Courtney and Hanlan met three times to row for the American champion title and to collect a heap of money doing so. Never had there been so much publicity before a rowing race as when Courtney and Hanlan met on 3 October 1878, a five-mile race which the Canadian won, but not with the same ease as he had beaten other opponents. A re-match was eventually set for 16 October 1879. On the morning of the race, Courtney found his racing shell sawed in half. The race was however not postponed, and as Courtney refused to race in a borrowed shell, Hanlan rowed the five-mile course on his own, but found out after the race when he went to collect his prize money, $6,000, that the president of the Hop Bitters Company, which bottled the patented medicine “The Invalid’s Friend and Hope”, and who had set up the prize money, had already left town with the money, claiming that one man in a shell does not make a rowing race. And it was probably here it started, the beginning of the end of professional sculling in the US. Had Hanlan had some of his men to saw Courtney’s shell in half, or was it Courtney or one of his men who had damaged his boat? We will never know.

On 19 May, 1880, the two North Americans met for their third race, again for a wager of $6,000. A few minutes into the race, Hanlan was far ahead. Halfway to the turning stake, Courtney stopped, and rowed back to his dock. The Canadian continued to row the full course and claimed the prize money. Six months later, Hanlan easily beat the World Champion Ned Trickett of Australia on the Thames in London.

Books on Charles Courtney, Margaret Look’s Courtney: Master Oarsman – Champion Coach (1989) and C.V.P. Yong’s Courtney and Cornell Rowing (1923), only briefly talk about Courtney’s career as a professional oarsman after the American's last race against the Canadian. Instead, at length the authors write about Courtney’s successful career as a coach at Cornell University which began in 1883, but was only for ten days. Two years later, Courtney was hired to coach the Cornell Navy’s crews full time.

Very little seems to be known about Courtney’s rowing career between 1880 and 1885. The other day, on the web, I happened to find a little article in The New York Times from July 1884 about a challenge that Charles Courtney sent to another well-known professional sculler at this time, Wallace Ross (on the left). Courtney asked Ross to put up $1,000 against the same amount of Courtney’s money for a five-mile race on Seneca Lake on 16 August. According to the article, published on 13 July, 1884, Ross turned down Courtney’s challenge as he, Ross, had signed an agreement with other American professional oarsmen “never to row with him again.” The newspaper actually published the whole agreement. It reads,

“In view of the public career of Charles E. Courtney for several years past, and particularly because he has done so much to disgrace professional sculling, we, the undersigned, in order to protect ourselves and encourage square, manly rowing hereby pledge ourselves with said Courtney, either by rowing with or against him, at regattas or elsewhere – Wallace Ross, Fred A. Plaisted, George H. Hosmer, Albert Hamm, George Gaisel, George W. Lee, H. Peterson, James A. Ten Eyck, John Teemer, and James H. Reilly.”

This is the first time I read or heard about this agreement between the professionals to boycott Charles Courtney. I know that he was a man of controversy, also as a coach for Cornell (see my entry on 5 December, 2009: ‘Americans at Henley in 1895’), but I am astonished by this article. Is there anyone who can explain what happened that led to this boycott of Courtney?