What a Wonderful Cultural Achievement!

A new edition of Steve Fairbairn's On Rowing has recently been made available. The photograph of Fairbairn above is from his first book Rowing Notes from 1926.

Anyone who is only remotely interested in rowing history, probably knows, or at least has heard of, Steve Fairbairn (1862-1938), the Australian who followed his older brothers to study and row at Jesus College, Cambridge, in the 1880s. Although, a good oarsmen, Steve is mostly known as a rowing coach, or one might say the rowing coach. To Steve, rowing was not a set of rules how the oarsman was to move his arms, legs, shoulders and body in the boat, which had been prevalent ever since the schoolboys at Eton had started 'modern' rowing around 1800. This rather stiff style called the English orthodox style, originated from rowing in boats with fixed seats and fixed pins and carried over to the out-rigged boats with sliding seats and swivels, putting a strain on the oarsmen, making it difficult to row effectively unless they had rowed for some years. Also, the style made it very hard for novice rowers to actually learn how to row. Some characteristic elements in the orthodox style were the ‘shoulder catch’, the oar’s ‘back-splash’ and the ‘lively recovery’.

Steve, who coached at Cambridge and later at Thames RC and London RC, wanted his oarsmen to only concentrate on their oars and blade work and not how gracefully they moved in the boat. Teasingly, Steve called the advocates for the English orthodox style the ‘Pretty-Pretty Brigade’ or the ‘orthodox brigade’, also saying that no cups or medals were ever given for stylishness.

Of course, the reaction from the ‘Pretty-Pretty Brigade’ came immediately, accusing Steve of teaching sloppy rowing, and they detracted the Fairbairn ‘style’, or ‘Fairbairnism’, which they said would ruin English rowing. Steve stoically kept a stiff upper lip, saying that he had not invented a new ‘rowing style’ but a method to move the boats faster than before. He was only interested in the rowing itself, not the style, and wanted the oarsmen to have a fresher approach towards rowing and not take everything that was handed down to them as ‘gospel truth’.

A jocular rhymester gave his view in some verses in the Cambridge student magazine The Granta:

Beware the Orthodox, my son,
The slides that check, the arms that snatch;
Beware the drop-in blade, and shun
The Bourneish shoulder-catch.

Mischievously, Steve said that rowing styles were like seasons in Australia, ‘bad, damned bad and bloody awful’.

Throughout his years as a rowing coach, Steve wrote books about his rowing method and how not to row (read: English orthodox style). His books became extremely popular not only in England, but also in Europe, Canada and South America. In 1951, thirteen years after Steve’s death, his son Ian Fairbairn, himself a first-rate oarsman, edited and published The Complete Steve Fairbairn on Rowing. This omnibus of Steve’s writing is maybe not that tricky to find at an antiquarian book-seller, who has his or her books listed on the web, but it does not come cheap. You have to cough up between $250 and $2,000 for a copy.

So, what to do if you are interested in Fairbairn's writings? Fear not, because just before Christmas of last, the company Rowperfect began to publish a new edition On Rowing by Steve Fairbairn, now in digital format (eBook/Kindle edition) for the extremely fair price of $9.99. Editor of this edition is rowing historian Peter Mallory, famous around the rowing world for his 2,500-page, four-volume The Sport of Rowing (2011).

Peter writes in his Introduction, ‘I am very proud to be part of the team that is bringing Fairbairn’s complete works to a new generation of rowers and coaches in a series of affordable eBook volumes. The idea began with Diana Cook of Richard Way Bookseller in Henley-on-Thames, and Rebecca Caroe of Rowperfect.co.uk has made it a reality. Kudos to you both.’

I can only agree: what a cultural achievement this is – Bravo!

Read more about what Peter has to say on this edition on Rowperfect, here. (Peter writes that this is the first time in 60 years that Steve’s collected works are made available, which I humbly would like to correct, as a 2nd printed edition of The Complete Steve Fairbairn on Rowing was published in 1990 by The Kingswood Press.)

However, it must be pointed out that this digital edition does not include all the texts by Steve in The Complete Steve Fairbairn on Rowing, which I wish would be more clear on Amazon (where you can buy this edition). The contents in this first ‘volume’ of Steve’s complete works are as follow: Steve’s famous poem “The Oarsman’s Song”, the pamphlet Rowing Notes from 1904, his first full book Rowing Notes from 1926, Freddy Brittain’s obituary about Steve, published in 1938, and comments by Peter Mallory. More volumes are to follow.

HTBS warmest congratulations to all of you who have been involved in bringing Steve’s writings back to life again.

2013 Rowing History Forum: Not just for Nerds...

Henley’s River and Rowing Museum (RRM). The Times newspaper recently put it on its list of the top fifty museums in the world.

Last Saturday, 12 October, the Rowing History Forum was held at the River and Rowing Museum in Henley-on-Thames. Here is HTBS’s Tim Koch’s report:

For many people the prospect of spending the day at something entitled ‘The Rowing History Forum’ holds about as much appeal as a 5k ergo test. However, those who attended the fourth such event at the River and Rowing Museum on 12 October had no regrets. They were entertained and informed by tales of things such as the largest oared vessel ever built or of cheating death on the high seas. Add to these stories of bloody blazers, a levitating sculler and Dutch foetuses and there was something for everyone.

Professor Boris Rankov, six times Boat Race winner and professor of Roman history, spoke eloquently on rowing galleys in the ancient world. The unpredictable winds of the Mediterranean resulted in the development of rowing rather than sailing boats for both trade and war. Originating with craft having a single tier of 25 rowers on each side, one man to an oar, from 600 BC a second and later a third level of oars were added to increase power. As it was impracticable to add a fourth level, from 500 BC extra men were added to each blade and within 200 years there were oars manned by eight people, some pushing and some pulling. By 200 BC, Ptolemy IV of Egypt had built a galley of 137 metres / 450 feet in length. Its longest oars were 19 metres / 62 feet and it was rowed by 4,000 oarsmen (though, not surprisingly, it moved ‘precariously and with difficulty’).

Professor Boris Rankov with the museum’s mock-up of a section of a trireme (from the Latin meaning ‘three banks of oars’).

Doggett’s Coat and Badge winner Bobby Prentice enthralled the audience with an account of how he and another Doggett’s man, Colin Briggs, fought for survival when their boat overturned during the infamous 2005 Atlantic Rowing Race. Even Bobby’s humorous and self-deprecating style could not disguise the fact that it was a story that could easily have ended in tragedy.

The River and Rowing Museum curators gave the Forum an update on some recent acquisitions and projects in progress. Chris Dodd reported on an unpublished manuscript written by Julius Beresford which may give new information on his famous fall out with coach Steve Fairbairn. Chris also talked about a possible ‘e-book’ on Tyne rowing. Eloise Chapman showed the recently donated archive of Lucy Pocock (of the famous rowing and boat building family) who was a women’s sculling champion before the 1914 – 1918 War and later went to the United States where she briefly coached women’s rowing at the University of Washington.

Lucy Pocock pictured in a silver frame that she won as a prize at Henley Town and Visitor’s Regatta in 1906.

Eloise also spoke of the British Rowing / Amateur Rowing Association film collection recently given to the museum. It is hoped that it would be available online sometime in the future. Suzie Tilbury displayed an 1844 rowing vest, perhaps the oldest one known, and a Henley prize from 1848, a model wherry in silver. Delightfully, it was won by a local man and it has stayed in Henley ever since.

The silver wherry won by Henry Sergeant in 1848 for the event run between 1845 and 1850 for ‘amateur scullers residing within twelve miles of Henley on Thames’.

Peter Mallory is both a rowing and an art historian and so was well qualified to talk on the recent River and Rowing Museum acquisition, the 19th-century portrait of Newcastle sculler Edward Hawks. Peter showed the historical processes which resulted in this work by very cleverly juxtaposing classic paintings with the Hawks and other rowing pictures. He then spoke on the social and economic story behind its commission and execution. Possibly, the painting was a ‘vanity project’ by Hawks, who may have hoped to sell prints of it. The painter himself had no pretensions at great art. Among other things, the body proportions are wrong, the boat is depicted in a very crude way and the figure appears to be hovering above the ground. Strangely, it is still a delightful picture.

Edward Hawks, sculler (left) and Peter Mallory, art and rowing historian (right).

A glimpse into the fascinating history of Dutch student rowing was given by Rob Van Mesdag. Before the 1939 – 1945 War, Dutch freshmen had to become what were called ‘foetuses’ and undergo harsh initiations before joining student boat clubs. The big event in Dutch student rowing then and now is the regatta known as ‘The Varsity’, founded in 1878. It is an event full of tradition such as the members of the winning university swimming out to the victorious boat and (according to this) throwing coxswains at frozen chickens. Post Varsity celebrations are famously drunken affairs and there seems to be a large amount of nudity. A more explicit picture is here but I am pleased to see that these chaps follow Henley rules and keep their ties on. Click on these thumbnails for more health and safety violations.

Algemene Rotterdamse Studenten Roeivereniging (‘Skadi’) wins the 124th Varsity in 2007. Picture: P. Kemps.

A meticulously researched work by Ian Volans was entitled ‘What was it about Victorian Oarsmen? Rowers who helped to shape other sports’. In particular, EC Morley of London RC and HT Steward of Leander were among the seven founders of soccer’s Football Association and JG Chambers of CUBC and Leander formulated boxing’s ‘Queensbury Rules’.

A tantalising preview of his forthcoming book on rowing blazers was given by Jack Carlson. The lavishly illustrated publication will show the great, the good and the ordinary of the rowing world resplendent in the blazers of their club or country, all pictured by a top fashion photographer. Jack also debunked some ‘blazer myths’ including the one that the scarlet blazer of St John’s College, Oxford, commemorates an oarsman killed when St John’s attached a sword to their bow at a bump race.

Jack Carlson in front of the museum’s current exhibition of rowing blazers.

To summarise a presentation by Terry Morahan is a difficult task as he always seems to have several highly involved researches into rowing history going on at once. However, this year two of them seem to have reached very satisfactory conclusions. With Leander founded in 1818, it is usually thought that the world’s second oldest public rowing club is Der Hamburger und Germania Ruder Club (1836), but Terry claims it is in fact the (Royal) Northern Yacht Club which was established in Belfast in 1824 and today is based on the Clyde in Scotland. Records show that a race ‘for four oared gigs the property of members of the club’ was held in 1825. For his next trick, Terry produced ‘the oldest rowing blazer in the world’. It was the Eton School rowing jacket worn by General Sir George Higginson (1826 – 1927) in 1844. Much to the surprise and delight of all present, Terry then presented it to the River and Rowing Museum. It was a rather nice end to a most enjoyable day and thanks are due to all the speakers, the RRM, the Friends of Rowing History and American Friends of the RRM.

Terry Morahan (left) presents ‘the oldest rowing blazer in the world’ to Chris Dodd of the River and Rowing Museum.

Reminder: Rowing History Forum, Saturday, 12 October

Here is a reminder about the upcoming Rowing History Forum on Saturday, 12 October, 9 a.m.–5 p.m., at the River & Rowing Museum in Henley-on-Thames.

 The speakers are:

Professor Boris Rankov (in picture above), Chairman of the Trireme Trust, on ‘Ptolemy and his polyremes: the largest oared vessels ever built’



Bobbie Prentice, Master of the Watermen’s Company, on ‘Why I did the Atlantic’ and the charitable outcome of three attempts at crossing an ocean 



Peter Mallory, author of The Sport of Rowing, on ‘The Grand Manner comes to Newcastle: the Ned Hawks portrait as art history’



Rob van Mesdag on the history and traditions of Dutch student clubs, for example the ragged-looking blazers



Plus RRM staff on acquisitions and more.



Tickets are £50 and includes morning and afternoon tea & coffee and a delicious buffet lunch.

Reservations to +44 (0)1491 415600.



Speaker at the History Dinner at Leander Club on Friday, 11 October, 2013: Sir George Cox on ‘GB’s voyage from Janousek to Rio’



History Dinner at Leander Club, Friday 11 October. Reservations to Sheila Harrington at sheila@leander.co.uk

The Story of the Martini Achter

Last Sunday, World Cup III ended in Lucerne, Switzerland. Following is the story of a special boat that was used by a U.S. crew to take the 1974 World Championships at Rotsee in Lucerne.

When visitors to Mystic Seaport – the Museum of America and the Sea, located in the village of Mystic, Connecticut, walk through the doors of the Visitors Reception Center at the Main Gate, the first thing they see, if they look up, is a magnificent racing shell hanging from the ceiling. This eight, the Martini Achter, is not only an indicator that the NRF’s National Rowing Hall of Fame is housed at Mystic Seaport, it is also on display because it has a remarkable place in the history of American rowing.

In 1973, after having raced at the European Championships in Moscow, a U.S. crew went to compete at the Heidelberg International Regatta in what was then West Germany. At Heidelberg, the Americans were short of one man in the eight race, the “Martini Achter Race”, where first prize was a brand new wooden eight which was built by the famous German boat builder Empacher in Eberbach. Joining the American oarsmen, Larry Gluckman, Calvin Coffey, Mike Vespoli, Hugh Stevenson, Terry Adams, Tim Mickelson, Ken Brown and Paul Hoffman, was the British rower Hugh Matheson (known to HTBS readers from entries about Chris Dodd’s brilliant book Pieces of Eight, published in 2012).

At the 1973 Heidelberg International Regatta, United States was the winner of the Martini Achter: Bow Larry Gluckman, 2 Calvin Coffey, 3 Hugh Matheson(GBR), 4 Mike Vespoli, 5 Hugh Stevenson, 6 Terry Adams, 7 Tim Mickelson, Stroke Ken Brown and Cox Paul Hoffman. Coach Steve Gladstone. From Peter Mallory's The Sport of Rowing.

In Peter Mallory’s splendid book The Sport of Rowing (2011), Gluckman is quoted saying that ‘Everybody wanted to win this beautiful Empacher wooden boat. It was like a piece of furniture.’ Norway entered a boat, too, and after the Americans had won the race, and the boat, Gluckman continued, ‘the Norwegians said, “Good row, America... and God Bless the Queen” because they knew one of our borrowed rowers, Hugh Matheson, was a Brit.’The Martini Achter stayed in Europe and came to belong to the NRF's fleet.

The following year, 1974, a slightly different U.S. crew went to compete at the World Championships in Lucerne, Switzerland, using the Martini Achter. The crew were: Bow Timothy Mickelson, 2 Kenneth Brown, 3 John Everett, 4 Mike Vespoli, 5 Mark Norelius, 6 Richard Cashin, 7 Hugh Stevenson, Stroke Alan Shealy and Cox David Weinberg, and Coach was Allen Rosenberg.

Here is a 3-minute film showing the eight practicing in the early summer of 1974 on Candlewood Lake in Connecticut before moving on to another training camp at Princeton, and then to Lucerne.



On the Rotsee, in an extremely tough race, which came to be known as “The Race of the Century,” the U.S. eight competed in the final against the world’s best rowing nations at that time, East Germany, Soviet Union, New Zealand, Great Britain and West Germany. New Zealand was in the lead for the first 1,800 metres, but then the crew in the Martini Achter put on a spurt which gave the Americans a slight lead. They managed to hold on to it and crossed the finish line as the World Champions. Another remarkable crew were the British who took a silver medal, despite having been dead last for most of the race. New Zealand came in third, East Germany forth, the Soviets fifth and West Germany sixth.

The Martini Achter was afterward used by the men’s varsity eight from Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut, to win the 1976 Ladies’ Challenge Plate at the Henley Royal Regatta, and by the University of Washington men’s varsity eight to take the 1977 Grand Challenge Cup, also at Henley. Later the boat was sold to a club in England.

In an e-mail to HTBS, Mike Vespoli writes, that some English oarsmen

...rowed it over a submerged shopping cart and tore a big hole in it. It sat in rack at the Thames Tradesmen Rowing Club where I found it and bought it for 500 British pounds and brought it back to the U.S. I contacted my boat mates from the ‘74 crew and we all chipped in to get the boat restored so that we could take a row in 1999 at the world champs in St. Catherines, Ontario, Canada to celebrate our 25th anniversary. The restoration cost four times the original sale price!

The Martini Achter was restored by boat builder Graeme King in Putney, Vermont. He spent around 200 hours restoring the shell to its former beauty, he has told HTBS. It took 420 hours to build it originally and then the hull was formed by vacuum with three layers of Spanish cedar veneer over a mold. After that, the framework was fitted in. When restoring the shell, King used 3/32” plywood, then laminated on a sheet of 1/32” African mahogany veneer.

Here is some data of the Martini Achter:
Builder: Empacher boat builder, Eberbach, Germany.
Length: 57 feet
Weight: 250 lbs (boat), 8 oars, total 60 lb.
Top Speed: Over 3 miles, 18 feet/second; in a sprint, 22 feet/second

The last words go to Mike Vespoli:

If Mystic Seaport ever decides to remove the shell from public display then we [the ’74 crew] would take possession of it. It was also agreed that we could use this shell in 2024 to celebrate our 50th!

If this ever happens, HTBS promises to be there taking a picture.

Three Magazines

Three magazines have recently been published, all with different articles connected to rowing. In the Penn Gazette, sport section (July 5, 2013), rowing historian Peter Mallory is interviewed about legendary Harry Parker, Harvard's head coach, who recently passed away. Read this article, here.

In another university magazine, Bostonia, the alumni magazine of Boston University, is an interesting article about how BU oarsmen are trying to bring the sport of rowing to war-torn countries like Iraq and Afghanistan. Read that article, "Rowing to Kabul", here.

Daniel James Brown's book The Boys in the Boat keeps finding ways to be mentioned in the media - publishers Viking has done a great job promoting the book. Recently, the WoodenBoat magazine had Christopher Cunningham, son of rowing legend Frank Cunningham, who recently passed away, to write a favourable review abut the book, and in the July/August issue is an article adapted from The Boys in the Boat. If you are still not sure if you would like to spend the money on the book, buy the current issue of the WoodenBoat magazine and read the excerpt from the book. This issue also has some other interesting articles, I think, for example how a replica has been built of Pilar, Ernest Hemingway's boat, which is going to be used in an upcoming movie about the famous author's sportfishing days.

2013 Rowing History Forum Update

HTBS has received an e-mail from rowing historian Chris Dodd of the River and Rowing Museum. The organisers for the upcoming Rowing History Forum on Saturday, 12 October, 2013, 9 a.m.–5 p.m., in Henley-on-Thames have now some names of those who are going to give a talk at the ‘Forum’. They are:

Professor Boris Rankov, Chairman of the Trireme Trust, on ‘Ptolemy and his polyremes: the largest oared vessels ever built’

Bobbie Prentice, Master of the Watermen’s Company, on ‘Why I did the Atlantic’ and the charitable outcome of three attempts at crossing an ocean

Peter Mallory, author of The Sport of Rowing, on ‘The Grand Manner comes to Newcastle: the Ned Hawks portrait as art history’

Rob van Mesdag on the history and traditions of Dutch student clubs

Plus RRM staff on acquisitions and more

Tickets are £45 pre-paid by June 30, £50 thereafter. Price includes morning and afternoon tea & coffee and a delicious buffet lunch. Reservations to +44 (0)1491 415600.

Speaker at the History Dinner at Leander Club on Friday, 11 October, 2013: Sir George Cox on ‘GB’s voyage from Janousek to Rio’

History Dinner at Leander Club, Friday 11 October. Reservations to Sheila Harrington sheila@leander.co.uk

www.rrm.co.uk

A History of Collegiate Rowing in America

American rowing historians and rowing history buffs alike are very proud to announce that rowing – that is, the sport of rowing – was the first collegiate sport in the USA. Modelled after the famous Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race, which was raced the first time in 1829, the first Yale-Harvard race took place at Lake Winnipesaukee in 1852, with a victory for Harvard. In 1852, Harvard and Yale were not the only colleges with a rowing programme; Dartmouth started its programme in the beginning of the 1830s and students at Trinity College (Hartford, Conn.) formed a rowing club in 1849 (with Yale in 1843 and Harvard in 1844).

Although, rowing clubs were formed outside the colleges, it was collegiate rowing that was the firm base whereupon American rowing was resting for many years. It was, for example, college and university crews that represented the USA (and took the gold medals) in the eights in the Olympic Games from 1920 to 1956. Today there are more than 300 rowing programmes in America, Daniella K. Garran writes in her A History of Collegiate Rowing in America, which was published last autumn by Schiffer Publishing. As with most of Schiffer’s books, A History of Collegiate Rowing in America has a generous amount of beautiful illustrations, well, 142 to be exact, and with that it is a real coffee table book. With all these hundreds of rowing programmes widespread over the country, it is impossible to mention them all in a book close to 200 pages. Instead, it is the usual colleges and universities that are counted up with brief historic notes; in addition to those already mentioned: Bowdoin, Penn, Cornell, Princeton, Brown, Navy, Syracuse, Wisconsin, Washington, Cal-UW, Stanford, UCLA, to only mention a few. Garran, whose own rowing career was as a successful coxswain at Connecticut College in New London, Conn., in order to cover as much ground, or should I say, water, as possible has special chapters on famous collegiate rowing coaches (Courtney, Ebright, Gladstone, Nash, Parker, Teti, Ulbrickson, etc., etc.), Head races, Championships, Sprint races, Women’s rowing, Lightweight rowing, Conferences, and also regattas abroad: Henley in England and Canadian Henley, Under 23 Championships, World University Championships and, of course, the Olympics. Other text bites are rowing equipment and rowing term glossary.

The ambitious author has really tried to cover all the bases, not merely by giving us a lot of the history of the different clubs, coaches, crews, and lists of all rowing programmes, etc., she has also added ‘oddities’ that for non-rowers might seem peculiar: ‘shirt betting’ and ‘cox tossing’. Clearly, Garren’s work is meant to be a reference book for those high school students – rowers and non-rowers – who aspire to row at a college or university, but also to steer the post-collegiate student in the right direction when he or she just have to continue to mess around in boats after college graduation, at a club or on a high level as the World Championships or the Olympics.

A History of Collegiate Rowing in America is indeed a well-written book and with its many marvellous photographs, most of them in colour – personally I am happy to see some photographs from the National Rowing Hall of Fame in Mystic, Conn., – it is a grand looking book. However, I cannot help wishing for more interference from an editor. Some of the ‘chapters’ or sections are bits and pieces that now look thrown in at the back of the book in lack of better spots and meaning. I found the rowing songs and poems in the book tremendously interesting, except without any deeper descriptions or analysis of these texts, what is the point of publishing them?

I also wished that Garren and/or the publisher would have contacted one or all of the three renowned American rowing historians, Tom Weil, Bill Miller or Peter Mallory, for a quick read-through of the manuscript. I am sure they would have spotted some of the unfortunate historical mistakes and errors that have sneaked into the book. To mention some: Hiram Conibear, coach at University of Washington, did not die in a car accident, he died from falling down from a tree (Garren has it correct in one place of the book but wrong in another – the question still remains: was it a plum, an apple or a pear tree?); the Syracuse coach Gus Eriksen was not a native of Sweden, he was born in Seattle, but could speak Swedish because his parents came from the Swedish-speaking island of Åland, which belongs to Finland; the first Americans to race at Henley Royal Regatta where not from Columbia College in 1878, it was E. Smith of Atlanta RC (New York) in 1872 in the Diamonds; and R.C. Lehmann did not write his Rowing (1897) together with Bertram Fletcher Robinson, the later was the editor of the book (but C.M. Pitman and Guy Nickalls wrote a chapter each in the book). While Garren writes that ‘one cannot help but compare Doggett’s Coat and Badge [Race] to some of the long-storied cup races in American collegiate rowing or to centuries-long traditions such as the Harvard-Yale race’, I have to confess that I do have a hard time comparing any American amateur collegiate rowing race with an English sculling race for professionals which was rowed for the first time close to 70 years before the USA got its independence.

Whereas these historical hiccups are slightly irritating, the over-all view of this book is positive. No one can deny that Daniella Garran loves the sport of rowing and that she wants to share it with as many people as possible. I wish her luck in this endeavour.

Toad, Tom, Jack and Billy!

The always alert Greg Denieffe writes,

Colonel 'Toad'

Everyone loves The Wind in the Willows and the recent post Colonel F. C. Ricardo was Toad? – by HTBS editor Göran R Buckhorn reminded me that there are numerous online personality quizzes that can help you decided what character in the book you are. The one on quibblo.com satisfied my curiosity and revealed that I am in fact, Ratty (which I knew anyway!): “He is devoted to his interests, he loves nature and peacefulness. He is very intelligent and he is very outspoken and poetic”.

I would go as far as to say that you don’t need online quizzes to find out which character in the book someone is; a little people-watching in the Stewards Enclosure at Henley Royal Regatta soon reveals all!

Something else that was of interest to me in Göran’s post was the fact that ‘Toad’ was in the Eton crews that won the Ladies’ Challenge Plate at Henley in 1869 and 1870, and he was Captain of the Boats at Eton in 1870 and 1871. All throughout 2011 and up to May of this year, I was researching the story of The Rowing Bunburys of Lisnavagh. This is the story of the McClintock-Bunbury family from Lisnavagh, Rathvilly, County Carlow, Ireland, who between them won the Ladies’ Plate seven times (1867, 1868 (2), 1869, 1870, 1896 and 1897), all for Eton College; the Grand Challenge Cup once in 1871 for Oxford Etonians and had a seat in the Oxford crew in the 1871 Boat Race. The decorated pencil oars for seven of the Henley wins are now displayed in my home club – Carlow Rowing Club. The research of 6,000 words and numerous photographs rambles through the wins of Tom (later Lord Rathdonnell), his brother Jack and Tom’s son Billy and the characters they encountered and rowed with at Eton College. It was published recently in Carloviana, the journal of the Carlow Historical and Archaeological Society.

From “The Oarsman’s Farewell to his Oar” by R. C. Lehman (1901)

Many oars have I had – lo! These cups are a token –
Since first a raw Freshman I splashed in a crew;
Their shafts may be warped and their blades may be broken,
But their staunchness lived on to be centered in you.
Lo! All these old oars that I lost with or won with
Return to remind me of failure or fame.
The traditions are yours of those blades I have done with;
The wood may have changed, but the soul is the same.

Four of the seven McClintock-Bunbury oars on display in Carlow Rowing Club.

1869 Ladies’ Plate winning oar with F. C. Ricardo at ‘2’.

1870 Ladies’ Plate winning oar with F. C. Ricardo at ‘4’.

Eton’s best-known holiday takes place on the so called ‘Fourth of June’, a celebration of the birthday of King George III. The day is celebrated with the Procession of Boats, in which the top rowing crews from the top four years row past in vintage wooden rowing boats. The ‘Fourth of June’ is no longer celebrated on 4 June, but on the Wednesday before the first weekend of June. The first boat in the procession is the ten-oar Monarch. This is followed by the rest of the fleet in the following order and seniority of crew; Victory, Prince of Wales, Britannia, Thetis, Hibernia, St. George, Alexandra, Defiance and finally Dreadnought. There are two excellent articles by Tim Koch on the procession on HTBS. The entry dated the 11 May 2010  is called Etonians and their Boaters and that on the 5 June 2011 is called Tim Koch on the 2011 Eton’s Procession of Boats.

The above photograph originally appeared in Vivian Nickalls’ autobiography Oars, Wars and Horses which was published in 1932. It reappeared on page 50 in Peter Mallory’s epic 2,500 page The Sport of Rowing in 2011. Colonel F. C. Ricardo is seated left, beside him, Tom Bunbury (Lord Rathdonnell) is seated center, being the elder “Captain” with his son Billy standing on the right. Unfortunately, there appears to be two errors in the caption both of which relate to the Bunburys. The Eton Registers published in 1901 and 1906 list Tom as Captain of the Boats in 1868 (not 1863) and J. L. Philips as Captain of the Boats in 1897 and not Billy. It is still a wonderful picture and I am very grateful to Peter for the scan of the photograph.

A Busy Peter...

Peter Mallory (on the left) with rowing historian and writer, Chris Dodd of the RRM, which has published Peter's four-volume book.

No one who is interested in rowing history can have missed that rowing historian and writer Peter Mallory has just published his Magnum Opus, the four-volume The Sport of Rowing. His masterwork has been published in two editions, a luxurious and a ‘standard’ edition. The standard edition ran into a little mishap in October; it arrived with an unsatisfactory cover that was still ‘sticky’ which made the copies clue together. (I am afraid this is a common mistake at book binderies, where they pack the newly bound book copies in boxes while the cover is still ‘wet’ – why do they never learn?)

However, in an e-mail Peter reports that 500 sets of his book have now been rebound with perfect covers – hurrah!!! There are now few copies of the standard edition for sale at Richard Way Bookshop and at the River and Rowing Museum, both in Henley.
Richard Way: tel. INT+44-(0)1491-576663
RRM: tel. INT+44-(0)1491- 415600.

Peter has a long schedule of rowing business going on this autumn, winter, spring, and summer. He writes, “Over the next several months I will be available to get more involved with supporting my many California friends and teammates at Long Beach Rowing Association, California Yacht Club, UC Irvine, Orange Coast College, Newport Aquatic Center, UC San Diego and San Diego Rowing Club. My latest book is just the beginning of my efforts to give back to the world rowing community which has been my family for nearly 53 years.

“I will also be coming east frequently from our home in Los Angeles. I look forward to seeing many more friends at the USRowing Golden Oars Banquet in New York on Wednesday, November 30, and to personally thank honorees Harry Parker and Bill Stowe for their participation in my research. From there I will visit the Granby High School Rowing Team in Norfolk, Virginia, where my son Philip coaches. This is what it’s all about, making the world a better place by passing on the life lessons of rowing to the next generation.

“I will be very excited to attend my first Power Ten Dinner on Thursday, January 19 in New York. I will be the featured speaker at the Annual Dinner of the Cambridge Boat Club on Saturday, February 11. This invitation from Bill Becklean, 1956 Olympic Gold Medalist and my good friend, is especially heartening to me 40 years after I represented Cambridge as a lightweight single sculler in Europe. I will attend the National Rowing Foundation Hall of Fame Induction at Mystic Seaport on Saturday evening, March 10. Most of the inductees are recent collaborators on my book. The Friends of Rowing History are also firming up plans for our biennial Rowing History Forum to be held there earlier that same day. […] On May 11-13 I will attend my 45th Reunion at the University of Pennsylvania, and hopefully we can get an eight of old Penn Lightweights onto the Schuylkill waters while we are all gathered. Then there are the Olympic Games….”

A busy schedule, indeed for Peter, but that’s the life of a best-selling author. Well done, Peter!

Peter And His Magnum Opus

My fellow-director of the Friends of Rowing History, Peter Mallory, is getting good coverage in the current issue of Rowing News, Vol. 18, issue 5, July 2011. It is 'Doctor Rowing', Andy Anderson, who writes about Peter and his Magnum opus, The Sport of Rowing, which is to be published later this year. The collector's edition (250 copies a $300 a pop) has already sold out, so everyone who is interested in this four-volume, 2,500-page book has to do with the 'trade edition' for measly $95. Large parts of Peter's book have already been published on the web, but that doesn't seem to stop rowers from pre-ordering the book. It is the River and Rowing Museum which is going to publish it. I have to say that I admire Peter, not only for doing research, writing, but also promoting the book. It is easy to blow out all your candles during the two first steps, and to keep at it, also during step three, can be hard. But Peter has done a tremendously good job getting the word out about his book, and that is paying off right now. Good luck, Peter, with the book!

Peter Finds A Publisher

The other day, I received an e-mail from rowing historian Peter Mallory of San Diego. He had some exiting news about his forthcoming book that I would like to share with you all. Peter writes,

“I am extremely pleased to announce that the publisher of The Sport of Rowing, Two Centuries of Competition will be the River & Rowing Museum of Henley-on-Thames in England. The Museum was opened in 1998 by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II on the banks of the Thames near the course of the prestigious Henley Royal Regatta. The River & Rowing Museum is the international centre for rowing’s heritage, and I am honored and humbled for my book to be associated with such a fine institution.”

The good news continues: “I am also very pleased to announce that FISA President Denis Oswald has agreed to write a short introduction to the book,” Peter writes.

Read more on Peter’s website.

My warmest congratulations to Peter for landing such a distinguish publisher!

Peter Mallory's Final Chapter

American rowing historian Peter Mallory has now finished the last chapter of his grandiose project called The Evolution of the Rowing Stroke. The other day Row2K posted the chapter, Rowing History; Wisconsin: Berry Crate Crew - Randy Jablonic - Wisco Women, on their web site. Read it by clicking here.

Mallory's 'The New Generation Of U.S. Scullers'

American rowing historian Peter Mallory is working with an incredibly task and project called The Evolution of the Rowing Stroke. The other day Row2K posted another chapter of Mallory’s work, called The Next Generation of U.S. Scullers. Read this chapter by clicking here.

Peter Mallory's "Evolution Of The Rowing Stroke"

Yesterday on Row2k, renowned rowing historian Peter Mallory published yet another installment of his gigantic work Rowing and Sculling: The Comprehensive History (work title).

Mallory, who has done a tremendous work, writes: “The book has grown to three volumes and will cover the worldwide evolution of rowing technique since rowing as a sport was invented at Eton College during the late 18th Century. By now I have collaborated with several hundred people around the world and traveled more than 50,000 miles over five years to do my research. I have amassed perhaps the largest digital video collection in the world, read hundreds of books and recorded hundreds of hours of oral history.”

The latest part is about the American Olympian Conn Findlay (see picture, which I borrowed from The Rowing Hall of Fame web site). To read Peter Mallory’s article on Row2k, please click here.