More On The Great Spectacle

The most popular blog posts on HTBS right now are the ones about the Thames Diamond Jubilee Pageant. We do not want to stop when we have a good thing going so here are some more about The Great Spectacle.

The Henley Standard published a very nice article about some of the local rowers who took part in the River Pageant for Queen Elizabeth II. Mentioned in the article are the stroke pair in the royal barge Gloriana, Sir Steve and Sir Matthew, but also the former Olympian Guin Batten, and ‘a mixture of Olympians and Paralympians, watermen and injured former servicemen’. There where more than twenty boats from the Henley area that took part in the festivities on the Thames. Read the whole article here.

Earlier today, my fellow HTBS-arian Greg Denieffe also pointed out a marvellous 6-minute slide show about previous water celebrations on the Thames on BBC News Magazine. View it here. Of course, for those of you who has a special interest in the previous Royal River Pageants, in 1919 and in 1953, HTBS posted some film clips on those occasions on 30 May, 2012.

HTBS would also like to remind the readers in and around Henley-on-Thames that there is going to be another River Pageant on 25 June when Queen Elizabeth II visits the town.

(To Say Nothing Of The Dog)

Is it 'J', Harris, George, and Montmorency sculling during the River Pageant?

One of the great things with running HTBS is the contact with you readers. It might be a comment for one of the blog posts, or just a short e-mail with a question or even a pat on the shoulder. Yesterday, Fraser from England sent an e-mail saying that in a nice photograph by Tim K., in his coverage of the Thames Diamond Jubilee Pageant (posted on 4 June), Fraser found his own skiff. While the good Tim sent Fraser a photograph of his boat, Tim noticed another skiff on the port side of Fraser’s with a cute dog (see above).

I do not know if the terrier’s name is Montmorency, but at least Fraser informed me that the crew in the skiff is from Vesta Rowing Club and that ‘the terrier has his own bowl in the club bar’. See, I have always thought that the English were such dog lovers!

A Special Outing

Ocean rower and adventurer Ben Fogle (second from left) joined Atlantic rower Olly Hicks, Amazon kayaker Helen Skelton, and Oxford cox Zoe De Toledo on a treble skiff outing at the Thames Diamond Jubilee River Pageant. Read his very patriotic article in the Daily Telegraph here. The newspaper also offers a video with the highlights of the River Pageant, view it here.

Thames Diamond Jubilee Pageant

The 'Gloriana' with Sir Steve at stroke on starboard side and Sir Matthew at stroke on port.

HTBS’s Royal Correspondent Tim Koch reports from the River Thames in London:

In the last few months HTBS has posted several items about the Thames Diamond Jubilee Flotilla, the 1,000 plus Amerada of small craft planned to be one of the highlights of this summer’s celebrations to mark the 60th year of Queen Elizabeth’s reign. Yesterday, Sunday 3 June, two years of planning came together. The main interest for HTBS were the ‘manpowered’ boats, those that were rowed, sculled or paddled. These led the flotilla and at the head of this section was the Gloriana, rowed by Steven Redgrave, Matthew Pinsent and sixteen others. The BBC has a nice online report, here.

HM The Queen (in white) arriving by launch. The Queen's Watermen are in red. The Waterman on the starboard side is the Queen's Bargemaster.

The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh boarded a small launch at Chelsea Harbour and this took them to the Royal Barge which was to take them from Cadagon Pier to Tower Bridge. Usually a ‘Royal Barge’ is something more like the Gloriana, that is a craft rowed by the Queen’s Watermen. However it was felt this was not a practical or secure type of boat for this particular event and the privately-owned charter vessel, The Spirit of Charwell was converted for the occasion. However, even though the Royal Party was not rowed at any stage, they were still accompanied by Queens Watermen. Enough text, with an event like this the pictures speak for themselves.

The Queen's Bargemaster, Paul Ludwig.

The Queen's Watermen in the bow of the Royal Barge. The Royal Standard flies from the bow staff.

Manpowered boats.

More manpowered boats.

And some more manpowered boats.

Even more manpowered boats.

Australian Surf Boats

18-oared gondola

Skiffs

(Photograph & copyright: Tim Koch)

Pageant Post Script

Ops, yesterday I forgot to add this very useful link to my HTBS post from the website CITYA.M. – showing everything you need to know about Sunday’s Diamond Jubilee Pageant on the River Thames. So, sorry, and here you are….. here!

Royal River Pageants In 1919 & 1953

On 3 June, the Diamond Jubilee Pageant for Queen Elizabeth II will be held on the River Thames, which HTBS has written about earlier. I guess, a lot of the crews of the boats and vessels which are going to take part in this Pageant for the Queen have been practicing ‘tossing the oars’. If you do not know what that means, take a look at the following film clip from 1919 from, I think, the ‘Peace Pageant’ with the Royal Barge on the Thames. Coming in to dock, the Royal Watermen are tossing their oars.

ROYAL BARGE ON THAMES IN 1919

 Queen Elizabeth had her first River Pageant as the Sovereign in 1953, and of course the Royal Watermen where present. It is said that the oars the Watermen are holding have not been used since 1919 for the ‘Peace Pageant’.

 ROYAL RIVER PAGEANT IN 1953



Good luck to all you 'Oar Tossers' on the 3rd!