The Poetry of Rowing

The Poetry of Rowing

If rowing be a form of poetry, row on.
The morning being rowed through
could not have been
more exquisite reminder:
Li Po embracing the moon
hung faintly in the blue
glass sky; Shakespere's "waves,
hastening minutes" toward shore;
Rilke's "swan, infinietly silent
and aware," unlike Chaucer's cuckolded
Miller unaware; a pine, reflected
by the water, reminiscent
of Basho's mirage; and two men,
on shore, like Cavafy's men
passing unseeing yet seeing
in opposite directions.  That morning,
the river beat like the White Pony's heart,
the beat to which the rower timed
his strokes, the rhythmic stroking
of oars to river, to the beating heart
of the White Pony river.

Philip Kuepper
(25 July, 2013)

The Union Nautique of Liège Celebrates its 140th Anniversary

The entrance of UNL's club house.

Hélène Rémond writes from France,

As I visited Liège during my recent holidays in Belgium, I took the opportunity to stroll around the Parc de la Boverie where the rowing club Union Nautique de Liège (UNL) is settled at the tip of the island surrounded by the river Meuse and the Derivation canal, a 20-minute walk from the city centre.

The UNL boat house.

The Hennebique Bridge.

While crossing the beautiful setting of the park, the visitor can spot one sculpture of the Liège artist Mady Andrien called Le Rameur (“The Rower”), which was installed in 1998 on the Mativa embankment by the Derivation canal – a canal created in the 19th century as the river was hardly navigable for the large vessels which were used by the industries in the city.

Parc de la Boverie

Mady Andrien's Le Rameur.

One of the rowing events that the club organizes in May every year is La Boucle de Liège, commonly referred to as “La Boucle”. It is a long-distance race (close to 17km) with handicaps. It’s opened to all categories of rowers (from Wallonia or Flanders but also from abroad), and all types of boats are represented. The 18th edition will take place in 2014. The first three winners are awarded prizes and there is a huge barbecue for the participants at the end of the day.

“La Boucle”

The club also takes part in national competitions, and its members have raced in international regattas, too. In 1952, J. Van Stichel and R.M.A. Georges won the Double Sculls Challenge Cup at the Henley Royal Regatta. They were symbols of the national union as Van Stichel was Flemish and Georges was a Wallon. Club president Michel Orban says, “Today, Union Nautique is a popular club where young and older rowers from all walks of life practice rowing or sculling. We are offering beginners courses for children aged 11 and older.”

Van Stichel and Georges, winners of the 1952 Double Sculls Challenge Cup at the Henley Royal Regatta.

UNL president Michel Orban.

Competitive rowing in Belgium was born in Liège
As the bridge of Arches was reconstructed at the end of the 1850s, the City of Liège inaugurated the new work of art by a celebration including regattas in the presence of King Leopold I. These regattas were organized by the Société Nationale Regatta d’Anvers, which promoted boating as early as 1858, and Sport Nautique de la Seine (in Paris), which was founded in 1855. These organizations were happy to promote rowing – as this kind of sporting event was new in Belgium. As the regatta organized on 29 October, 1860, was very successful, young people decided to found a club to encourage boating and to organize other rowing events.

This is how the first Belgian rowing club was born in 1860: Sport Nautique de la Meuse was founded on 18 November. The only boat the club had at that time was an iron boat, which was under cover in a barn, close to the Saint-Léonard embankment. A few months later, Sport Nautique bought a wooden boat from the Parisian club, the Gig Hébé, which had taken part in the first regatta in Liège.

The Schlemmer Restaurant used to accommodate the members of Sport Nautique de la Meuse. The owner of the restaurant was actually the grandfather of a president-to-be of the UNL, which was created a few years later, in 1873. Today, they are two of the 25 clubs affiliated to the Royal Belgium Rowing Federation representing the French-speaking league and the Flemish Vlaamse Roeiliga.

In 1867, the zoological park Parc de la Boverie agreed to welcome the Sport Nautique boathouse (a wooden shed that did not satisfy the members). Negotiations were underway to get a more convenient place to build a boathouse, but no agreement was reached. In 1873, the administrative committee asked the City for some financial help to organize regattas but the request was turned down. Sport Nautique had no teams to compete anyway and this is when Union Nautique de Liège was launched.

Venetian gondola at the 1905 World Fair.

The year 1894 saw the first match between the two clubs, a 3,000-metre distance race. 1905 was a golden year when the World Fair was held in the city. There were many events celebrating everything nautical at the Fair, including boat racing, and with splendid fireworks. The Parc de la Boverie was accessible thanks to the Hennebique Bridge. This also meant that new members found their way to UNL. The club welcomed women in 1928.

Painting of a UNL crew by Belgian painter Paul Daxhelet (1905-1993) (the link is in French).

Etching by Paul Daxhelet.

More information in French at www.srunl.com

1936 Olympic Games: Parvis e Glandibus Quercus*

Bobby Moch, USA coxswain, receives a Hitler Oak in the Olympic Stadium on 15 August 1936.

Greg Denieffe writes,

The 1936 Olympic Games, held in Berlin, Germany, were certainly controversial and memorable and they have long fascinated me. Many books have been written about how the world gathered at the heart of the German Reich and how the Games were hijacked by Adolf Hitler, albeit reluctantly at first.

The ’36 Games consisted of a total of 129 events in 19 sports. There was a dead-heat in weightlifting, resulting in 130 Gold Medals being awarded and each gold medallist was also presented with an oak sapling. They have come to be known as Hitler Oaks despite the fact that they were awarded by the German Olympic Committee and ‘were a gift of the German people’. The oak saplings of about 50cm high were each in a terracotta pot adorned with the Olympic Bell and on which was written the motto ‘Grow in the honour of victory! Summon to further achievement!’

Germany topped the overall medal table with 33 Gold, followed by USA with 24 and Hungary with ten. Great Britain finished 10th with four Gold. The rowing table was even more decisive with Germany winning five of the seven events with Great Britain and USA winning one each.

The recently published The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown (here seen with the British cover) has at its heart the 1936 rowing eights final and tells the story of the working class heroes from the University of Washington, Seattle, and their successful quest for Olympic Gold. 

The central character in Brown’s book is Joe Rantz. As he was the only member of the victorious USA crew returning directly home, he ended up bringing the oak sapling back to Seattle where it was planted on campus at the University of Washington. The tree survived for many years despite being moved to several different locations but eventually it died. In 2008, Joe’s daughter, Judith Willman, organised the planting of a replacement oak tree outside the Conibear Shellhouse, home of the Huskies crew. The 2013 UW varsity crew have certainly lived up to the original motto on the terracotta pot.

The photograph of Bobby Moch (on top) appears on page 352 of The Boys in the Boat and I am grateful to the author for the scan. This is how he describes the presentation:

As they lined up next to the German and Italian crews, Olympic officials went down the American line, hanging gold medals around the boys’ necks and placing small laurel wreaths on their heads. Then Bobby Moch, the shortest among them, stepped up onto the highest platform on the podium. One of the boys behind him wisecracked, “You just wanted to win this thing so you could be taller than us for once, didn’t you?” Someone handed Moch a sapling oak tree in a pot. Their names suddenly appeared on the enormous, forty-three-foot-wide announcement board at the eastern end of the stadium. “The Star-Spangled Banner” began to play, and the American flag slowly ascended a flagstaff behind the announcement board.

HTBS has written briefly about the Hitler Oaks before here (Jack Beresford, GBR rowing) and here (Jack Lovelock, NZ athletics).

Jack Beresford’s victory in the double sculls with Dick Southwood was his fifth Olympic medal and in his own words was his greatest and sweetest. I recently discovered an article in the Bedford School magazine, The Ouzel (March 1996), which adds greatly to my previous post and which is transcribed below.

THE HITLER OAK
A story concerning Jack Beresford and the Hitler Oak came to light when the Secretary was contacted by a Mr H. Huntington, who was an apprentice with the firm of Beresford and Hicks, Furniture Makers of Shoreditch. They produced furnitureof quality, and apparently not only are there examples of their craftsmanship in Buckingham Palace, but they also produced furniture for the Coronation of George VI. Mr Huntington well recalls Jack Beresford returning to the factory following his 1936 Gold Medal at the Berlin Olympics and showing the employees the famous oak sapling which had been presented to him by Hitler (sic). Mr Huntington enquired as to the current whereabouts of the tree. It was originally planted on the West side of the School Field near to where the cricket nets now are, but on the outbreak of war it was felt prudent to move it a less conspicuous position, and it was planted on the mound behind the Gymnasium. It remained there until the late 1970s when the construction of the new Swimming Pool necessitated the removal of the mound, and the oak was felled. A certain amount of the wood is still held in storage, and is used primarily for rowing plaques and honours.

As an unusual postscript to the story, Mr Huntington was in the army during the Second World War and found himself fighting northwards through Germany. During a particularly heavy bombardment he took hasty refuge in a ruined building, only to find that it had obviously been a printers. There, on top of the rubble was the picture of Beresford and Southwood winning the Gold Medal. Coincidence indeed… The picture, which has been given to the School by Mr Huntington and to whom we record our grateful thanks is reproduced opposite.

The photograph in question is well known: it shows Beresford and Southwood turning the boat after receiving their victory wreath following a thrilling race in which Germany lead to 1,900m but were rowed down by the wily British double.

Another photograph accompanied the above article: it is rather less well known but just perfect for this blog post. It shows Jack Beresford handing over the oak sapling to Mr Humfrey Grose-Hodge, Headmaster of Bedford School. Whilst most of the oak saplings have died or have been felled, one has to wonder what became of the terracotta pots that they were originally presented in.

Germany won the other five rowing events; single sculls, coxed and coxless pairs, coxed fours and coxless fours but I could not find any photographs of any of these crews with their oak saplings.
However, I have collected photographs of various other athletes with their ‘querce’.

Two photographs of Jesse Owens:

In the first, he salutes during the presentation of his gold medal for the long jump, after defeating Germany's Lutz Long (silver medallist on the right) and Japan’s Naoto Tajima (bronze medallist on the left).

In the second, there are four ‘Hitler Oaks’; Jesse holds two and is surrounded by some of his USA teammates – but are the oaks all his (100m, 200m, 4x100m relay and long jump)?

Watch him receive his oak sapling for the long jump here.

Another American, decathlon champion Glenn Morris, chose to donate his oak tree to his alma mater, Colorado State College of Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts (now Colorado State University). The above photograph shows Morris (pictured right) at the 1936 “Presentation of Oak” ceremony with College President Charles A. Lory (centre) and William Wagner, a fellow athlete.

Jack Lovelock the darling of New Zealand athletics and subject of Bernard Hempseed’s follow up piece on HTBS. Here he is photographed on the medal podium holding his oak sapling for the men’s 1500m which is now fully grown and still alive in the grounds of his old school, Timaru Boys’  High School. Luigi Beccali of Italy finished second and Glenn Cunningham of the USA finished third.

Indian hockey players at the medal ceremony at 'Olympiastadion', Berlin.

Sohn Kee-Chung became the first Korean athlete to win an Olympic medal when he won the gold medal in the Marathon. In 1910, Korea had been annexed by the Japanese Empire, and remained under the control of Japan until Japan’s defeat in Second World War. The Japanese governor in Korea did not permit Sohn and his fellow Korean athletes to compete as Koreans; they participated in the Games as a member of the Japanese delegation, with Japanese names. Sohn was registered under the name Son Kitai.

Despite Germany winning 33 Gold medals, photographs of their athletes with their oak saplings are difficult to find.

Tilly Fleischer, gold medallist for Germany in the women’s javelin, one of only 15 events for women in 1936.

Tilly Fleischer

One place you can see the oak saplings being presented is in Leni Riefenstahl’s Olympia (1938). In a 2011 post called "Leni's Infamous Photograph", HTBS editor Göran R Buckhorn wrote, “It is tricky to balance what is showing a historical event and what might cause too much pain doing so“. Nevertheless, Olympia is well worth watching. Various versions are available on YouTube and there are five presentations of oak saplings for the keen-eyed viewer to spot. In Part 1, (Festival of Nations) you will find the presentations to Trebisonda Valla (Italy) women’s 80m hurdles, Jack Lovelock (photographed above), Forrest Towns (USA) men’s 110m hurdles and Sohn Kee-Chung (again photographed above). In Part 2 (Festival of Beauty) you will find the presentation to Robert Charpentier (France) men’s cycling – individual road race.

*Parvis e Glandibus Quercus = Great oaks from little acorns grow.

GRR: London’s Other Marathon

The Great River Race approaches Hammersmith from Putney, passing the former Harrods Repository on the right.

Here is Tim Koch’s report on this year’s Great River Race, GRR:

The Great River Race took place on London’s River Thames on Saturday, 7 September, on a 21-mile course from London Docklands to Richmond in Surrey. While it is certainly ‘great’ with more than 300 boats from the UK and around the world, it is not (officially) a ‘race’. In my report on the 2011 GRR, I summarised the event thus:

The rules of the event say that the boats must be rowed, sculled or paddled and most boat classes must carry a coxswain plus a passenger (who may take turns at the oar or paddle). The ‘passenger rule’ comes from the Watermen’s historic responsibility to carry passengers on the Thames (small children are often favoured for this role). Also, no sliding seats or riggers are allowed and each boat must fly a flag. A huge variety of boats take part and this is coupled with the inclusive atmosphere of the event which attracts men and women, the young and the old, the competitive and the leisurely.

A race or not, the GRR is an event that is best left to pictures, not words.

Visitors from the Netherlands in a lifeboat or, in Dutch, reddingboot. I do not know how many boats came from what foreigners tend to call Holland, but I seem to have photographed a number of them.

An entry from the Royal Netherlands Naval College, an officer training establishment, the equivalent to Newport in the United States or Dartmouth in Britain.

I think I am correct in saying that this is a currach, an ancient design of boat from the west of Ireland (St. Columba is said to have used one). There is no one standard design but they are a very light, wood framed boat with a canvas (or at one time, skin) covering. Several years ago I had the opportunity of seeing several such boats close up and initially was not very impressed. They seemed very crudely made and the oars had no spoons – they were simply long poles! However, I changed my mind when several elderly, small and wiry gentlemen put down their glasses of stout, took off their jackets, rolled up their shirt sleeves and made the currachs seemingly fly across the water. It was later explained to me that the oars, about ten-foot in length, have no spoons as they would be caught in rough seas. The trick is to dig perhaps half the length of the oar into the water to give it a large surface area to work against. The oar locks are block and thole pin.

A boat flying the flag of Scotland, Saint Andrew’s Cross or the Saltire, passes under Hammersmith Bridge.

Women from Helford River Gig Club in Cornwall pass under Hammersmith Bridge. The club writes about them here. HTBS has previously written about the remarkable revival and worldwide spread of Cornish Gig Racing.

Proving the worldwide popularity of Cornish Pilot Gigs, this one is from the Netherlands club WSV de Spiegel based in Nederhorst den Berg in the province of North Holland.

Another Cornish Pilot Gig, this time from Langstone Adventure Rowing who are based in Hampshire in the South East of England. They say that they are a centre for traditional fixed seat rowing and that they ‘...coach teams and individual rowers to reach their goals, be it to row across the English Channel.... to take part in events such as the Great River Race... or to raise money for charity’. They also run team building sessions and ‘gig rowing for fun, fitness and friendship’.

They keep on coming.

Who are the Poplar Dockers from Gravesend?

I know even less about this boat and crew than I do the Poplar Dockers!

More people I cannot tell you about apart from the fact that they look like they are having fun.

The Thames is never quite wide enough. A lifeboat crew from the Netherlands club AVR Avira, based in Duiven in the east of the country, clashes with a Great River Race self-build ‘jolly boat’.

I would love to know more about this boat – or even why the crew is dressed as monks. It looks like a very traditional design.

Is this the same type of boat as the one above?

The end of a long day.

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.

Konnichiwa Tokyo

An impression of the proposed ‘Sea Forest Waterway’ in Tokyo Bay.

Tim Koch writes,

The International Olympic Committee announced yesterday, 7 September, that Tokyo will host the 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games. HTBS has previously written about the spectacular venue for the 2016 Olympic Regatta, a natural lagoon surrounded by the city of Rio de Janeiro and the Tijuca National Park. The rowing venue for 2020 will also be in the centre of the host city, in this case the ‘Sea Forest Waterway’, a man-made island to be constructed in Tokyo Bay. It is difficult to access the official website at the time of writing, a few hours after the announcement, but details on Tokyo’s unsuccessful 2016 bid are obtainable and it is fairly safe to assume that the Japanese Olympic Committee’s broad plans remain unchanged.

Japan also hosted the 1964 Games where the rowing consisted of seven events for men.

The rowing venue is number 21 on this map produced for Tokyo’s 2016 bid.

2013 World Rowing Masters Regatta - some results

The World Rowing Masters Regatta is underway in Varese, Italy. The FISA website has an article about the regatta, read it here. For those of you interested in the race results so far, please go here.

The following list of age categories will help you to easier find the crew you are looking for: A (27-35); B (36+); C (43+); D (50+); E (55+); F (60+); G (65+); H (70+); I (75+); J (80+); and K (85+).

2013 World Masters Regatta in Varese

Yesterday, the World Rowing Masters Regatta started in Varese, Italy, with a record 3,355 athletes registered from 633 clubs from 454 cities from 40 nations with Italy having the biggest contingent of rowers with 731 entries. Germany comes second with 657 and thereafter Great Britain with 474 rowers – there were 10,221 registered seats just before the regatta began. And 500 volunteers are there to make sure that ‘the regatta runs smoothly’ FISA writes on its website. More ‘numbers’: 94-year-old Charles Eugster of Switzerland is the oldest male competitor and Rosa Pie of Spain is the oldest female rower, 82 years young. The regatta ends on Sunday, 8 September.

Here are the age categories: A (27-35); B (36+); C (43+); D (50+); E (55+); F (60+); G (65+); H (70+); I (75+); J (80+); and K (85+).

For more information about the regatta: www.wrmr2013.com

Four rowing pals of mine, from my Swedish rowing club, Malmö Roddklubb, are competing in the fours, but I am yet to find them in the sea of entries – my very best of luck to them.

Harry Parker: A Good Coach

Above is a teaser of yesterday's programme 60 Minutes Sport which followed legendary Harvard coach Harry Parker last year. Rowing web site Row2k wrote about the programme yesterday, read it here.

Rowing to Stay the Course

Rowing to Stay the Course

I keep blowing the dust
of my flesh off my soul
to prolong mt earthly transit,
to remain cognizant of the beautiful
mystery of the universe.

Philip Kuepper
(25 July, 2013)

Jean-Christophe Rolland, New President of FISA in July 2014

Jean-Christophe Rolland (FRA) ©Igor Meijer/FISA

In a press release from yesterday, the International Rowing Fedaration, FISA, writes that its member federations elected Jean-Christophe Rolland of France as the future President of FISA on the first ballot at the 2013 Ordinary Congress in Chungju, South Korea. Rolland received 117 of the 179 ballots cast. The required absolute majority was 90 votes. Other candidates John Boultbee (AUS) and Tricia Smith (CAN) received 50 and 12 votes respectively.

Rolland holds a Master Degree in electrical, electronics and communications engineering and has worked for EDF, one of the world’s leading electric utility companies, since 1993. At first an engineer, then a regional Deputy Director, he was appointed the Human Resources Director of his business unit. Rolland managed EDF’s sponsorship programme with the London 2012 Olympic Games Organising Committee.

 Rolland participated in three Olympic Games, winning bronze in Atlanta and gold in Sydney. He has five World Championship medals, including two gold medals. Appointed to FISA’s Athletes Commission in 1994, Rolland served as Chair of the Commission between 2002 and 2011 and served on FISA’s Executive Committee from 2004 to 2011, at which time the FISA Council appointed him as a co-opted member.



Rolland will assume the presidency in July 2014, when the current president Denis Oswald will step down from the position. Denis Oswald, FISA president since 1989, announced earlier this year at FISA’s 2013 Extraordinary Congress that he would seek re-election but only for a transitional period of six to eight months. The FISA Council decided to stage the election of Oswald’s successor at the same Congress in order to assist the newly elected ‘president-elect’ in the transfer of knowledge and introductions to the international sports world.



The Congress also elected Tricia Smith (CAN) as Vice-President, winning 98 of a possible 178 votes. Smith was running against the incumbent Vice-President Anita DeFrantz (USA). In addition, Michael Williams (GB), the current Treasurer, was re-elected unopposed. The final elections that took place were for the three commission chairs who also serve on the Executive Committee. The Council had to wait for the outcome of the election for the President and Vice-President elections before proposing the remaining three members of the Executive Committee: Mike Tanner (HKG), John Boultbee (AUS) and Lenka Wech (GER). The delegates voted to approve the proposal. Wech, the only new member of the Executive, is the Chair of the Athletes’ Commission.



Denis Oswald, FISA president since 1989, is retiring next summer, and will be succeeded by Jean-Christophe Rolland.

At the end of the meeting, the Congress unanimously adopted a proposal of the FISA Council to name Denis Oswald ‘FISA Honorary President for Life’, in recognition of his outstanding contribution to rowing over the past 36 years.

Three World Rowing Championship regattas were attributed by the Congress with unanimous decisions: the 2017 World Rowing Championships to Sarasota, USA, 2018 World Rowing Championships to Plovdiv, Bulgaria, and the 2015 World Rowing Under-23 Championships to Plovdiv, Bulgaria.

The FISA Council also announced its decision to award the second World Rowing Cup of 2015 to Varese, Italy, and the third World Rowing Cup to Lucerne, Switzerland. Lucerne will host the second World Rowing Cup of 2016 along with the Final Olympic Qualification Regatta, and the third and final World Rowing Cup of 2016 will be held in Poznan, Poland.



Bids for the first World Rowing Cup of 2015 and 2016 had been requested from outside Europe, but following a review of the World Rowing Cup in Sydney in 2013 and 2014, it was decided that bids from within Europe should be considered, so the Council announced that these events would not be attributed at this Congress. Bidding has therefore been reopened and both events will be awarded in December 2013.

Three additional events were attributed by the FISA Council: the 2016 World Rowing Masters Regatta to Copenhagen, Denmark, the 2017 World Rowing Masters Regatta to Bled, Slovenia and the 2015 World Rowing Coastal Championships for Clubs to Lima, Peru. The latter marks the first World Rowing Championship event to be awarded to South America, and the first time that the World Rowing Coastal Championships will take place outside of Europe.



Five new national federations were admitted as members of FISA: Benin, Botswana, Mali, Saudi Arabia and St. Vincent & Grenadines. This brings the total number of FISA member federations to 142.

To Follow the Etiquette

The date is 21 July, 1913, and the well-dressed gentleman wearing a boater, being escorted by mounted police on the towpath at Putney, is none other than Ernest Barry, the reigning world professional sculling champion. Barry is there to defend his title on the Championship course between Putney and Mortlake on the Thames against Harry Pearce of Australia and for £500 aside. Barry won the race at 24 min. 9 sec. Harry’s son, Bobby Pearce, would, twenty years later, in 1933, take the professional championship title from Ted Phelps. Bobby Pearce had begun his sculling career as an amateur, taking two Olympic gold medals in the single in 1928 and 1932, and the Diamonds at Henley in 1931.

The story is actually only an excuse for me to point out that as it is Labor Day in the U.S. today, which means that it is the last day to wear your straw hat if you care to follow the etiquette. So hats off, gentlemen!

2013 World Rowing Championships - Day Eight & Final Day

You will find FISA’s race reports for the eighth day of the 2013 World Rowing Championships on the Tangeum Lake regatta course in Chungju, South Korea, here and here. If you missed to watch any of the races, go here.

Also, watch Martin Cross - 'The Blogging Oarsman' - enthusiastic video report below: