A country which has produced such scullers as Beach and Searle, not to mention Trickett, Laycock, Kemp, Nielson, Stanbury, and many others of less calibre, may well claim a place in a work treating of the science and art of rowing. In the limits of a chapter it is scarcely possible to give an exhaustive account of Australian oarsmen and oarsmanship, and as the performances of the leading Colonial scullers are sufficiently well known, from their having competed on English waters, this record will be almost entirely confined to amateur rowing, as practised in Australia.
That large continent, with the island of Tasmania, consists of six colonies, in all of which the art is cultivated, with more or less enthusiasm.
The first record we can find of anything like boat-racing occurs in 1818, when ships' gig races were rowed in the Sydney Harbour, while the first regatta was held in the same place in 1827. In 1832 an Australian-born crew, in a locally built whale-boat, beat several crews of whaling ships. Passing over a series of years, in which nothing of more than local and momentary interest occurred, we find that in 1858, in the first race rowed on the present Champion course, the Parramatta River, Green beat an English sculler, Candlish, in a match for £400. I am inclined to regard this as the real foundation of New South Wales professional sculling, which afterwards culminated in the performances of Beach and Searle. The mother colony is the only one of the group which has produced a professional sculler of any class. Amongst amateurs none has yet appeared who could be placed in the first rank.
In all the Colonies there are rowing associations which regulate and control amateur rowing. Of these, New South Wales alone has attempted to maintain the amateur status on English lines. The other associations recognize men who would not pass muster at any regatta in the UnitedKingdom where the regulation definition obtains. To the New South Wales Association about ten clubs are affiliated. Under its auspices regattas are held in the harbour of Sydney, and one on the Parramatta River. The former water is utterly unfit for first-class racing, as it is exceedingly rough, exposed to sudden winds, and hampered with steam traffic of all sorts. In September—regarded as the commencement of the rowing season—there is an eight-oar race, the winners of which rank as champions for the ensuing year, and fly the "Premiership Pennant." On January 26 is held the Anniversary Regatta, which, founded in 1834, has been an annual event since 1837.
The Parramatta River course, on which champion events are decided, and which Hanlan, Beach, and Searle have made classic ground, is 3 miles 330 yards. It is practically straight, with a strong tide, the set of which is very difficult to learn. At times it is so affected by wind, as to render rowing impossible. The most perfect water is that of the Nepean River. Here a straight 3¼ miles course can be found, perfectly calm, and with no current. It was on this river that Beach beat Hanlan in 1887.
The Victorian Rowing Association holds three Championship events in the year—sculls, fours, and eights rowed in best boats on the Lower Yarra, and an annual regatta on the Albert Park Lake, though in former years it has taken place on the Upper and the Lower river. Important meetings are also held at Ballarat, Geelong, Warrnambool, Bairnsdale, Colac, Nagambie, and Lake Moodemere. The length for Intercolonial and Championship races is 3 miles 110 yards, with the tide, which may be set at three miles an hour.
The South Australian Association holds an annual regatta on the river Torrens, and has champion races for eights, fours, and sculls, on the Port River. The city course is one mile, that for the champion races, three miles. The Torrens is at the best an inferior river for rowing, while the Port Water is a broad tidal stream, exposed to south-west winds, and at times exceedingly rough.
Queensland, Tasmania, and Western Australia, like their sister Colonies, have associations, and hold regattas.
The great event of the year is the Intercolonial eight-oar race, rowed alternately in Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane. Western Australia is now(1897) entering the field, but her crew is composed almost entirely of former Victorian oarsmen. In the past the rowing of Victorian crews has been generally far superior to that of the other Colonies, and in 1894 the Victorian combination was the nearest approach to English form that has yet been attained. South Australia has not so far been represented. Speaking generally, none of the picked eights of the Colonies have ever shown form or pace within measurable distance of the best college crews at Oxford and Cambridge, or the eights which may be seen at Henley. There is no approach to that systematic rudimentary teaching, coaching, and training, which proves so successful on English waters, and without which no crew can ever become that perfect human machine which a finished eight should be.
Sydney.
The principal rowing schools in New South Wales are the Church of England Grammar School, North Shore, the Sydney Grammar School, and St. Ignatius College. Under the "Athletic Association of the Great Public Schools" an annual regatta is held on the Parramatta River inMay. The events are—"Schools Championship," Maiden Fours, Junior Eights, and a June Handicap Sculling Race. The association has fixed the distance at 1¼ miles. The races are rowed in string test gigs; and 8 mins. 15 secs. is considered good time for school crews, whose age, it must be remembered, does not equal that of English schoolboys. The boathouses of the two grammar schools are at Berry's and Woolloomooloo Bays, in the harbour; and they are at a disadvantage compared with St. Ignatius College, which, at Lane Cove River, has a splendid course and smooth water. The ten days of the Easter vacation are spent by the two former schools in "Rowing Camp,"i.e.they migrate to the Parramatta River, where there are better opportunities of systematic work and coaching. Each club, notably St. Ignatius, has a good set of boats, those of the North Shore School being fitted with convertible fixed or sliding seats, carried on frames. The form of the two grammar schools is decidedly good, and conforms to the English standard much more nearly than that of most of the clubs.
Victoria.
There are five schools approaching, as nearly as circumstances allow, the great public schools ofEngland, viz. in the capital, the Church of England Grammar School, the Scotch College, Wesley College, St Patrick's College, and the Church of England Grammar School at Geelong.
Two races are rowed annually, for first and second crews, each school in turn having the choice of course, which is either on the Upper or Lower Yarra, the Albert Park Lagoon, or the Barwon at Geelong. For first crews the distance is 1¼ miles, for second a mile, the boats being string test gigs, fixed seats. Of all the schools none has a record equal to that of Geelong, where rowing, in comparison with other sports, occupies the same position as at Eton. To the Cambridge Eight it has contributed four oars, including the well-known heavyweight S. Fairbairn; while in the memorable race of '86, when Pitman made his victorious rush on the post, the school had an "old boy" in each boat—Fairbairn rowing for the Light Blues, and Robertson, whose father had been in Hoare's famous '61 crew, for Oxford. In the Cambridge Trial Eights seven "old Geelongs" have rowed; in the Oxford Trials only one; while the school has also been represented in the Grand Challenge and other races at Henley.
The Public Schools' Race for first crews was established in 1868, and for second in 1878. Geelong first rowed for the former in 1875, since when it has twelve wins to its credit, and the same number in the minor event.
The Boat Club was established in 1874, and at the present date has a roll of fifty-six members, an excellent boathouse, and nineteen boats. It holds an annual school regatta in June.
Rowing at the other schools is very spasmodic, mostly confined to a few weeks' training for the above races.
SouthAustralia.
There are only two schools in South Australia which merit the designation of public schools in the English sense, viz. St. Peter's Collegiate School and Prince Alfred College, both in the immediate neighbourhood of the city.
Adelaide is bisected by the river Torrens, where, by reason of a dam, a mile and a half of water is available for rowing. But the course is so tortuous that racing is limited to a mile. The accumulation of silt is so great, and the growth of weeds and rushes so rapid, that for some five months in the year the river is kept empty for necessary operations; and at the best of times the water is slowand sluggish. At the annual regatta, under the Rowing Association, the rivals have often competed in a special race; but they ran the chance of being drawn to row private schools. In order to make rowing as important a part of school athletics as cricket and football, the present writer, who was then chairman of the Rowing Association, instituted in 1893 an annual race between these schools for a challenge shield, to be rowed on the tidal river at the Port, over a straight mile course. The boats used are half-outrigged, clinker, keelless fours, fixed seats, with a twenty-six-inch beam. The crews practise on the home water, and finish their preparation on the scene of the contest. So far, St. Peter's College has won each event in the easiest style. A race has also been established with the Geelong school. Of three, each of which has been of the closest, Geelong has won once, St. Peter's twice. The boats used are full outrigged clinkers, with sliding seats.
In spite of the inferior water, rowing at St. Peter's is becoming almost as popular with the boys as cricket and football. To this state of things their success against Prince Alfred and Geelong crews has materially contributed, as wellas the institution of school regattas. The club has a good boathouse, with the right class of boats for teaching and coaching, viz. steady, roomy, half-outrigged, clinker fours, with keels, convertible as fixed or sliders.
There are three Universities of Australia—those of Sydney, Melbourne, and Adelaide. Racing was first instituted when Sydney and Melbourne met on the water of the latter in string test gig fours over a three and a half miles course. In the following year they met on the Parramatta. Melbourne won on both occasions. The race was then discontinued, but in 1885 the Sydney University Boat Club was founded, and in 1888 the three Universities mutually agreed to establish the race as an annual event in eights, to be rowed in turn on the Parramatta, the Yarra, and the Port Adelaide rivers, over a three mile course. Of nine races rowed—in two of which Adelaide, and in one of which Sydney, did not compete—Sydney has won four times, Melbourne thrice, and Adelaide on two occasions. The presentation by Old Blues of Oxford and Cambridge of a magnificent cup, to beheld by the winners, has given a great stimulus to the race, and invested it with an importance which otherwise would not have attached to it. It has served to establish the continuity of the contest, and to connect the local Universities with their more famous elder sisters of England.
The Sydney U.B.C. undoubtedly takes the lead in prosecuting rowing. It promotes annual races for Freshmen, and intercollegiate fours between the three colleges of St. John's, St. Andrew's, and St. Paul's. Since their inauguration, in 1892, St. Paul's has won on every occasion except in 1894. In 1895 and 1896 the U.B.C. won the Rowing Association Eight-oar Championship.
There is an annual race in eights between Ormond and Trinity Colleges of the Melbourne University, besides a few other less important events, but the rowing spirit is not in such evidence as in Sydney and Adelaide. The latter is simply a teaching and examining University, with members so few that it is rather a matter of finding eight men to put in a boat than of picking or selecting a crew from a number of aspirants. Its success and enterprise are the more remarkable.
Speaking generally of University form in Australia, it is far inferior to that of a good college eight. Nor is the reason far to seek. There is no such recruiting ground as, for instance, Eton or Radley, not to mention other rowing schools, nor are there the opportunities for making oars such as the college clubs at the two great Universities present, with the successive stages of the Torpids and Lent races, the May and Summer Eights, Henley, and the Trial Eights. Coaching, as in England, from the tow path or a fast steam-launch, is practically impossible, and the number of those who have a scientific knowledge of oarsmanship, and, what is rarer still, the gift of imparting it to a crew, individually and collectively, is small indeed. Coaching in Australia is done from the stern, or from another boat, or by an occasional view from the bank, sometimes from a launch seldom fast enough to keep up, or range abeam. Pair-oar tubbing is of course utilized. Sydney University rowing is, however, far superior to non-University oarsmanship. The men sit up, use their backs and legs well, understand the knee work at the end of the slide, and do not rush their recovery. They are somewhat deficient in fore and aft swing,have a tendency to sky the feather, and rarely catch their water at the first. Melbourne rowing is wanting in body work, and conspicuous for absence of length. The men apparently are taught to discard on slides every approach to fixed-seat form, instead of to retain as much as possible. Thanks to a strong Oxford inspiration in Adelaide, and a belief in fixed-seat form as the foundation of good rowing on slides, an Adelaide school or University crew is conspicuous for length, reach, and swing. The pace of the eights is far behind English standard.
It was the opinion of Hanlan that in the matter of boats and sculls he had never been so well served as by Donnelly and Sullivan of Sydney, a judgment as regards sculls endorsed by Beach and Searle. Chris. Nielsen, the sculler, has brought out a boat which he claims to be faster than the ordinary wager boat, with, against, or without tide, in rough water or smooth. The dimensions for an 11½ stone man are—length, 23 ft.; beam, 16 ins.; depth, 7 ins.; for'ard, 6 ins.; aft, 5½ ins.; full lines throughout; height of seat from heel plates, 7 ins.;height of work from seat, 5¾ ins.; needs no fin, steers well, very light off hand; weight without fittings, 14 lbs. Riggers are bicycle tubing fittings, ordinary Davis gate; Colonial cedar, pine, and hickory timbers. The Australian-built boats are probably, so far as lines, general design, and workmanship, quite equal to the best English craft. For pairs, fours, and eights the Melbourne builders, Fuller, Edwards, and Greenland, are of the first class. They use a skeleton frame for the slides, built with angle pieces. This has all the rigidity of Clasper's more solid style, is lighter and stronger, and when the boat is being emptied allows the free escape of water. A Colonial eight is certainly lighter than those sent to Australia by Clasper or Rough. Probably the English builders have overestimated the weight of Australian eight-oar crews, which do not scale anything approaching a 'Varsity eight. Seating down the middle is generally preferred, which the present writer thinks has everything in its favour. The great drawback from which local builders suffer is the want of seasoned cedar. From this cause their boats do not last as long as English ones.
I am not disposed to place much reliance on time as a test of a crew or a sculler, as conditions can never be so identical as to make comparison a safe guide. Still a certain interest attaches to records. It is contended that the Parramatta is a fifth slower than the Thames. The best trial with the tide that I know of is for a mile, 5 mins. 20 secs. with a four; 4 mins. 47 secs. with an eight. Over the whole course, 3 miles 330 yards, an eight has put up 17 mins. 12 secs., one mile of which was compassed in 4 mins. 52 secs. On the Yarra the Victorian Eight of 1889 is said to have rowed two measured miles in 10 mins. 2 secs. At Brisbane, in 1895, the Sydney International Eight, with a strong stream, compassed three miles in 15 mins., but the distance is doubted. On the Nepean course, 3 miles 440 yards, Sullivan beat Bubear in 19 mins. 15 secs., no current.
The sport of rowing, as I gather from Mr. Caspar Whitney's well-known book,[14]was in its infancy in America when it had already taken a prominent place amongst our amateur athletic exercises in England. The Detroit Boat Club, established in 1839, was the first rowing organization in America. Next came Yale University, which established a Boat Club in 1843, and was followed by Harvard University in 1846. The first boat-race between Harvard and Yale took place in 1852 on Lake Winipiseogee, New Hampshire, in eight-oared boats with coxswains. Other meetings between these two followed at intervals until 1859, when a College Union Regatta was instituted. This tookplace at Worcester (Mass.), on Lake Quinsigamond, in six-oared boats without coxswains, the bow oar invariably steering, and was continued, with an interruption of three years during the Rebellion, until 1870, when the course was changed to the Connecticut River. Up to this time two Universities only had competed besides Yale and Harvard; but in 1872 the number increased considerably, and in 1875 no less than twelve different Universities were represented in one race. These were, in the order in which they finished, Cornell, Columbia, Harvard, Dartmouth (Hanover, N.H.), Wesleyan (Middletown, Conn.), Yale, Amherst (Mass.), Brown (Providence, R.I.), Williams (Williamstown, Mass.), Bowdoin (Brunswick, Maine), Hamilton (Clinton, N.Y.), and Union (Schenectady, N.Y.). The most eventful of these big regattas was that of 1874 at Saratoga, when nine boats entered. Harvard and Yale, having adjoining stations, unfortunately became engaged in a dispute as to "water," and were left disputing by several boats. Harvard got away from the entanglement first, leaving Yale with her rudder and one oar broken, and went in pursuit of the others; but in spite of the most heroic efforts, were beatenby Columbia and Wesleyan, who finished respectively first and second. In 1876 Harvard and Yale decided to withdraw from these crowded meetings, and in this and the following year they rowed a private match at Springfield in Eights with coxswains, and in 1878 on the Thames at New London, where they continued their annual contest up to and including 1895.[15]In that year there took place a break in the athletic relations between these two Universities, and in 1896 Harvard took part in a "quadrangular" race with Cornell, Columbia, and Pennsylvania Universities. This was won by Cornell, Harvard being second, and was rowed on a perfectly straight four-mile course at Poughkeepsie on the River Hudson, where Cornell, Columbia, and Pennsylvania had decided some previous contests. In the present year, however, the differences between Harvard and Yale were happily adjusted, and a race was rowed at Poughkeepsie between them and Cornell, in which Cornell came in first, Yale defeating Harvard for second place. Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Pennsylvania, and Cornell possess at thepresent day the most important University rowing organizations, and at all of them the sport is practised with that intense keenness which characterizes the young American in everything that he undertakes. Especially is this the case with Harvard and Yale. Their rivalry has continued for many years, and a meeting between them in rowing, or in any other sport, evokes among their members an eagerness and an enthusiasm of which an Englishman can have little conception. Most of the Universities that took part in the contests of the seventies seem to have dropped altogether out of the rowing world. Last year saw a new arrival in the shape of the University of Wisconsin. These Westerners, in spite of their difficulties of climate, were able to form a very good freshman crew, which defeated the Yale freshmen in a two-mile race. This year the Wisconsin University Eight rowed a two-mile race against the Yale University Eight, but were unable to make much of a show against them. The United States Naval Academy at Minneapolis can also put a very fair crew on the water, though the course of their studies allows them but little leisure for practice. This year they were defeated by Cornellin a two-mile race. The chief rowing school of America is undoubtedly St. Paul's, at Concord, New Hampshire. It is divided into two boat-clubs, the Halcyon and the Shattuck, and the teaching and training of the boys are looked after by Mr. Dole, a man of great knowledge and experience in rowing matters. They practise on a large lake situated close to the school buildings, and show on the whole very fair form, though in this respect they cannot equal an Eton crew. Rowing recruits from this school are eagerly sought after by Harvard and Yale, in whose contests old St. Paul's boys have a very brilliant record. At Groton School, in Massachusetts, the boys row in Fours on the river Nashua, their coach being Mr. Abbot, a graduate of Worcester College, Oxford. Rowing, however, at Groton has not yet assumed the importance it has at St. Paul's, baseball being considered of the first importance, and the captain of baseball having the right to claim rowing boys for his team. Not a few Groton wet-bobs have, however, done well in Harvard and Yale crews. Besides these two rowing-schools, there is also the High School of Worcester (Mass.), whose Eight this year—the first, I believe, in itsrowing history—rowed a severe but unsuccessful race against the Harvard freshmen on Lake Quinsigamond, and later in the summer won the race for Intermediate Eights at the National Regatta held on the River Schuylkill at Philadelphia.
[14]"A Sporting Pilgrimage" (published in 1895 by Messrs. Osgood, McIlvaine & Co.), one of the best all-round accounts of English sport that it has ever been my good fortune to read.
[14]"A Sporting Pilgrimage" (published in 1895 by Messrs. Osgood, McIlvaine & Co.), one of the best all-round accounts of English sport that it has ever been my good fortune to read.
[15]For many of these details I am indebted to an article by Mr. J. A. Watson-Taylor in theGranta.
[15]For many of these details I am indebted to an article by Mr. J. A. Watson-Taylor in theGranta.
A HARVARD EIGHT ON THE RIVER HUDSON AT POUGHKEEPSIE.
To an English reader, with his experience of Henley Regatta, it will seem strange that the Universities in America should take little or no part in any rowing contests except their own private matches, and should have no voice, and apparently no wish to have any voice, in the general management of the sport outside the Universities. But such is the case. The National Association of Amateur Oarsmen of America has more than sixty clubs affiliated to it, but neither Harvard nor Yale nor Cornell is amongst the number. The National Association holds a successful regatta every year in August, but no really representative Eight from Harvard or Yale has ever, I believe, taken part in it. With that exception, this Association corresponds to our Amateur Rowing Association, and in its constitution states its object to be "the advancement and improvement of rowing amongst amateurs." By Article III. of the Association an amateur isdefined as "one who does not enter in an open competition; or for either a stake, public or admission money, or entrance fee; or compete with or against a professional for any prize; who has never taught, pursued, or assisted in the pursuit of athletic exercises as a means of livelihood; whose membership of any rowing or other athletic club was not brought about, or does not continue, because of any mutual agreement or understanding, expressed or implied, whereby his becoming or continuing a member of such club would be of any pecuniary benefit to him whatever, direct or indirect;[16]who has never been employed in any occupation involving any use of the oar or paddle; who rows for pleasure or recreation only, and during his leisure hours; who does not abandon or neglect his usual business or occupation for the purpose of training, and who shall otherwise conform to the rules and regulations of this Association (as adopted August 28, 1872, amended January 20, 1876, and July 18, 1888)."
[16]This clause is intended especially to prevent any so-called amateur oarsmen being surreptitiously compensated for rowing, as, for instance, by being furnished lucrative employment in sinecure positions.
[16]This clause is intended especially to prevent any so-called amateur oarsmen being surreptitiously compensated for rowing, as, for instance, by being furnished lucrative employment in sinecure positions.
"Any club which shall issue or accept a challenge for the purpose of holding a professional race, shall be for ever debarred from entering an individual or crew in the Regattas of the Association, and such club, if connected with the Association, shall be expelled."
In point of strictness, it will be noticed this Rule does not suffer by comparison with that of our own Amateur Rowing Association.[17]Indeed, in some respects it is both fuller and stricter. Practically the only difference is that whereas we disqualify as an amateur one who has been employed in manual labour for money or wages, or who is or has been by trade or employment for wages a mechanic, artizan, or labourer, or engaged in any menial duty, this exclusion finds no place in the American Amateur definition. The Laws of Boat-racing adopted by the Association are practically the same as our own.
[17]SeeAppendix.
[17]SeeAppendix.
It may be interesting to contrast the organization and management of rowing at an American University with the systems that a long tradition has consecrated at Oxford and Cambridge. In our Universities, in the first place, each particularsport is entirely independent of all others. Each has its own club, its own funds, derived from the subscriptions of its members, and each manages its own affairs and arranges its own contests, except occasionally in the matter of convenience of date, without any reference whatever to the others. A don is usually treasurer of these clubs, but he has no special authority or control merely because he is a don. His experience and greater knowledge are placed at the disposal of undergraduates in matters of finance; that is all. Certain general University rules as to time of residence, etc., have to be observed, but beyond this the dons assume absolutely no authority at all in the sports of the undergraduates. The undergraduates themselves, through undergraduate officers, elected by themselves, make all their own arrangements as to dates, matches, and everything else connected with their competitions; and a don would as soon think of flirting with a barmaid as of interfering with these matters in virtue of his donship. This point is really of capital importance. The responsibility of everything connected with the sports of the University thus falls upon the proper shoulders—those, namely, of the undergraduates who take part in them. Thefull glory of the victory is theirs, and a defeat they must feel is due to them alone. They cannot shift the blame to any don or committee of dons, and, as they must acknowledge themselves responsible, so the necessity of taking steps to restore the fortunes of their club is the more strongly brought home to them. The captain of a Boat Club is its absolute autocrat as regards work and discipline and the selection of his crew. The coach whom he asks to instruct them may possibly be old enough to be his father, but the coach, none the less, defers with an almost filial respect to the captain, through whom all executive orders are issued. In practice, of course, the wise captain is guided in most matters by his coach, but, should a serious difference arise between them, it is the coach who must give way to the authority of the captain. This uncontrolled management of their sports by the undergraduates is, it seems to me, no unimportant part of a University education; and a man may learn from it even more valuable lessons in conduct, self-control, and the treatment of his fellow-men, than from all the books, papers, and examinations of his University curriculum.
At an American University a very different situation exists. I will take the case of Harvard, not merely because it is more familiar to me, but because it is typical in its general features, though not, of course, in all its details, of the position taken up by the authorities at most American Universities with regard to the sports of the undergraduates. From the earliest days of athletic exercises the Faculty, or Governing Body, of the University has kept a very tight control over them. It has issued rules and ordinances, allowing or forbidding certain competitions, deciding not only the number, but the date and place of matches in which it was allowable to take part, and regulating and controlling the conduct of those undergraduates who took part in athletics. This system, no doubt, originated at a time when the numbers at Harvard were comparatively small, and when the men entered College at an age considerably younger than is usual in England. But the numbers at Harvard have increased by leaps and bounds, and the age of undergraduates is now on an average the same as at Oxford and Cambridge.
In recent years, indeed, a slight change hasbeen found advisable. The control of all athletics, whether rowing, baseball, football, or track athletics, is vested in what is called an Athletic Committee, composed of three professors (Anglicé, dons), three graduates of the University, and three undergraduates. These nine, who are not selected on any representative system, promulgate laws, conduct negotiations, settle dates, and generally perform those details of business which in England are left entirely to the undergraduates. For instance, the negotiations for a resumption of athletic relations with Yale University were on the Harvard side managed by and through the Athletic Committee. Moreover, the Athletic Committee has in its hands the appointment of coaches for the crew, and for the football, baseball, and athletic teams. The captain of a crew or a team is, to be sure, elected by the undergraduates themselves, the established system being that the crew should, before disbanding itself, elect the captain for the ensuing year. But no election of this kind is valid until it has been confirmed by the Athletic Committee. From the above account, in which I have confined myself to facts, and have not attempted to criticize, it will be seen how profoundare the differences between athletic organizations at English and American Universities.
But there are further differences which have nothing to do with the system of control and management. An English University is composed of many colleges, each entirely independent, so far as the management of its affairs are concerned. An English University Boat Club is organized on the same principle. It is made up of representatives of all the College Boat Clubs, and combines these autonomous institutions for what may be termed Imperial purposes. College rowing at Oxford and Cambridge foments a keen and healthy rivalry, and to no small extent helps to keep up the standard of University rowing. In America, on the contrary, the University is one, and apparently indivisible. There are no colleges, and, therefore, there is no aggregation of College Boat Clubs such as we have at home. The want of this element is, no doubt, a serious disadvantage to an American University Boat Club. The only element of rivalry comes from the competition of the four different classes (i.e.years, as we should call them—freshmen; second-year men, or "sophomores;" third-year men, or"juniors;" and fourth-year men, or "seniors") against one another in an eight-oared race in the spring. Beyond this there has been hitherto no internal competition between members of the University Boat Club. Compare this single race with the long series of contests in which an English University oarsman takes part. He may begin in October with the Fours, row in the University Trial Eights in December, and in the University crew in the following March. Then come the College eight-oared races in May or June, followed by Henley Regatta in July, to say nothing of pair-oar races, and sculling races, and College Club races, or of the various Thames regattas, in which he may take part during what remains of the summer. He thus gains invaluable lessons, both in watermanship and in racing experience, which are not open to his American cousin.
For this absence of competitions in an American University Boat Club, the severe American winter, which closes the rivers from about the middle of December until early in March, is only partly responsible. During October and November the rivers are open; but up to the present very littleadvantage has been taken of these valuable months. At Harvard there has hitherto been no race or series of races for Fours or Pairs or Scullers, and freshmen, during their first term, have been exercised on a rowing machine, when they might, with infinitely greater profit, have gained instruction on the water.
Early in January, when the undergraduates have returned from their short Christmas vacation, a "squad" for the University crew has generally been formed and sent to the "training-table," and the men composing it have been put into regular exercise, consisting of running varied by occasional skating, and of rowing practice every day in the tank. When the ice breaks up in March an Eight appears upon the water, and practises regularly from that time until towards the end of June, when its race against the rival University takes place. This long period of combined practice has many obvious drawbacks, which will at once strike an experienced oarsman. I believe better results might be obtained by allowing members of the University "squad" to take part in the Class races, and then, after a period of rest, selecting the University crew.
COACHING ON THE RIVER HUDSON.
Notwithstanding, however, all these disadvantages, rowing at American Universities has reached a high standard—a result due to the extraordinary earnestness and enthusiasm of those who take part in it. The American University oarsman is in every respect as strong and as well-developed in physique as the average Englishman. All he lacks is the prolonged racing experience, which makes the Englishman so formidable and robust an opponent. There are men amongst the old oars of Harvard, Yale, and Cornell, who have made skilled rowing their special study, and whose knowledge of all points of the game is fully as great as that of our English oars. Yale, in particular, has, during the last ten years, been able to turn out some wonderfully fine and powerful crews; but the tendency amongst the American University oarsmen, during recent years, has been to sacrifice body-swing to the mere piston action of the legs on a very long slide. There is now, however, a reaction, due to the visits paid by Cornell and Yale to Henley in 1895 and 1896, and the long body-swing and general steadiness, which are marked features of English rowing, are now being very successfully cultivated in America.
At the five chief rowing Universities—Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Pennsylvania, and Cornell—it is also customary to train a freshman crew every year, not merely for the local class races, but for competition against one another, the races taking place a few days before those in which the University crews compete. This year Yale defeated Harvard by something more than a length, Harvard being about three-quarters of a length ahead of Cornell. The race—a two-mile one—was very severe, and the crews, considering their material, showed, on the whole, better form than that displayed by the University crews. A week later the Cornell freshmen defeated those from Pennsylvania and Columbia over the same course. It is surprising to see what good results can be obtained from these freshmen crews. The men composing them have, for the most part, not rowed before coming to the University; they have had no graduated system of instruction on fixed seats. Up to March, all their rowing has been done on hydraulic machines in the gymnasium. They then launch a sliding-seat Eight and practise for the Class races at the beginning of May. After that they are carefully taken in hand, andtrained for their race in June against the other Universities. It is from this freshman crew, and from the older hands, who may have been rowing in the Class races, that the 'Varsity crew of the following year will be recruited.
The number of students at American Universities is thus stated in Mr. Caspar Whitney's book: Harvard, 3100; Yale, 2400; Pennsylvania, 2500; Columbia, 1600; Cornell, 1800; as against about 2400 at Oxford, and 2800 at Cambridge.
I ought to add that the use of swivel rowlocks is almost universal in America, and that all their Eights are built with the seats directly in a line in the centre of the boat. Boats ofpapier machéhave had a great vogue, their builder being Waters of Troy; but there is now a reaction in favour of cedar boats, as being stiffer and more durable. The Harvard and Yale boats this year were built by Davy of Cambridge (Mass.), and were beautiful specimens of the art. American boats, however, cost at least twice as much as English boats. T. Donoghue, of Newburgh, N.Y., makes most of the oars that are used in first-class racing. They are lighter by a full pound than our English oars, and are every bit as stiff. It is a real pleasure to row with them.
It would not be right, I think, to send forth a new book on rowing without referring to the controversy that has recently been carried on in the columns of theSt. James's Gazetteunder the general title of "Are Athletes Healthy?" The discussion, which concerned itself mainly with oarsmen, is naturally of very deep interest, not only to them, but to the fathers and mothers who are anxious about the welfare of their energetic sons, and who, if the charges alleged against rowing can be proved, will, of course, do their best to dissuade their offspring from indulging in this pernicious exercise. I should have preferred to discuss the matter in the earlier chapters of this book, but the printing was already so far advancedas to render this course out of the question, and I am therefore compelled to deal with it somewhat out of its place in this final chapter.
It would be idle to deny that there was some reason for beginning this discussion. Within the past two years three magnificent young oarsmen, Mr. H. B. Cotton, Mr. T. H. E. Stretch, and Mr. E. R. Balfour, have died; the first after an illness of six months' duration, the other two after being ill for less than a fortnight. They were all Oxford men, had rowed in victorious races both at Putney and at Henley, and two of them—Mr. Cotton and Mr. Balfour—had been actually rowing and racing till within a short time of the attack that proved fatal to them. Mr. Stretch had not raced, except in scratch Eights at Putney, since the Henley Regatta of 1896, some ten months before he died.
It has been asserted that these three untimely deaths were due directly to the severe strain undergone both in preparation for racing and in the actual races in which these oarsmen took part, and that had they been content with unathletic lives they might have lived on for many years. Can that be proved? I admit that I do not wish to think the allegation capable of proof, for thesethree were my familiar friends. I had coached and trained them all; with two of them I had rowed in several races; I had spent innumerable happy days in their society, and the sorrow I feel in having lost them would be terribly increased if I were forced to believe that our favourite sport had had any part in hastening their end. In these cases I will confine myself to stating facts within my own knowledge, and will leave those who read my statement to say whether on a fair view of the matter the exercise of rowing can be held blameworthy.
I may begin by saying that it is the invariable rule at Oxford to send all men who may be required for the University Eight to undergo a preliminary medical examination. This examination is no perfunctory one. It is conducted by Mr. H. P. Symonds, a gentleman of very wide experience, especially amongst undergraduates, and I have known several instances in which, owing to his report, an oarsman has had to withdraw temporarily from the river, and has lost his chance of wearing the coveted blue. There has never been any question about yielding to Mr. Symonds's judgment. His verdict, if adverse, hasalways been accepted as final both by the oarsman concerned and by the president of the Boat Club. In all the three cases with which I am dealing, Mr. Symonds passed his men as perfectly sound in heart and lungs and in every other organ.
I take the case of Mr. Stretch first, in order to eliminate it conclusively. The cause of his death was appendicitis, followed by severe blood-poisoning. It is quite impossible to connect this painful and malignant illness with rowing or with any other exercise. Theappendix vermiformis, which is the seat of the disease, is an unaccountable relic in the internal organization of human beings; it is liable to be affected mysteriously and suddenly in the young and the old, and the only effective remedy, I believe, is by means of an operation which removes it altogether. Mr. Stretch had, as I said, not trained and raced for ten months, and up to the moment of his illness had been in the enjoyment of robust and almost exceptional health.
Mr. Cotton, whose case I now proceed to consider, was an Eton boy, and had rowed a great deal during his school days, though he had not been included in the Eton crew at Henley. He was a man of small stature, beautifully built andproportioned, well-framed, muscular, strong, and active. On coming to Oxford he continued his rowing, and being a good waterman and a man of remarkable endurance and courage, he was in his second year placed at bow of the University crew. Altogether he rowed in four victorious Oxford crews, he won the Grand Challenge Cup at Henley twice as bow of a Leander crew, he won the Stewards' Cup in a Magdalen College Four, rowed Head of the River three times, besides taking part in many other races more or less important. During his whole rowing career I knew him to be unwell only once, and that was in 1893, when he suffered from a sore throat at Putney. In 1895 he rowed bow of the Oxford Eight for the fourth time. The training of this crew was a very anxious one. Influenza was very prevalent, and one after another the Oxford men were affected by this illness. There were only two exceptions, and one of these was Mr. Cotton, who was never sick or sorry for a single day during the whole period of practice. Shortly after the race he came to stay with me. He was then perfectly strong, perfectly healthy, and in wonderfully good spirits, and showed not the least sign of being stale orexhausted. He told me himself, on my congratulating him on having escaped the influenza, that he had never felt better or stronger in his life than he did at that time. On the Easter Monday he bicycled from Bourne End to Oxford and back (a distance of nearly seventy miles as he rode it), and, as he had had to battle against a strong cold wind on the return journey, he was very tired on his arrival. On the following morning, however, he appeared perfectly well. Towards the end of that week he complained of feeling "very lackadaisical and having a bad headache," but he attached no importance to these symptoms, and soon after went back to Oxford with a view to rowing in the Magdalen Eight. The tired feeling and the headache, however, continued, and eventually got so bad that he had to take to his bed with a high temperature and all the other symptoms of violent influenza. This illness, neglected at the outset, almost immediately settled on his lungs, both of which were congested with pneumonia. Owing, as Mr. Symonds himself told me, to his good general condition and his great strength, he fought through this, but in the mean time signs of consumption had declaredthemselves, and of this he died at Davos Platz in the following October.
With regard to Mr. Balfour, the facts are these: He was a man of Herculean build and strength. He played in the Oxford Rugby Union Football team for two years, 1894 and 1895. In 1896 and in this year he rowed in the University Eight, and last July he rowed at Henley in the Leander Eight, and won the pair-oared race with Mr. Guy Nickalls. I can answer for it that during all his races he was absolutely fit and well. I saw him daily at Henley, and, though I knew him to be strong and healthy, I was surprised not merely by his improvement in style, but by the great vigour he displayed in rowing. On the morning after the Regatta I saw him for the last time. He was then in splendid health and spirits. On the 12th of August he shot grouse; on the following day, in very cold wet weather, he went out fishing, and came home wet through, complaining of a chill. On the following day he took to his bed in a high fever, with both lungs congested. The illness next attacked his kidneys, and soon after his life was despaired of. However, he rallied in an extraordinary way until symptoms of blood-poisoning declared themselves,when he rapidly sank, and died on August 27th. Now, this illness was due either to an ordinary chill or to influenza, or, as I have since heard, primarily to blood-poisoning, caused by leaky and poisonous drains at a place where he had been staying before his shooting excursion. A subsequent examination of these drains revealed a very bad condition of affairs immediately underneath the room that Mr. Balfour had occupied. In any case it does not appear—and the strong testimony of the doctors who attended him confirms me in this—that Mr. Balfour's death was due to his rowing. But an objector may say, "It is true that neither in Mr. Cotton's nor in Mr. Balfour's case can death bedirectlyattributed to rowing; their exertions, however, so exhausted their strength, the soundness of their organs, and their powers of resistance to disease, that when they were attacked they became easy victims." To this I oppose (1) the report of Mr. H. P. Symonds, who examined both these oarsmen before they rowed in their University Eights; (2) my own observation of their health, condition, and spirits during practice, in their races, and afterwards when the races were over; and (3) the reports of the doctors who attended themduring their last illnesses, and who declared (I speak at second hand with regard to Mr. Balfour, at first hand with regard to Mr. Cotton) that they were both, when struck down, in a surprising state of strength, due to the exercise in which they had taken part, and that in both cases their powers of resistance were far greater than are usually found. Do I go too far in asserting that any doctor in large practice could find in his own experience for each of these two cases at least twenty cases in which non-rowing and non-athletic men have been suddenly carried off by the same sort of illness? I am not concerned to prove that rowing confers an immunity from fatal illness: my point is that in the two cases I have considered, and in all cases where it is pursued under proper conditions of training and medical advice, rowing does not in any way promote a condition favourable to disease.
I pass from these particular cases, the discussion of which has been painful to me, to the general question of health amongst the great mass of those who have been, or are, active rowing men. It may be remembered that some twenty-five years ago Dr. J. H. Morgan, of Oxford, moved to his task by a controversy similar to that which has recentlytaken place, instituted a very careful inquiry into the health of those who had taken part in the University Boat-race from 1829 to 1869. Their number amounted, if I remember rightly, to 294, of whom 255 were alive at the date of the inquiry. Of these 115 were benefited by rowing, 162 were uninjured, and only in 17 cases was any injury stated to have resulted. And it must be remembered that this inquiry covered a period during which far less care, as a general rule, was exercised both as to the selection and the training of men than is the case at the present day. I may add my own experience. Since I began to row, in 1874, I have rowed and raced with or against hundreds of men in college races and at regattas, and I have watched closely the rowing of very many others in University and in Henley crews. I have kept in touch with rowing men, both my contemporaries and my successors, and amongst them all I could not point to one (putting aside for the moment the three special cases I have just discussed) who has been injured by the exercise, or would state himself to have been injured. On the contrary, I can point to scores and scores of men who have been strengthened in limb and health—I say nothinghere of any moral effect—by their early races and the training they had to undergo for them. I could at this moment pick a crew composed of men all more than thirty years old who are still, or have been till quite recently, in active rowing, and, though some of them are married men, I would back them to render a good account of themselves in Eight or Four or Pair against any selection of men that could be made. Nay more, in any other contests of strength or endurance I believe they would more than hold their own against younger athletes, and would overwhelm any similar number of non-athletes of the same or any other age. As contests I should select a hard day's shooting over dogs, cross-country riding, tug-of-war, boxing, long-distance rowing, or, in fact, any contest in which the special element of racing in light ships has no part. For such contests I could pick, not eight, but eighty men well over thirty years old, and if the limit were extended to twenty-four years of age I could secure an army. Is there any one who doubts that my rowing men would knock the non-athletes into a cocked hat? For it must be remembered that the bulk of rowing men are not exclusively devoted to oarsmanship. A very large proportion of thosethat I have known have been good all-round sportsmen.
As to the general effect of rowing on strength and health I may perhaps be pardoned if I cite my own case, not because there is anything specially remarkable in it, but because it bears on some of the questions that have been raised, and I can speak about it with certainty. In early childhood I had a serious illness which considerably retarded my physical development. At school, however, I took my part in all sports, played three years in the Cricket XI. and in the Football XV., and won several prizes at the athletic sports. I went to Cambridge in 1874, when I was three months short of nineteen, and immediately took to rowing. I was certainly not a particularly strong boy then, though I had a fair share of activity. I rowed persistently in Eights, Fours and Pairs, at first with labour and distress, but gradually, as time went on, with ease and pleasure, and I found that the oftener I rowed the greater became my powers of endurance. I ought to add that I never rowed in the University Race, but I have borne my share in thirty-six bumping races, as well as in numerous other races ranging in distance from three-quartersof a mile to three miles. I believe that the six consecutive races of a May Term call for endurance at least as great as the single race from Putney to Mortlake. My actual muscular strength, too, increased very largely, and has ever since maintained itself unimpaired. I have found that this exercise has, in fact, strengthened and consolidated me all round; and I can think of no other exercise that could have had upon me the same salutary effect that I am justified in attributing mainly to rowing—an effect which has enabled me to endure great exertion, sometimes in extremes of heat or of cold, without the smallest ill result, and has brought me to middle age with sound organs, a strong constitution, active limbs, and a good digestion. There are hundreds of other men who could, I doubt not, give a similar account of themselves.
Out of this main discussion on the health of athletes there sprang a subsidiary one, which proved of even greater interest to rowing men. It was started by Mr. Sandow, the eminent weight-lifter and modern representative of Hercules. Mr. Sandow, stimulated by a disinterested love for his fellow-men in general, and for those of Cambridge University in particular, wrote an article in theSt. James's Gazettein which he put forward his own peculiar views on the proper system for the training of athletes. He ended by declaring that if he were allowed to train a Cambridge crew according to his system (it being understood that rowing instruction was at the same time to be imparted to them by a properly qualified teacher), he would guarantee to turn out a crew the like of which had never before sat in a boat. We were to infer, though this was at first sight not obvious, that this crew would easily defeat an Oxford crew trained on a system which Mr. Sandow evidently considered to be absurd and obsolete.
According to Mr. Sandow's system, as he subsequently developed it, the members of this crew were to have complete license in all things. They were to eat what they liked, drink what they liked, smoke as much as they liked, and, in fact, make their own good pleasure the supreme law of their existence. All that Mr. Sandow stipulated was that for some two hours a day during a period of several months these men were to put themselves in Mr. Sandow's hands for the purpose of muscular development all round according to the methods usually employed by him. Any spare energy thatmight then remain to them might be devoted to the work of rowing in the boat.
Now, in the first place, there are certain elementary difficulties which would go far to prevent the adoption of this experiment. The crew is not selected several months before the race; and even if it were, it would be practically impossible for the men composing it to spare the time required by Mr. Sandow. After all, even the most brilliant of us have to get through a certain amount of work for our degrees. There are lectures to be attended, there is private reading, not to speak of the time which has to be devoted to the ordinary social amenities of life at a University. Sport has its proper place in the life of an undergraduate; but it does not, and cannot, absorb the whole of that life. Yet if a man is to spend two hours with Mr. Sandow, and about two hours and a half (I calculate from the moment he leaves his rooms until he returns from the river) on the exercise of rowing, it is not easy to see how he will have sufficient vigour left to him to tackle the work required even for the easiest of pass examinations. I can foresee that not only the man himself, but his tutors and his parents might offer some rather serious objections.
But I am not going to content myself with pointing out these preliminary difficulties. I go further, and say that the whole proposal is based upon a fallacy. The method of training and development that may fit a man admirably for the purpose of weight-lifting, or of excelling his fellow-creatures in the measurement of his chest and his muscles, is utterly unsuited for a contest that requires great quickness of movement, highly developed lung-power, and general endurance spread over a period of some twenty minutes. It does not follow that because a man measures forty-two inches round the chest, and has all his muscles developed in proportion, he will therefore be better fitted for the propulsion of a racing-boat than a man who in all points of development is his inferior. If I produced Mr. C. W. Kentincognitobefore Mr. Sandow and asked whether it would be feasible to include this gentleman in an eight-oared crew, Mr. Sandow would probably laugh me to scorn. Mr. Sandow could doubtless hold out Mr. Kent at arm's length with the greatest possible ease. I am perfectly certain that Mr. Kent—if he will pardon me for thus making free with his name—could do nothingof the kind to Mr. Sandow. Yet I am perfectly certain, too, that, in a severely contested race, Mr. Kent—admittedly one of the finest strokes that ever rowed—would, to put it mildly, be more useful than Mr. Sandow. All gymnasium work, and even the modified form of it patented by Mr. Sandow, must tend to make men muscle-bound, and therefore slow. Skilled rowing consists of a series of movements which have to be gone through with a peculiar quickness, precision, and neatness. To be able to go through Mr. Sandow's eight weight exercises, to lift weights, to carry horses on your chest, may indicate great muscular strength, but it has absolutely nothing to do with being able to row. If a rowing man requires some exercise subsidiary to rowing, he would, in my opinion, be far better advised if he devoted some of his spare time to boxing and to fencing, exercises which necessitate immense quickness and perfect combination between brain, hand, and eye, than if he were to spend time in building up his body with such exercises as are included in the Sandow curriculum. But, in the main, rowing must develop for itself the muscles it requires. It is an exercise which, when all is said and done, canonly be learnt effectively in a boat on the water. It is thus, and thus only, that a man can acquire the necessary movements, and perfect himself in that sense of balance and of rhythm which is as necessary to a rowing man as muscular strength. My experience leads me to the conclusion that men who, though naturally well-framed and proportioned, are not afflicted with excessive muscle, are more likely to be useful in rowing than the pet of a gymnasium or the muscle-bound prodigies made in the image of Mr. Sandow. I may cite as examples such men as Mr. R. P. P. Rowe, Mr. R. O. Kerrison, Mr. W. Burton Stewart, Mr. W. E. Crum, Mr. J. A. Ford, and Mr. C. W. Kent.[18]All these men acquired their unquestionable excellence as oarsmen by the only possible method—that is, by long practice of rowing in boats. Even an exercise so nearly resembling actual rowing as the tank work practised in the winter by American crews has very serious disadvantages. It might be supposed that it wouldexercise and keep in trim the muscles required for actual rowing; but its effect is to make men slow and heavy, faults which they have to correct when they once more take to the river.