FOUR-OARS AND PAIR-OARS--SWIVEL ROWLOCKS.
A good coxswainless four-oared crew represents skill and watermanship,
as distinguished from mere brute strength, in their highest development.
I may lay it down as an axiom that any man who can row well in a
coxswainless Four will row equally well in an eight-oared crew. The
converse of this is, however, by no means true. A man may do good work
in an Eight, and yet be incapable of doing himself justice in a Four,
or, indeed, of helping the pace of the boat in any way. Rowing of a more
refined order is requisite for a Four. Greater power of balance is
needed, and a more perfect sense of that rhythm which goes far to secure
uniformity in rowing. You may have in your Eight a clumsy heavy-weight,
who at No. 5 can use his strength to wonderful advantage, in spite of
various aberrations from correct form. But if you put this man at No. 3
in a Four, the results are sure to be disastrous. An easier style of
movement is required for a Four. A strenuous application of all the
body-weight at the beginning of the stroke is still, no doubt,
necessary. The beginning must, of course, be gripped, and that firmly;
but the best four-oared rowing I have seen always gave me the impression
that a sort of "oiling" method of progression, in which steady
leg-pressure plays a prominent part, was best suited to a Four which is
not encumbered with the weight of a coxswain. Over and over again have
Eights been defeated at Henley for the Grand Challenge Cup, and yet
Fours, selected from their members, have been able to beat all comers in
the Stewards'. From 1868 to 1878 the London Rowing Club won the Grand
five times. In the same period of eleven years their Four was only once
defeated for the Stewards', proving, if any proof were needed, that an
inferior Eight (I use the term merely relatively) may contain a
first-class victorious Four. On the other hand, from 1891 to 1897, a
period during which Leander won the Grand five times, they were able to
win the Stewards' only once, and that was this year, when their Eight
was defeated. Instances of this kind might be multiplied.
But besides skill in oarsmanship, another element, which adds greatly
both to the difficulties and pleasures of a Four, has to be considered.
This is the necessity that one of the oarsmen should not only row, but
also guide the course of the boat by steering with his foot. It is
evident that watermanship of a very high order is needed for this feat.
The steerer must know the course and all its points perfectly. The
ordinary oar often finds it difficult to keep time when his eyes are
glued on the back of the men in front of him, but the steerer in a Four
has to keep time and regularity, even though he may be forced to look
round in order to ascertain the true direction of his boat. An oarsman
in an Eight has both his feet firmly fixed; a steerer of a Four must
keep one foot constantly ready for movement. And all this he has to do
without making the boat roll, or upsetting the harmony of his crew.
These difficulties, no doubt, are great; but when once they have been
overcome, and the crew has shaken absolutely together, there can be few
pleasures in the world of exercise comparable to that of rowing in a
Four.
During a long period the London Rowing Club had almost a monopoly of
good Fours. Their crews showed a degree of watermanship which in those
days University oarsmen despaired of attaining to. Gulston, Stout, A. de
L. Long, Trower, and S. Le B. Smith were not only names to conjure with,
but showed in their rowing that perfection of apparently simple ease
which lies at the root of success in four-oared rowing. Who that ever
witnessed it can forget the sight, once well-known at Henley, of Mr. F.
S. Gulston as he rowed and steered his Four to victory? As a recent
Cambridge versifier said of him--
"They can't recall, but ah, I can,
How hard and strong you looked, sir;
Twelve stone, and every ounce a man,
Unbeatable, uncooked, sir.
Our French friends, had they seen your rude
Vast strength had cried, '_Ah quel beau
Rameur, celui qui arque le coude_'--
That is, protrudes his elbow.
"Your ship could run like Charley's Aunt,
And you, demure as Penley,
Knew all the wiles that might enchant
The river nymphs at Henley.
No piles had yet marked out the way
Forbidding men to try on
The tricks that found round every bay
The short cuts to the 'Lion.'
"Each inch of bay you knew by heart,
You knew the slackest water;
All foes who faced you at the start,
You beat, and beat with slaughter.
To 'form' a stranger, yet your style
The kind that much endures was.
I never saw--forgive the smile--
A rounder back than yours was.
"But round or straight, when all dismayed
Your rivals lagged in trouble,
Still with a firm, unfaltering blade
You drove the swirling bubble.
With you to speed the hours along
No day was ere spent dully,
Our stalwart, cheerful, matchless, strong,
Our undefeated Gully."
As a matter of record it may be stated that Mr. Gulston won five Grand
Challenge Cup medals and ten Stewards' Cup medals, Mr. A. de L. Long
five Grand Challenge Cup medals and eight Stewards' Cup medals, and Mr.
S. Le B. Smith four Grand Challenge Cup medals, and seven Stewards' Cup
medals. No oarsman of the present day can boast of anything like such a
record in these two events.
The art of four-oared rowing, then, was brought to perfection by the
crews of the London Rowing Club many years ago; but there is no danger
that it will be forgotten by oarsmen of the present day. Indeed, the
rowing of the Leander Four that won the Stewards' Cup this year was
about as good as four-oared rowing can be. They were absolutely
together, they rowed with most perfect ease, and in the race they beat
record time by seven seconds, and might have beaten it by still more,
had they not easied a length or two from the finish. Their weights were
as follows:--
Bow. C. W. N. Graham 10 st. 2 lbs.
2. J. A. Ford 12 st. 1 lb.
3. H. Willis 11 st. 12 lbs.
Guy Nickalls (stroke, and steers) 12 st. 7 lbs.
From the above remarks it will be gathered that the great points to be
insisted upon in four-oared rowing are uniformity, and again uniformity,
and always uniformity. A coach should insist, if possible even more
strenuously than he insists in an Eight, on bodies and slides moving
with a faultless precision and perfectly together. Let him devote his
energies to getting the finish and recovery locked up all through the
crew, and let him see to it that the movements of their bodies shall be
slow and balanced on the forward swing, and strong and not jerky on the
back swing. More it would be difficult to add.
When a Four is practising for a four-oared race alone--that is to say,
when its members are not rowing in an eight-oared crew as well, their
course of work should be similar to that laid down for an Eight. But
when, as often happens at Henley, a Four is made up out of the members
of an eight-oared crew, it will always be found better to allow its
members to do the bulk of their work in the Eight, and to confine
themselves in the Four principally to long and easy paddling, varied by
short, sharp bursts of rowing. It may be necessary for such a Four to go
over the full course once at top speed, but that ought to be enough.
Their work in the Eight should get them into condition; all that they
really need in the Four is to be able to row perfectly together. The
Brasenose Four that won the Stewards' in 1890 had never rowed over the
full course before the day of the race. Their longest piece of rowing,
as distinguished from paddling, had been a burst of three minutes. Their
men acquired fitness by working in the Eight, and proved their
condition by the two desperate races they rowed.
As to steering, it used to be said that anybody might steer in a Four
except stroke, but Mr. Guy Nickalls has proved that a stroke can steer
as well as row. He has won four Stewards' Cup medals, has stroked and
steered in every race, and his boat has always been kept on a faultless
course.
In the case of the ordinary oar, however, the old saying, I think, holds
good. Bow naturally is the best place to steer from, not only because in
turning his head he can obtain a clear view of the course, but also
because he has a considerable advantage in leverage, and ought to be
able to control the direction of his boat merely by relaxing or
increasing the power applied to his oar. The best part of the stroke for
looking round is, I consider, towards the finish. A turn of the head,
accompanied by an outward movement of the outside elbow to suit the
slightly altered position of the body, while keeping pressure on the
oar, is all that is necessary. Yet I have seen Mr. Guy Nickalls look
round in the middle of his forward swing without apparently disturbing
the equilibrium of the boat. In any case, the best thing a steerer can
do is to learn his course by heart, so that he may be able to steer for
the most part without looking round at all, judging the direction she is
taking by her stern and by well-known objects on the bank as he passes
them. Personally I prefer, and I think most men prefer, to steer with
the outside foot. The captain of a Four should always look carefully to
his steering-gear to see that the wires and strings are taut, and that
they move properly and without jamming over the wheels. I have seen more
than one race lost by accidents to the steering-gear that might have
been avoided by a little preliminary attention.
PAIR OARS.
This, too, is a very pleasant form of rowing, both with a view to racing
and merely for casual amusement. The main elements for success are
similar to those laid down in the case of Fours. In pair-oared rowing,
however, there is one important point which distinguishes it from all
other forms of rowing. It is absolutely essential that the two men
composing a Pair should not row "jealous," _i.e._ neither of them must
attempt to row the other round in order to prove his own superior
strength and ability. Such a course of action not only makes progress
circuitous and slow, but also ends by entirely destroying the tempers of
both oarsmen. In a Pair, even more than in a Four, the bow oar has a
considerable advantage in leverage, whence it comes that a lighter and
less powerful man can often row bow in a Pair with a strong and heavy
stroke. The most surprising instance of this occurred in the Oxford
University Pairs of 1891, which were won by the late Mr. H. B. Cotton,
rowing bow at 9 st. 12 lbs., to the stroke of Mr. Vivian Nickalls, who
weighed close on 13 st. An instance to the contrary was afforded by the
winners of the Goblets at Henley in 1878. These were Mr. T. C.
Edwards-Moss, bow, 12 st. 3 lbs., and Mr. W. A. Ellison, stroke, 10 st.
13 lbs. The Goblets at Henley have been won six times by Mr. Guy
Nickalls, and five times by his brother Vivian.
SWIVEL ROWLOCKS.
There has been, during the past year, a movement in favour of using
swivel rowlocks, not only in sculling-boats, but also in Pairs, Fours,
and Eights, though the majority of English oarsmen, even when inclined
to use them in Pairs and Fours, set their faces against them for
Eights. The advocates of swivels contend that by their use the hands are
eased on the recovery, and the jar that takes place when the oar turns
on a fixed rowlock is absolutely abolished. These advantages seem to me
to be exaggerated, for, though I have carefully watched for it, I have
never seen an Eight or a Four retarded in her place for even a fraction
of a second by the supposed jar due to the turning of the oar on the
feather in fixed rowlocks. On the other hand, I am convinced that for an
ordinary eight-oared crew the fixed rowlock is best, and for the
following reasons:--
The combined rattle of the oars as they turn constitutes a most valuable
rallying-point. The ears are brought into action as well as the eyes.
This advantage is lost with swivels. In modern sculling-boats a man must
use swivels, for the reach of the sculler extends to a point which he
could not reach with fixed rowlocks, as his sculls would lock before he
got there. As he moves forward he is constantly opening up, his arms
extending on either side of his body; but in rowing, one arm swings
across the body, and unless you are going to screw the body round
towards the rigger, and thus sacrifice all strength of beginning, you
cannot fairly reach beyond a certain point, which is just as easily and
comfortably attained with fixed rowlocks as with swivels. Moreover--and
here is the great advantage--you have in the thole-pin of a fixed
rowlock an absolutely immovable surface, and the point of application of
your power is always the same throughout the stroke. With a swivel this
is not so, for the back of the swivel, against which your oar rests, is
constantly moving. To put it in other words, it is far easier with a
fixed rowlock to get a square, firm, clean grip of the beginning, and
for the same reason it is easier to bring your oar square and clean out
at the end of the stroke. A really good waterman can, of course, adapt
himself to swivels, as he can to almost anything else in a boat, but his
task will not be rendered any easier by them. For average oars, and even
for most good oars, the difficulties of rowing properly will be largely
increased, without any compensating advantage, so far as I am able to
judge. In the case of novices, I am convinced that it would be quite
disastrous to attempt to make them row with swivel rowlocks.
_Measurements of Racing Four built by J. H. Clasper._
(In this boat Leander won the Stewards' Cup, 1897.)
ft. ins.
Length over all 42 3
Greatest breadth of beam, exactly amidship 1 8-3/8
From centre of seat to sill of rowlock 2 8-1/2
Length of play of slides 1 3-7/8
Height of sliding-seat above skin of boat 8-7/8
Height of heel-traps above skin of boat 1-5/8
(This would make the heels about one inch
above skin of boat.)
Height of sill of rowlock above seat 6-3/4
Depth forward 6-1/8
Depth aft 5
_Measurements of Oars used._
Length over all 12 0-1/2
Length in-board 3 8-1/2
Length of blade 2 8
Breadth of blade 5-3/4
This boat is some three feet shorter than the average of Fours nowadays.
The oars used by the New College Four measured over all 12 ft. 6 ins.;
in-board, 3 ft. 8-1/2 ins.; breadth of blades, 5-1/2 ins.
_Measurement of a Pair Oar built by Sims, of Putney._
(In this Pair Mr. H. G. Gold, and Mr. R. Carr won the University Pairs
at Oxford, their weights being 11 st. 10 lbs. and 12 st. 8 lbs.
respectively.)
ft. ins.
Length over all 37 1
Greatest breadth 1 3-3/4
Length of slide play 1 4
Distance from sill of rowlock to centre of seat 2 8-1/2
Height of seat above skin of boat 8-1/8
Height of heels above skin of boat 1-1/4
[Illustration: HENLEY REGATTA.
(_A Heat for the Diamonds._)]