THE CAPTAIN.
The captain of a boat club is the most important member of it, from a
practical point of view. In some clubs, as with the Universities, he is
nominally as well as practically supreme--is president as well as
captain. In clubs on the Thames tideway, such as Leander, London,
Thames, and as in the Kingston club higher up river, there is a
president elected as the titular head of the club, but that functionary
is chiefly ornamental, to add dignity to the society, and to instil
sobriety into its councils. Such a president is usually some old oarsman
of renown, long ago retired from active service, one whose name carries
weight and influence, but who has neither time nor inclination to
interfere with the oarsmanship of the members.
It is the captain who can make or mar a club. He is the general officer
in command of the forces, while the president (when such an extra
official exists) is more of a field-marshal enjoying _otium cum
dignitate_ at home. The qualifications upon which a captain is, or
should be, selected by his club are, in the first place, personal merit
as an oarsman and knowledge of his craft; in the second, a due
seniority, so that he may have proper influence, both socially and in an
aquatic sense, over those whom he is appointed to command; thirdly, tact
and common sense.
Deficiency in either one of these desiderata is often fatal to a
captain's chances of success in his office. If he is a bad oar, and
lacking in practical knowledge compared with those under him, it will
little avail him to be a person of senior standing in the crews and of
social position. He will fail to carry with him that prestige and
confidence which should be the attribute of all commanders who expect to
lead men to victory. If, on the other hand, he is a good oar, even the
best of his club, and yet is a fledgling in age, he will find it
difficult to maintain his command over sundry jealous seniors, and will,
more than all, require the third requisite of tact, which is less liable
to be found in a mere lad than in a man of the world who has well passed
his majority.
A captain should be self-reliant without being obstinate; he should be
good-tempered but not facile; he should be firm but not tyrannical,
energetic but not a busybody. A captain has usually a host of
counsellors, and he too well realises the fallacy of the adage that in a
multitude of counsels there is wisdom. If he were to pay attention to
all the advice offered to him he would never be able to have a mind of
his own. And yet he will do well not to run to the opposite extreme, nor
to decline to listen to anyone who ventures to offer him a suggestion.
If he is captain of a University crew he will find his bed anything but
one of roses. The eyes of the sporting world are upon him from the
commencement of Lent term. Daily he will receive letters from
individuals of whom he has never before heard, offering him advice and
criticising his line of action. Many of his correspondents will be
anonymous, and too many of them splenetic. He must not be surprised to
see himself anonymously attacked in print for the selections which he is
making for a crew to represent his club. He will be accused of
partiality if he selects some man of his own college in preference to an
out-college man. He will find himself abused if he decides to take an
important oar in his own hands, such as stroke or No. 7. He will be
inundated with speculative appeals from vendors of commodities who hope
for gratuitous advertisement of their wares. One of them will send him a
nondescript garment, and will assure him that if he will allow his crew
to row in dress of that build he and they shall be robed gratis in it,
and be assured of victory. Quack medicines will be proffered him, and
photographers will pester him and his crew daily with requests to stand
for an hour in a nor'-easter for their portraits.
Within the circle of his own club matters will not always run smoothly.
Sometimes he finds himself in the unpleasant position of having, after
due consideration and counsel, to dispense with the services of some old
brother blue who has fallen off from his quondam form, or who, though
good enough among an inferior crew of a preceding year, is not up to par
compared with new oarsmen of merit who have come to the fore since the
last spring.
Nevertheless, with all these drawbacks to office, a University president
or captain of a college has perhaps an easier task in managing his crew
than a captain of an elective club on the Thames that is preparing for
Henley or some similar contest. In college life the brevity of career
gives a special standing and prestige to seniority, and the president of
a U.B.C. is not likely to be a very junior man. _Esprit de corps_ does
much to keep College and University crews together, and there is less
likelihood of mutiny in such clubs than in those which are purely
elective, and which compete with each other for securing the best
oarsmen of the day. A malcontent college oar cannot throw himself, even
if he will, into the arms of another college; still less can a
dissatisfied candidate for one shade of blue 'rat' and desert to the
enemy. But in tideway and other clubs on the Thames there is such a
brisk competition for good oarsmen that a man who finds he is likely to
lose his chance of selection in one club has opportunities for obtaining
distinction under some rival flag, and very possibly he already belongs
to more than one such club, and can put his services up to auction as it
were. If he finds that he will be relegated to some comparatively
unimportant seat in the club which has claims of longest standing upon
him, he may, if he is unpatriotic and cantankerous, look out in some
other club for a berth of greater distinction. Such men are not
uncommon, and are thorns in the side of any captain. They tax his sixth
sense of tact more than anything: if he gives way to them, he risks
spoiling the arrangement of his crew; if he stands firm, he may send a
valuable man over to the enemy. On the other hand, it must be said that
many rival captains would decline to accept the services of a deserter
of this sort, and would feel that if such an one would not be true to
one flag, he could not be safely trusted for long to row under another.
Beside this sort of malcontent, whose ambition is to be _aut Caesar aut
nullus_, the captain has to contend with obstructives of other classes.
There is the habitual grumbler, who is never happy unless he has a
grievance. To-day he cannot row properly because the boat is always down
on his oar. Yesterday he was complaining that his rowlock was too high,
and he had leave to lower it accordingly. He may not be really
bad-tempered, nor mutinous; even his growls have a _triste bonhomie_
about them; in one sense he is a sort of acquisition to the social
element of the crew, for his grumblings make him a butt for jokes and
rallies. But when this system of grumbling goes beyond a certain point
it sorely tries a captain's patience.
Another sort of incubus is the old hand, who has never risen beyond
mediocrity, who has plenty of faults, but who can be relied upon for a
certain amount of honest work, and who fills a place better than some
very backward oarsman. The old stager is case-hardened in his crimes;
they are second nature to him, and, in spite of coaching, still he
maunders on in the same old style, with the same set faults. He has a
time-honoured screw, a dog's-eared elbow, and yet he possesses what many
of the better-finished oarsmen do not--watermanship--and can keep on at
work in a rolling boat when many neater oarsmen are all abroad if the
ship gets off her even keel. Not to coach his too obvious faults may
make visitors fancy that the old screw is a pattern fugleman to be
copied for style; and yet to spend objurgation on one so stiff-necked is
disheartening waste of wind.
[Illustration: PROSE.]
Discipline is all-important in a crew, and it usually requires tact to
maintain it. If the captain is a triton among minnows, he can better
afford to hector; but, as a rule, he runs the risk of mutiny, or at
least of producing sulkiness, if he treats his crew as if they were
galley-slaves. If he is in the boat, working with them, sharing their
toils and privations, his task becomes easier on this score; for the
crew realise that, however irksome the orders for the day may be, they
are felt just as much by the commander as by the rank and file. If a
member of the crew openly defies a captain, the bad example is too
dangerous to be tolerated. To expel a mutineer may ruin the chance of
victory for an impending race, but it will be best for the club in the
long run, and will be likely to save many a defeat.
The writer has in mind two such incidents which occurred to himself at
different times while officiating as captain of a club. In each case the
mutineer was the stroke, and the _spes gregis_. He resented being told
to row slower, or faster, as the case might be, and presently flatly
declined to be dictated to. In each case the boat was instantly ordered
ashore, and the grumbler was asked to step out. His place was filled by
some emergency man, he was left ashore, and was told at the end of the
day that the captain regretted to be obliged to dispense with his
services. In each case the rest of the crew buttonholed their late
stroke, and put the screw upon him to beg pardon, and with success. The
one stroke was reinstated at his old post; the other was also put back
to the boat, but at No. 6. In both cases mutiny was stamped out once and
for all. Of these two men it may be said that one eventually rose to be
stroke of a winning University eight, and the other of a winning Grand
Challenge crew. In each case they were great personal friends of the
captain, and there was no interruption of social relations through the
peremptory line of conduct pursued. Many old fellow-oarsmen of the
writer will doubtless recognise these incidents, in which names are
naturally omitted.
Punctuality is an important detail of discipline in a crew. It is a good
system to order a fine to be levied by the secretary upon anyone who
exceeds a certain limit of grace from the hour fixed for practice. It is
better that the secretary or treasurer should levy it than the captain,
because thereby the captain in this detail places himself under the
subordinate officer's jurisdiction, and is himself fined if he is late.
He can do this without loss of dignity, and in fact adds to his
influence by submitting as a matter of course to the general regulation.
It spoils the discipline of a crew if a captain takes French leave for
himself, and keeps his men dancing attendance upon him, and yet rates
them when one of them similarly delays the practice.
[Illustration: EMBARKING.]
In making up a crew a captain is often in an invidious position. It is
said by cricketers that the danger of having a leading bowler for
captain of an eleven is that he is often judicially blind as to the
right moment for taking himself off. Similarly, for a stroke to be
captain, or rather for a likely candidate for strokeship to be captain,
may be productive of misunderstandings and mischief to the crew. In old
days stroke and captain were synonyms. The 'stroke' was elected by the
club. He was supposed to be the best all-round oar, and as such to be
capable of setting the best stroke to the crew. His office attached
itself to his seat. In sundry old college records of rowing we find the
expression 'a meeting of strokes,' where in modern times we should speak
of a 'captains' meeting.' The U.B.C.'s departed from this tradition more
than forty years ago. Since then captains have been found at all
thwarts, even including that of the coxswain. Most college clubs
followed the U.B.C. principle forthwith, but not all so. We can recall
an incident to the contrary. At Queen's College, Oxon, there remained a
written rule that stroke should be captain as late as about 1862. In or
about that year a Mr. Godfrey was rowing stroke of the Queen's eight in
the bumping races, and was _ex-officio_ captain. He had previously
stroked the Queen's torpid, and with good success. One night during the
summer races Queen's got bumped (or failed to effect a bump). Some of
the crew laid the blame of their failure upon their stroke, for having
rowed, as they alleged, too rapid a stroke. A college meeting had to be
called, and a new stroke to be 'elected,' before a change could be made
in the order of the boat for the next night's race! Mr. Godfrey was
asked to resign his seat as stroke, which of course he did, and took the
seat of No. 6. His successor was thus elected captain. Much sympathy for
Mr. Godfrey's unfortunate statutory deposition from command was openly
expressed by out-college oarsmen, and the result was before long that a
change was made in the code of the Queen's College Boat Club, and its
adaptation to that of the more advanced rules which found favour with
the majority of the U.B.C.
However, just as a bowler at cricket is prone to be blind to his own
weaknesses, and to be imbued with ambition to do too much with his own
hands at moments when they have lost their cunning, so when a captain
has claims, not superlative, to the after-thwart, there is always some
danger lest his eagerness to do all he can may blind him as to the best
choice for that seat. In some cases, as with (of late) Messrs. West and
Pitman, respectively strokes and presidents of their U.B.C'.s, or in the
cases of such oarsmen as Messrs. W. Hoare, W. R. Griffiths, M. Brown, J.
H. D. Goldie, R. Lesley, H. Rhodes, &c., all of whom had won their spurs
as first-class strokes before they were elected to the presidency, the
coincidence of stroke and captain has done no harm and has found the
best man in the right place. Nevertheless, it is advisable to caution
all captains on this score, and to suggest to them that, when they find
themselves sharing a candidature for an important seat, they will do
well to ask the advice of some impartial mentor, and abide by it.
At Eton the traditional law of identity of stroke and captain held good,
with natural Etonian conservatism, until a date even later than that of
the previously related anecdote of Queen's College. So far as we can
recollect, the first instance in which an Eton eight was not stroked by
its captain was in 1864. In that year Mr. (now Colonel) Seymour Corkran
was captain of Eton. He was a sort of pocket Hercules, of great breadth
and weight, scaling close upon 13 st. Eton crews were not then so heavy
as in these days, and the wondrous old Eton 'Mat-Taylor' boat, which
then was still in her prime, would not satisfactorily carry so heavy a
weight in the stern. Mr. Corkran placed himself at No. 7, and installed
a light-weight, Mr. Mossop, at stroke. In this year Eton won the Ladies'
Plate for the first time, University College leaving them to walk over
for it, after University had had a severe losing race earlier in the day
against the Kingston Rowing Club for the final heat of the Grand
Challenge.
The duties of a captain are not confined to the mere selection of his
racing crew for the moment, nor to the preservation of order and
_regime_ in the matter of training. If he is to do his duty by the club,
he should be on duty pretty well all through the season. He should keep
his eyes open to note any raw oarsman who shows signs of talent, and
mark him to be tried and coached into form hereafter. A captain of an
elective club can do much to maintain the credit of his flag by looking
up suitable recruits who have not yet joined a leading club, and by
inducing them to put themselves under his care, and to submit themselves
for election. One of the best oars that ever rowed at Henley, who became
an amateur champion (Mr. W. Long), was secured for the L.R.C. by the
prompt energy of the then captain of that club, on the occasion of Mr.
Long's _debut_ at Henley Regatta. On that occasion he came from Ipswich,
to row for the pairs, with a partner much inferior to himself. They did
not win, but Mr. Long's hitherto unknown merits were at once seen, and
his enlistment in the L.R.C. ranks had very much to do with the long
series of victories, especially in Stewards' Cup and other four-oar
races, which for some seasons afterwards attended the fortunes of the
L.R.C.
_Per contra_, to show how a good oarsman may be going begging, in 1867
Mr. F. Gulston was not asked to row either by London or Kingston; he
went to Paris to row in a pair-oar, and still the L.R.C. overlooked him,
though he was a member of their club, and though the L.R.C. were
entered for the international regatta on the Seine. Mr. Gulston was
nearly, probably quite, as good an oarsman then as in his very best
days; but his light, though not hid under a bushel, was openly
disregarded by his club. Through the minor regattas of the summer he
took refuge with an 'Oscillators' crew, and shoved three inferior men
behind along at such a pace that next season it was impossible to ignore
him. He became stroke of the L.R.C. Grand Challenge crew in 1868, and
won the prize easily.
A president of a U.B.C. has not the responsibility of looking after
recruits for his club. He has only to see that he does not overlook the
merits of those who are in it, among the hundreds of young oarsmen who
come out each season in the torpids, lower divisions, and college
eights. The 'trial eights' of the winter term have to be made up by him.
Each captain of a college crew is requested to send in the names of ten
or more candidates for these trials; but it is not safe for a president
to rely entirely upon the lists so furnished to him. He is morally bound
to give a fair trial to all the candidates who are thus officially
submitted to his notice; but he ought also on his own account to have
taken stock during the summer races of the promising men of each college
crew. The opinions of college captains as to who are likely to make the
best candidates for University rowing must not always be relied upon. It
has often happened that better men have been omitted than those whose
names have been sent in to be tried.
We have known a watchful president ask of a college captain to this
effect:
'What has become of the man who rowed No. 6 in your torpid?'
'He played cricket all the summer, and did not row in the summer
eights.'
'You have not sent in his name?'
'No, I thought him too backward; he has never been in a light boat in
his life, and he only began to row last October when he came up as a
freshman.'
'Can I see him to-morrow and try him?' says the president; and
eventually this cricketer of the torpids is hammered into shape, and
subsequently wears a double blue.
The above is no exaggerated picture of what has been known to result
from careful supervision by a president of the college rowing which
comes under his notice. In 1862 Messrs. Jacobson and Wynne rowed in the
Oxford crew; the writer believes, from the best of his recollection,
that neither of these gentlemen was named in the two primary picked
choices which had been sent in to represent Christ Church in the trial
eights. But the then president, Mr. George Morrison, had observed them
when they were rowing for their college earlier in the season, and took
note of them as two strong men, who might be converted by coaching into
University oars; and he proved to be correct.
A captain of a large club usually has his hands so full of duties
connected with representative or picked crews that he can hardly be
expected to find much time for systematically coaching juniors. This
preliminary work he is obliged to depute to subordinates. In a London
club there is usually a sort of subaltern, or sometimes an ex-captain,
who undertakes to instruct junior crews or those who are competing for
the Thames Cup at Henley. In a college club it is a common practice to
elect a 'captain of torpid,' who is usually some one who has rowed in
the college eight, but who has not the physique to compete for a seat in
the University crew. At Cambridge a large college club puts on so many
crews for the bumping races that it is necessary to find separate
coaches for nearly each boat. Even when this occurs, a really energetic
captain will endeavour to spare a day now and then to supervise the
efforts of his subalterns. At Oxford it is, or used to be, customary for
the five committee men of the O.U.B.C. to make a point of coaching in
turn, when asked, those college eights which had no 'blue,' nor old
oarsmen of experience, to instruct them. All these arrangements tend to
raise the standard of rowing in various colleges, and so in the U.B.C.
generally.
The time comes when a captain retires from office, but it is quite
possible that he may find time to row again for his flag after he has
laid down his baton. In his new _role_ he can do, in another line, quite
as much to preserve discipline as when he held the office in his own
person. He should be the foremost to set an example of subordination and
of strict observance of regulations and of training. Nothing does more
to strengthen the hands of a new captain than the spectacle of his late
chief serving loyally under him; and, on the other hand, nothing does
more to weaken the new ruler's authority than the example of an
ex-captain self-sufficient and too proud to acknowledge the sway of his
successor. The ex-captain does not lose caste by strict subordination;
unless his successor is a man devoid of tact, he will freely take his
predecessor into his counsels; and, on the other hand, the predecessor
should be careful not to support anarchy by interfering until he is
asked to advise. We have known the entire _morale_ of a college crew
upset because the ex-captain, a University oar, has taken French leave
and ordered an extra half-glass of beer for himself (beyond the
statutory allowance), without observing the formal etiquette of first
asking the leave of his successor, whose standing was only that of
college-eight oarsmanship. Such a proceeding at once made it more
difficult than ever for the new captain to preserve discipline and
strict attention to training orders among the thirsty souls with whom he
had to deal. In some college boat clubs there is a rule that the captain
must be resident in college. The object of this is to prevent the
archives and trophies of the boat club, which are in custody of the
captain, from passing outside the college gates, and so possibly getting
astray in lodgings. Such a rule as this naturally prevents many a senior
oarsman from holding the office (for after a certain standing
undergraduates migrate from college walls to lodgings). In such cases
those members of the college club who belong to the University eight
constantly find themselves under the formal authority of one who does
not pretend to equal their skill or knowledge of aquatics. As a rule
these retired generals work harmoniously with their inferior but
commanding in-college oarsman; but cases do occur where want of tact on
the part of one or both parties has a very mischievous effect, and
causes the club to take a lower place on the race-charts than it might
have attained had all parties co-operated loyally for the support of the
flag.
The position of captain of a club, whether rowing, cricket, or
athletics, is a very useful school for any young man, if he uses his
opportunity aright. It teaches him to be self-reliant; to avoid
vacillation on the one hand and obstinacy on the other; to exercise tact
and forbearance, and to set a good example on his own part of observance
of standing orders. All these lessons serve him well in after-life. No
man is the worse, when fighting the battle of the world, for having
learnt both how to obey orders implicitly and also how to govern others
with firmness and tact. He will look back to many a decision which he
came to, and will perhaps be able to console himself by reflecting that
at the time he acted according to the best of his lights; but none the
less he will perceive that he was then in error, and that as he sees
more of aquatics, or of any other branch of sport, he finds that he is
only beginning to learn the best of it when the time comes for him to
take his departure from the scene of actual conflict. If he will apply
the analogy to his career in life, whatever that may be, he will prosper
therein all the more by reason of the practical lessons which he gained
when his arena was purely athletic.
[Illustration: BISHAM COURT REACH.]