158 ROUGH WAYS MADE SMOOTH. 



It was formerly held by nearly all the Cambridge oars- 

 men that ' the instant the oar touches the water ' (I am 

 quoting from a pamphlet called ' Principles of Rowing,' 

 much read by rowing-men at Cambridge) 'the arms and 

 body should begin to fall backwards, the former continuing 

 at their full stretch till the back is perpendicular ; they are 

 then bent, the elbows being brought close past the sides,' etc. 

 If a Cambridge oarsman broke this rule, so that his arms 

 began to bend before his back was upright, he would be 

 told that he was jerking. 'This is caused,' says our au- 

 thority, ' by pulling the first part of the stroke with violence 

 and not falling gradually backwards to finish it. The most 

 muscular men are more than others guilty of it, because 

 they trust too much to their arms, instead of making each 

 part of the body do its proportionate quantity of work. It 

 is most annoying to the rest of the crew, injures the uniform 

 swing throughout the boat, and soon tires out the man 

 himself, however strong he may be, because he is virtually 

 rowing unsupported, and he has nearly the whole weight of 

 the boat on his arms alone.' 



I was myself trained to row the Cambridge style, and 

 when I became captain of a boat-club, I was careful to in- 

 culcate this style on my crew, and on other crews which 

 came more or less directly under my supervision. But I am 

 convinced that the peculiarity so carefully enjoined in past 

 time by the Cambridge club-captains, and still retained, is 

 altogether erroneous for boats of the modern build. I first 

 became aware that the Cambridge style is not the water- 

 man's and, therefore, presumably not the most effective 

 through practising in a racing-four with three of our most 

 noted Thames watermen the two Mackinnys, and Chitty 

 of Richmond. They were then preparing for the Thames 

 National Regatta, though not as a set crew. Accordingly 

 the coxswain would frequently call upon us for a good lift- 

 ing spurt of a quarter of a mile or so. During these spurts 

 the coxswain was continually telling me that I was not 

 keeping stroke, and I was sensible myself that something 



