THE SPORT OF ROWING the sliding seat in 1872-3. It was also the forebear of our present-day ‘Orthodoxy.’ [my emphasis]”315 All historians who have studied this era have recognized that rowing was on the brink of a revolutionary boundary. This was indeed the wellspring of what has become known as English Orthodox Technique. Within a decade or so, the previous Age of Watermen would be just a memory. In 1836, however, amateurs outside of the London clubs had not yet gotten the message. Lehmann: “The University men, on the other hand, had no swing [forward] and therefore no real beginning. All they apparently did was to lug with their arms towards the finish of the stroke.316 “In the only two races which had hitherto been rowed between the crack men of the Thames [in London] and University men (Leander matches against Christ Church317 in 1828 and against Oxford in 1832), the former had triumphed.”318 Modern Counterparts Today it is possible to see something similar to the London Style, the English Orthodox Technique in its nascent 1830s form by observing contemporary lifeguard boat racing in Australia and the United States (following page). The similarities to and differences from the illustrations from Walker’s Manly Exercises are fascinating. In both, the pullthrough is dominated by back swing. To keep their heavy, dory-like boats moving, lifeguards use their backs to lengthen the stroke as much as is practical, just the way their London predecessors must also have done. However, as films clearly 315 Burnell, Swing Together, p. 23 316 ferryman’s finish. See below. 317 one of the colleges which make up the University of Oxford. 318 Lehmann, p. 26 show, lifeguards use only moderate reach and maximal layback while, according to all accounts, including Bell’s Life and the Walker illustrations, London amateur rowers of the ‘20s and ‘30s balanced their reach and finish angles. The explanation for this is that swivel oarlocks had not yet been invented in the early 19th Century. With thole pins, oar shafts would bind up (“jam in the rullocks.” See above.) if the rower went too far in either direction away from perpendicular to the gunwales, and so they quickly learned not to do so. The Ferryman’s Finish In addition, contemporary lifeguard rowers employ a “ferryman’s finish,” using the arms to literally pull the upper body back up towards vertical at the end of the pullthrough. This colorful and descriptive term was already in common use during the youth of the peerless coach Steve Fairbairn (1862- 1938)319 more than a century ago,320 although it is unfamiliar to most rowers and coaches today. The concept of ferryman’s finish has rarely been addressed as a viable technique during the current era even though it can be seen, usually subtlely and/or unconsciously used, by many contemporary crews, including some of the most successful. But with ratings often as high as 50 strokes per minute, the ferryman’s finish had been an essential, even inevitable, part of the traditional waterman’s stroke, and it remains a requirement for today’s lifeguards, some of whom lay back as far as -60° past vertical. Later in this chapter, we will discover that while it was being used by University rowers of 1836 (see above), the ferryman’s 319 See Chapter 14 ff. 320 Fairbairn On Rowing, p. 36 92
