THE SPORT OF ROWING innovative technique gleaned by the Cambridge team during their trips to London between 1836 and 1839. The most likely author is the only member of the 1839 crew that was still involved in rowing three years later, namely their coxswain and coach, Thomas Selby Egan. Two years later in 1844, a second unsigned manual, A Treatise on Steering, was published in Oxford, and according to Drinkwater, it was “the joint production, says Bell’s Life, of an Oxonian and a Cantab. It is believed that these were Messrs. Egan and Shadwell.”376 Arthur Shadwell had been coxing and coaching Oxford Dark Blue Boats since 1842. This pamphlet, too, has been lost to history. Not even Freddie Brittain saw a copy when he was compiling his list in 1930. laid down, have undergone very little modification even in these days of [post- sliding seat] light-boat rowing.”378 Though Treherne & Goldie, above, and Brittain gave all the credit to Shadwell, it is likely that the 1857 pamphlet was again the result of collaboration between Shadwell and Egan. In 1846 came the first rowing manual to actually survive intact to this day, Principles of Rowing, twenty-eight pages, published in London, Cambridge and Oxford under the plural pseudonym “Oarsmen,” pointedly suggesting multiple authors. A copy of the pamphlet was discovered in the 1930s by John A.H. Freshfield in his grandfather’s library. The younger Freshfield subsequently republished the pamphlet in 1937. Since then, an original copy has been identified and acquired by American historian and collector Tom Weil. The copy Freshfield found was inscribed: “Edwin Freshfield, Coxswain of the Cambridge University, June, 1853, from the author, T. Selby Egan.” Dodd has accorded sole credit to Journalist and River & Rowing Museum historian Christopher Dodd: “Freddie Brittain’s bibliography of rowing attributes this book to Shadwell alone. Whether or not Egan applied his pen to Shadwell’s early work, there are indications that the two thought on similar lines.”377 Fortunately, the 1844 pamphlet was expanded to fifty-six pages and republished in Oxford in 1857 under the title The Principles of Rowing and Steering. Treherne & Goldie: “To this day [1883], the pamphlet upon The Principles of Rowing and Steering by the Rev. A.T.W. Shadwell is reckoned a standard authority upon aquatics, and the doctrines of training, as well as those of rowing, which are therein 376 Drinkwater, p. 32 377 Dodd, Oxford & Cambridge, p. 91 Shadwell,379 but given the inscription, given the plural “Oarsmen” clue and given the history of Egan and Shadwell, the conclusion that they again collaborated seems inescapable. Accordingly, I have treated them as co-authors of the 1844, 1846 and 1857 works in my bibliography and on these pages. Principles of Rowing Here is the description of proper rowing technique from the 1846 manual, Principles of Rowing: “To commence a stroke, the arms are at their full extension, the hands well over the toes. The whole body is inclined forward from the hips, but the back 378 Treherne & Goldie, pp. 141-2 379 Dodd, World Rowing, p. 227 104
