THE UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON DYNASTY 1950 Barry became Royal Barge Master to King George VI and later to Queen Elizabeth II. As a rower, Barry was superstitious and raced in an odd pair of socks, one in the colours of Vesta R.C. and the other in the colours of Thames R.C.”1609 Emigration “The idea of leaving England to seek their fortunes germinated with Dick, two years George’s senior. At first they talked of Australia, but finally settled for the Canadian Northwest, where they had heard there was suitable wood in abundance.”1610 George Pocock: “My brother and I were apprenticed to my Dad, and when the apprenticeship was over, you go far afield to try to carve out your destiny, as it were. Things in the old country were too old. You’ve got to go to something new.”1611 the “Tokyo Tea Room,” left over from the 1909 Alaska-Yukon Exposition. George Pocock: “He said that he wanted twelve shells. Well, sure he wanted twelve, but he could hardly scrape up enough money to buy one!”1612 George and Dick kept experimenting to improve their boats. In 1966, George reflected back on more than half a century of boatbuilding: “The first five we built for Washington, and by the fifth one Ed Leader was coach, and he said, ‘This boat is faster than any boat in the shellhouse. “We used to use Spanish cedar, but we adopted the Washington red cedar in 1927 and found it was the finest cedar for the job that there is. “The thickness of the hull is 11/64ths, isn’t plywood. That’s one and that thickness. We now [1966] use a thin film of fiberglass on the inside to eliminate the ribs because the ribs caused a ripple on the outside of the shell. Now with the fiberglass and no ribs, it’s a perfect mold like a fish. “We’ve sold them in Japan and Sweden and Brazil. Canada, of course. We sold a lot in Cuba before Castro, and we’ve sent them to New Zealand.”1613 After the Pococks arrived in Seattle, University of Washington Archives, Conibear Shellhouse Tokyo Tea Room, Seattle A year after arriving in Vancouver, British Columbia, and at the urging of Hiram Conibear, who ordered twelve shells for the University of Washington, the Pocock brothers moved their boatbuilding business south to Seattle, setting up shop in 1609 Buckhorn, op.cit., p. 54 1610 Rowing News, December 1956, p. 8 1611 G. Pocock, op.cit. there was no question as to where Conibear could look first for guidance in rowing technique. Georgetown coach Tony Johnson has often spoken of this era of rowing history with his good friend Stan Pocock, George’s son. Johnson: “Washington oarsmen wouldn’t have seen other people rowing. They wouldn’t have known anything except what they were doing themselves. They were isolated, off on a tangent. What I was struck with was that the arrival of the 1612 Ibid. 1613 KCTS-TV 429
