THE SPORT OF ROWING send out another rudder, and it arrived in little time aboard a speed boat. “No sooner had it been installed and the junior varsities sent away than Navy’s shell hit a submerged obstruction. The boat spun around and started to swamp, and as it did so, it struck the Princeton shell, snapping off the Tiger rudder.”2295 Von Wrangell: “A picture of Rusty that has stayed indelibly in my mind is him standing in the back of a cabin cruiser watching his Jayvee crew go down like a submarine after taking the first two strokes of their race. He grabbed his old brown, worn fedora, squeezed it in his hands as if to ring out water from it, and then raised his arm and threw it down on the deck. “On shore, I could hear his voice but not exactly his words. I’d say they were definitely not what you’d hear very often from a minister.”2296 The New York Times: “When the freshman race was finally put on, long after the fine Navy Varsity had finished a disappointing and inexplicable last, the Navy Plebes, now rowing in the varsity’s boat, also had an accident. They ran afoul of a piece of driftwood. The shell was so damaged that the Plebes had to row in a Marietta [College] boat. “Possibly the fact that they were in a strange shell, along with their two accidents, explained the fact that the Plebes failed to finish better. They had been rated as by far the best freshman eight in the East and probably the equal of Washington. “The Huskies [coached by Stan Pocock] carried off the freshman honors by a quarter of a length, just ahead of surprising M.I.T., which had led by a full length a quarter of a mile from the finish. 2295 Allison Danzig, Race Cut to Two Miles, The New York Times, June 17, 1951 2296 von Wrangell, op. cit. “Navy was third as darkness settled upon the debris-swept Ohio.”2297 From his vantage point, Times correspondent Allison Danzig could not explain the Navy Varsity’s poor showing. Bow-seat Frank Shakespeare had a closer view. “In the middle of our race, we rowed over a tree or something, which hit hard the fin under the coxswain’s seat, and we started taking on water there rapidly. “By the finish the coxswain was up to his waist in water. “That was one of the longest rows of my life. Not only did we have to carry all that water to the finish line, but after the race we had to row all the way back up the course to get to the boathouse.”2298 Shakespeare also related to me what happened to the Plebes in their Marietta College shell. “Even before their race they were taking on water. They were in the middle of trying to bail out their boat, soaking their shirts and squeezing them out over the side, when the official signaled for the race to start. “They did pretty well just to come in third.”2299 Stan Pocock was coaching the Husky Freshmen. “At the floating start, Washing- ton sunk their blades in to the water to meet not water, but the roof of a house. Thrashing wildly, they dislodged themselves.”2300 Washington Freshman Stroke, Guy Harper: “The Navy Plebes were so good that they had beaten their Varsity boat – so it was thought that Rusty Callow had the boat of his dreams. When our race started, we were behind several boats and Stan Pocock, following in a coaching launch, says his 2297 Danzig, op. cit. 2298 Shakespeare, personal conversation, 2005 2299 Ibid. 2300 www.huskycrew.com 638
