THE AGE OF ENLIGHTENMENT Guy Nickalls: “In 1889, I made the acquaintance of H.E. Searle whilst he was training for the World’s Championship at Putney. We had many a long scull together on the tideway. An extremely nice man he was, too. Powerful and rather on the heavy side, as he would be at that period of his practice, for it was two months before his race. “I saw his match against W. O’Connor and admired his sculling immensely, quite a different thing from the showing made by our other English professionals at that date.”6245 The London Race The Times of London: “As [Searle and O’Connor] proceeded to the post there was a very marked dissimilarity in their styles of rowing, Searle sculling with a tremendously long reach, full application of his strength at the commencement of the stroke, and a fair amount of body work; while O’Connor sat almost upright, rowed with far less length and liberty, and worked with his arms to the neglect of his body-swing.”6246 After O’Connor took a half-length lead at the start of their race, the two boats carried on a bitter struggle, Searle leading at the half-mile, O’Connor spurting to draw back even at the mile mark. But that was all he had. Three-quarters of a mile later, Searle had a three-length lead. Then it was four lengths, five lengths, six lengths and finally ten lengths at the finish post at Mortlake. Grafton Rowing Club History: “Even though times are relative in rowing, an indication of his abilities can be seen in the race time for his defeat of O’Connor — after a hard first mile, Searle had the measure of 6245 Nickalls, Pudding, p. 206 6246 The Sculling Championship, The Times of London, September 10, 1889 his opponent, covering the Putney to Hammersmith section of 1¾ miles (2,800 metres) in a record time. Even though Searle was not pushed for the remainder of the race, he still completed the 4 mile 440 yard (6,836 metres) course in a time of 22 minutes 42 seconds. This equates to an average 2,000 metre time of 6 minutes 38 seconds, which is very fast — but if the race is considered as 3½ consecutive 2,000 metre courses, then this is an outstanding time — only four minutes slower than the fastest eights achieve in the Boat Race.6247 Tragic Death “Unfortunately this was Searle’s last race, as he contracted typhoid on the sea voyage home, and despite his excellent general health and fitness, he died in Melbourne on December 10. He was aged only 23. “Just as most of Australia had followed Searle’s meteoric rise to hero status, so they mourned him in his death. Huge crowds turned out for services in Melbourne, Sydney and finally at the funeral in Maclean. Crowds lined the streets wherever the cortège passed — it is estimated that 40,000 people lined Collins Street in Melbourne to pay their respects, with three or four times that many in Harris and George Streets in Sydney. (Estimates place the [total Sydney] crowd as high as 170,000!) “This public outpouring of grief was something never before seen in Australia, 6247 The Times of London (September 10, 1889) pointed out that Searle’s time of 8min. 38sec. to Hammersmith Bridge was 4 seconds under the previous record, but that since the race became a procession after that, the course record was not approached. Nevertheless, they called the time “very fast” considering “the wind was foul,” but one must remember that the heavy Thames tide must have been very, very favorable, yielding such astonishing 2,000 meter splits. 1737
