FOUR-OARS AND PAIR-OARS--SWIVEL ROWLOCKS.
A good coxswainless four-oared crew sents skill and watermanship, as guished from mere brute strength, in their highest development. I may lay it down as an axiom that any man who can row well in a swainless Four will row equally well in an oared crew. The converse of this is, however, by no means true. A man may do good work in an Eight, and yet be incapable of doing himself justice in a Four, or, indeed,'of helping the pace of the boat in any way. Rowing of a more refined order is requisite for a Four. Greater power of balance is needed, and a more perfect sense of that rhythm which goes far to secure uniformity in rowing. You may have in your Eight a clumsy heavy-weight, who at No. 5 can use his strength to wonderful advantage, in spite of various aberrations from correct form. But if you put this man at No. 3 in a Four, the results are sure to be disastrous. An easier style of movement is required for a Four. A strenuous application of all the body weight at the beginning of the stroke is still, no doubt, necessary. The beginning must, of course, be gripped, and that firmly ; but the best four oared rowing I have seen always gave me the impression that a sort of " oiling " method of progression, in which steady leg-pressure plays a prominent part, was best suited to a Four which is not encumbered with the weight of a coxswain. Over and over again have Eights been defeated at Henley for the Grand Challenge Cup, and yet Fours, selected from their members, have been able to beat all comers in the Stewards'. From i868 to 1878 the London Rowing Club won the Grand five times. In the same period of eleven years their Four was only once defeated for the Stewards', proving, if any proof were needed, that an inferior Eight (I use the term merely rela tively) may contain a first-class victorious Four. On the other hand, from 1891 to 1897, a period during which Leander won the Grand five times, they were able to win the Stewards' only once, L and that was this year, when their Eight was defeated. Instances of this kind might be
multiplied.
But besides skill in oarsmanship, another element, which adds greatly both to the difficulties and pleasures of a Four, has to be considered. This is the necessity that one of the oarsmen should not only row, but also guide the course of the boat by steering with his foot. It is evident that watermanship of a very high order is needed for this feat. The steerer must know the course and all its points perfectly. The ordinary oar often finds it difficult to keep time when his eyes are glued on the back of the men in front of him, but the steerer in a Four has to keep time and regularity, even though he may be forced to look round in order to ascertain the true direction of his boat. An oarsman in an Eight has both his feet firmly fixed ; a steerer of a Four must keep one foot constantly ready for movement. And all this he has to do without making the boat roll, or upsetting the harmony of his crew. These difficulties, no doubt, are. great ; but when once they have been overcome, and the crew has shaken absolutely together, there can be few pleasures in the world of exercise comparable to that of rowing in a Four.
During a long period the London Rowing Club had almost a monopoly of good Fours. Their crews showed a degree of watermanship which in those days University oarsmen despaired of attaining to. Gulston, Stout, A. de L. Long, Trower, and S. Le B. Smith were not only names to conjure with, but showed in their rowing that perfection of apparently simple ease which lies at the root of success in four-oared rowing. Who that ever witnessed it can forget the sight, once well-known at Henley, of Mr. F. S. Gulston as he rowed and steered his Four to victory ? As a recent Cam bridge versifier said of him " They can't recall, but ah, I can, How hard and strong you looked, sir ; Twelve stone, and every ounce a man, Unbeatable, uncooked, sir.