1843 – 1849 #

In March of 1843 it was resolved to buy a new boat, and about £52 were subscribed. It is noticeable from the minutes that despite this high cost which fell directly upon the members, the Club tried to buy a new boat every few years, even annually. The bumping was often ferocious and not uncommonly in histories of this period boats are described as ‘written off’. High among the dangers of the river were barges, for the Cam was still a working river and no one expected commercial traffic to cease for the racing (nowadays pleasure cruisers pose a similar hazard). Occasionally one reads of boats going at speed straight into a barge. Steering cannot have been easy, for the boats were heavy and their rudders deep. It is therefore not surprising that the corners were often badly taken and boats not infrequently were driven up a bank. All of the resulting damage would have been difficult, if not impossible, to repair cheaply, and the minutes rarely record more than a few pounds being offered for a boat at its resale. The cost of an eight seems to have been between £50 and £60 with very little variation throughout the century, even taking into account the introduction of outriggers in 1847 and sliding seats in the 70’s. It is worth noting that in these early years, when six- and ten¬oared boats were not irregular, Peterhouse with one exception manned eights. In the course of the century the boats grew sleeker; at the time the PBC was Head however boats were about 52 feet long, between three and five feet broad, and weighed over three and a half hundredweight. The men probably did not sit in a line, but in staggered order down the thwarts - this perhaps helped to increase the ‘leverage’.

On the first day of the Lent races in 1843 First Trinity bumped ye Pet, who pursued them unsuccessfully for the rest of the racing season. The make-up of crews was casually altered from race to race, and in the May term one Thomson rowed at 3 and then bow. Later he was to be known as the Right Hon. William, Baron Kelvin of Largs, G.C.V.O., O.M., to that date this University’s most eminent man of science since Newton. In 1843 he easily won the Colquhoun sculls over an entry of fourteen; he regularly contributed to the Club’s subscription appeals long after his return to Glasgow.

This year the PBC managed to put on a second boat. The getting up and maintenance of another crew was one of the unresolved difficulties in this, as in other small clubs. The Captains were never unaware of the importance to good rowing of a competent second boat, but members generally did not take to the discipline. Second Captains frequently became discouraged, and no official post saw more frequent change of incumbent. One reason for the disenchantment with rowing in a lower boat not already in a division was the curious procedure for getting-on. At first, a casual challenge to the lowest boat was the accepted means of getting-on. So, for example, in Lent 1865 the PBC made its challenge but this was deferred by the CUBC to the following term. No crew can be expected to practise regularly in hopes of securing a place which it cannot improve on. In 1866, a year later, a challenge was duly made against LMBC IV on the last day of the Mays; but that club was bent on keeping its fourth boat on, and altered the crew so that only one man remained of the original eight, the rest being made up of men who happened to be in residence. Our crew lost by three seconds. It is not therefore surprising that second crews rarely appear from Peterhouse until more recent date, when their successes have gratified the whole society.

To return to 1843, second crews were then called ‘Cannibals’, said to be a slurring of ‘canna pulls’. The activities of our second crew, named ‘The Pet Balls’, were extraordinary enough to merit a full record in the Jesus minute book. The crew went up twelve places in the seven May racing nights, and made two overbumps. But in 1844 they went down on each of the eleven racing nights, and our minutes ‘deplore the want of pluck and energy shown by certain members of the Club’. This slide was not arrested in 1845, so the boat was withdrawn.

Rouse Ball reckoned that at the end of Easter term 1845 there had been 257 regular bumping races; in his table of the nine crews that had held the Headship Peterhouse is fifth with thirteen days as Head. By now rowing was the most popular amusement of the first two terms, and only rivalled by cricket in the third.

In October 1845 J. Luxton was Captain; his three sons also returned to Peterhouse and the Boat Club; one of them, Charles, was a Cricket Blue. The secretary this term was S.F. Rippingall, a Cricket Blue, who won the Diamond Challenge Sculls at Henley in 1853. It is characteristic of undergraduate societies that their finances are in disarray. It will not be worth while to list the frequent appeals either for subscriptions (£16/10 were collected this term) or for the payment of dues. The treasurer’s position was an unwelcome one, and members could be very slack about debts. The amalgamation of the sports clubs relieved the financial pressure upon the Club to some degree. In a charming note of 1871 accompanying a contribution, A.W. Ward, then at Owens College, Manchester, remarked to the treasurer how little changed was the Club’s financial plight since he was himself treasurer in 1856.

On November 22 1845 two proposals were made; first, that four oared races be instituted, and secondly that it would be expedient to have supper after the race. This is the first reference to a dinner to be held in the Michaelmas term; soon it became an annual event, although the term in which it was held differed. The annual supper was the forerunner of the bump supper (which was properly held on the night the bump was made, rather risking the chance of a repeat performance on the following day). The four oar race is the first of the College events in the October term, which by 1890 were six in number: scratch fours, tub pairs, light pairs, scratch pairs, the challenge sculls, whiff races (a type of scull), and the trial eights. (What boats the Club needed for these events were borrowed from other clubs.) This great variety of events prompted the institution about the turn of the century of the Club regatta; all these races were rowed on one day and the later accounts in the minutes make one regret the regatta’s passing. This gradual increase in the number and type of College races could only come about in the easy days before the establishment of the Fairbairn Cup race in 1927, the most unpleasant of the ‘Varsity calendar. Previously Colleges focussed upon their new recruits more steadily and trained up the freshmen without having an important eight oar race at the end of the term to distract attention from the elements of rowing. In 1846, for example, pewters were presented by members of the PBC to be rowed for in sculls, and in pair oars, as well as the four oared boats. Entrance fees were charged, usually half-a-crown, to cover the cost of hiring posts, pistols, men to fire the pistols, and engraving the pewter tankards. This charge dropped to a shilling in 1899. At the end of the October term of 1845 there were thirty-one members, and they subscribed £60 towards a new boat to be bought from Logan.

A word should be said about this factotum who so long served the PBC. At first all college clubs hired rooms from established boatbuilders. But over the years some of the largest and wealthiest clubs built and kept their own boat houses. The smaller clubs continued to hire their own rooms, and additional boats (an eight and a tub pair being the minimum) from Cross, Winter, Waites or Searle. The best eight was owned by the Club but stored at a charge of 30/- a term in the boatyard. Sometimes however the best eight was only hired for a couple of terms with reversion to the builder. For two years the PBC was with Searle (1844-6) but his men were slapdash in the way they turned the boat out so the Club transferred its custom to Logan. The relationship was long but not happy. The Captain in 1871 described him as a merciless extortioner. But to do him justice he must have found it hard to recover what was owed him from a society whose financial irregularities have already been touched upon. Besides building boats and hiring rooms he was something of a coach, which weighed in his favour when the Club considered a move to Waites in 1875; more surprisingly he (or perhaps a son) rowed in the College boat; at any rate the account books mention payments to him of half-¬a-crown for rowing, and the obvious deduction is that, if an oarsman failed to turn up, Logan was ready to fill in. These payments are regrettably frequent, but it may be hoped that the delinquents belonged to the ‘unplucky’ second boat.

In the Lent term of 1846 it was carried that every man pay for the washing of his own jersey; the washing of towels was later in the century to prove bothersome since no dependable and cheap washerwoman could be found. The Captain, Luxton, presented a flag worked by some ladies of his acquaintance. This is the first of a series of flags worked by ladies. Also this term £10 were voted to Parish for coaching. This compensation and the lack of a title to the surname point, not to the Fellow of that name, but to James Parish, a professional waterman who was the coxswain and coach of the Leander Club for seventeen years. It was just about this time that College clubs began to employ professional coaches from London. In 1845 LMBC hired their first coach, in 1847 Jesus, and 1849 First Trinity. Thus the PBC was one of the first clubs to adopt the practice. In the Lent term of 1850 £13 were subscribed and the coach hired was Robert Coombes, a champion sculler from London much favoured by College clubs. There is a picture of him sculling and of Parish in Lehmann’s ‘Complete Oarsman’. Coombes has left some hints on rowing in Bateman’s ‘Aquatic Notes’ and an excerpt is worth reproducing as much for its good sense as for its period charm: ‘take care when you reach forward to put the oar into the water where you reach to, and not as most gentlemen do, bring the oar back before you put it in, … it is a very bad thing to go too far back, though some gentlemen seem to think it looks fine rowing’. He also recommends cold baths followed by a rubdown with horsehair gloves; then a mile run with flannel next the skin and a greatcoat or two on. Pastry, rich soups and such like vanities are to be avoided. ‘The best made men for rowing are those with good loins, wide at the hips, and long arms … a good rowing figure should not have more than two inches difference in the measure round loins and round chest.’ But the change of times is reflected in his ideal maximum weight: eleven and a half stone. In 1873 the CUBC forbade the use of professional coaches in the fortnight before races; but our present system by then prevailed.

In the May term of 1846 Luxton proposed to remove the second boat from the river because ‘many men of the first crew were knocked up, and others (e.g. Luxton himself) went on pulling to the great detriment of their health’. In fact throughout the last century health was most uncertain. A crew nowadays is chosen and remains together with far greater constancy. But then sickness, seediness, exhaustion and doctor’s orders were regularly cited in the minutes as the cause of the loss of individuals or the collapse of whole crews. At times crews worked as one only a week before the races.

In 1846 the first, rather narrow railway bridge was thrown over the Cam, and so the racing course was shortened with the finish now 100 yards below the new bridge. In 1871 it was replaced by the present bridge and the course lengthened. In the Michaelmas term there were fourteen new members; since the last Club elections twenty-two men matriculated (in those days men came up at odd times, April being especially favoured). This will be found to be the common form until late in the century when Indian Civil Servants came in great but inconstant numbers. Up to then well over half the new members of the College joined the PBC. An eloquent motion was carried that anyone using obscene languge in the boathouse was to be fined 2/6. The four which won the pewter race gave dinner to its five rival crews.

In January 1847 a special collection was made and a ‘respectable sum’ readily got up to relieve the state of the poor Irish; the potato crop had repeatedly failed. This term Andrew Fairbairn, later knighted, was elected to the club. In later years he generously contributed to the cost of restoring the Hall and Combination Room, as well as to the finances of the PBC. In this term we encounter for the first time a long discussion about the uniform, nor will it be the last time that this important issue is ventilated. Mere desire for change was not, on this occasion at least, at the bottom of the matter: to the unpractised eye, so the objection ran, the colours of Queens’ and Sidney could be mistaken for ours. To this it was replied that they had imitated us, and that the colours worn by a Cobbold should not be lightly altered. Rightly this sense prevailed. The boat itself was particoloured blue, black and deal, with its bow painted with arms and badges. The hat had a broad blue ribbon and blue ribbon was also used as a binding on the jersey. A select committee strongly disapproved of the design ‘of the blue stripe on the flannel trousers, being totally unsuited for the uniform of a crew’. This niceness was overcome in the 70’s, but later the stripe was narrowed and at last disappeared. The meeting closed with the Captain’s requesting the crew to train and abstain from all excesses. This Lents and Mays the crews rowed in a hired outrigger.

In the October term of 1847 ten new members in all were elected, one of whom, J.W. Taylor, became a Fellow. James Porter was made an honorary member, but soon rowed. His elder brother was already a member, and later became a Fellow. Porter Jr. went on to be Master of Peterhouse (1876-1900) and a well-liked Cambridge figure who was often seen carrying his little dog Rollo, also a member of the CUCC, to Fenners to watch the cricket. In his Mastership he was a staunch supporter of the Club and subscribed to it generously.

In the October term of 1848 there was an unusually large number of College races: pewter races for pairs, a pewter for sculls, and a silver cup for sculls. In each event East, who rowed in the Head boat of 1842, won; he was still in residence and active membership. He coached the fours which raced from the Railway Bridge to Plough Reach. For the races of Lent and May a boat was to be built by Logan and hired for £30; the crew went up five places. Each member of the Club subscribed ‘according to custom’ a half-crown to the University crew at Henley. One Shafto donated £5 to the PBC ‘in consequence of the Flying Dutchman’; was this a Newmarket flutter?

In the October term of 1849 nine new members were elected. The names of two of them, W.D. Gardiner and W. Smith, can be read to this day where they carved them in the wooden window ledge on the east wall of what is now the Ward Library. Gardiner became an officer of the Club, then a Fellow and Judge.