men aid themselves with their oars, as with balancing poles, ‘The removal of the coxswain therefore tends to reduce the rolling, and facilitates the speedy return of the ship to her keel when momentarily thrown off it. Coxswainless fours at Henley trayel now much more steadily than did those with coxswains fifteen years ago. A runner on the bank, to look out for obstructive craft, is useful in practice, It enables the steerer to keep his eyes on his stern-post, and to guide his course - thereby in confidence, without repeated twists round to see if any loafing duffer is going to smash his timbers. The pace of a first-class coxswainless four, in smooth water, for half a mile is quite as great as that of a second-class cight-oar with a cox- swain, The abolition of coxswain has improved the speed of fours some forty seconds over the Henley course,
Onc good resulted from the attempt of B.N.C. in 1868 to row without a coxswain. It opened the eyes of the regatta executive to the unfaimess of tolerating boy coxswains. The University clubs used to carry beys of four or five stone. In that very year the ‘Oscillators’ had a four-stone lad, while University College carried an eight-stone man, There was just as much difference between these two fours in dead weight carried as between B.N.C. (with no coxswain) and the Oscil- lators. University clubs are ex officio dcbarred from obtaining boys to steer. ‘his inequality had been complained of by college crews time after time. Old Mr, Lane, the usual vice- chairman, used to sneer at the complaint, and say, ‘If a boy can do in one boat what it takes a man to do in another, it is not fair to prohibit the boy.’ If this were logical, then, part passu, there could be no unfairness for one man to do single- handed what in other boats it took a man and a boy (or tro men) to do, viz. both row and steer. Mr. Lane’s fallacy was exploded by this reductio ad absurdun of his tenets, and regu- lation weights for coxswains were initiated for following years.
