City Barge – Sophie Neville

Rowing The Queen’s Barge Gloriana in the Boat Race Flotilla

If you are able to watch the Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race or catch it on BBC Television, you might catch sight of the Queen’s Row Barge Gloriana, her gilded dolphins glaring into the dark water of the Thames.

She will lead the Boat Race Flotilla ahead of the actual races, a warm-up act for the crowds waiting along the bank for the great event.

She will be promoting the Future Blues – a year-round community outreach project that aims to increase the total number of school rowing clubs in the UK by 50%. The Boat Race Company say, ‘We hope this initiative will leave a legacy of not only social upliftment but diversity and education for the future.’

I was fortunate enough to join the crew as they rowed from Chiswick Pier up to Putney Bridge in 2018. I wore the black cap of my rowing club, City Barge and the red shirt of the Gloriana:

After mooring up near the Putney boatsheds where television cameras were lining up under the sponsors’ banners, we rowed our passengers down the official four-mile course. I’m on the right of this shot (above) wearing a black City Barge cap.

The Men’s Boat Race, from Putney to Mortlake, was established in 1845 and has also been used for The Women’s Boat Race since 2015.

Our flotilla was joined by standing-up oarsmen from City Barge, rowing Italian and Maltese vessels, while members of other rowing clubs joined us in Thames skiffs and a variety of traditional craft.

They added colour and brought life to the River Thames reminding onlookers of her past glory.

Glimpses of this rich history are depicted on the cabin walls of the Gloriana, while hand-painted pictures of water birds adorn the ceiling.

As in the days of old, food and drinks are laid on for guests including excellent English sparkling wine, which has become a feature of the day.

The Gloriana from the water

While the men’s eights to row the course in under 17 minutes, it took us 52 minutes to reach Chiswich Bridge in the Gloriana.

However, we were pulling 9 tons. Since we were a crew of 18 oarsmen, we each pulling the equivalent of half a ton, against the stream but with the tide. It’s exhausting.

Rowing the Gloriana through London

We had more than twenty passengers on board – representatives from schools nearby who hope to participate in the Future Blues scheme.

The big thing for the oarsmen is to keep together. This is trickier that you might imagine as the curve of the hull makes alignment tricky.

We were watched by thousands crowded along the riverside. The challenge was in raising our oars to salute almost every crowded pub or boat-house along the route.

Saluting

These wooden oars are 16 foot long and quite a weight. I look at myself now and wonder how I did it.

I have managed to lift my oar in Venice after rowing the Voga Longa but found it tricky in the Gloriana.

Our cox was gracious but it was clear I need more practice. I got there in the end.

Once under Chiswick Bridge we were able to wait for the racing eights to come through after the finish.

We had been asked to grace the back of shot for the BBC coverage of the event.

This put us in a prime position to watch the crews pull in and gather for the prize-giving.

We almost became part of the antics that otherwise could only be seen on television.

Back in 2018, Cambridge University won both the Men’s and Women’s races with ease and enjoyed traditional celebrations despite the cold.

You can watch the coverage on BBC iPlayer here

It was great to have taken part in such an exciting a national event. Many thanks to Malcolm Knight and The Queen’s Row Barge Gloriana for having me.

~Sophie Neville in the QRB Gloriana~

with additional photos by Richard Bailey of City Barge

What we did on our holiday ~ Part 3

The Drapers’ shallop on the River Erdre

You know what it’s like; you never see photos of yourself on holiday until someone else sends them to you. Here I am, rowing in the bow of the Drapers’ shallop. By some miracle we seem to be together, in that our blades are barely visible.

The most challenging task for me is raising my oar in salute, as we did here for our landlady:

The long oars are heavy. The only way I can raise mine is by putting one end under my foot.

My fellow rowing club member who took these shots from the water explained that his camera unexpectedly went into an ‘Impressive Art’ setting. Although this looks like a painting, it was for real, taken out on the water from a sandolo.

As you can imagine, the whole trip took quite a bit of organising, but it was worth it. This shot was also taken on art mode.

While some of us worked really rather hard on our holiday, others enjoyed the river from a different perspective.

Next week, on Wednesday 24th and Thursday 25th September, The Draper’s Shallop will be taking part in Countryside Live at Lee Valley in the London Borough of Hackney, when children from the inner city of London will get a chance to pull an oar and experience what it feels like to travel on the river as Queen Mary once did. I’m volunteering on the Thursday.

On Saturday 27th September, she will be competing in London’s river marathon along with 300 other crews. The course of the The Great River Race starts at London Docklands, with vessels rowing up the River Thames under all the great bridges of the capital to Ham House in Richmond, passing under Kew Bridge at about 3.00pm. Let me know if you spot her!

~ photos by Robin Privett

What we did on our holiday ~ Part Two

A newspaper report has just arrived from Nantes in France, where we arrived on 30th August in our shallop, the Royal Thamesis and Serena, a sandolo belonging to our rowing club, City Barge. As I explained in my previous post, we’d been asked to lead a procession of historic boats into the city as feature of their jazz festival – an activity holiday with a difference.

I’ve also been sent these photographs of the sandolo, showing our standing up oarsmen being applauded by the crowds.

The traditional French rowing boats taking part such as Fille de la Loire, were also admired by thousands.

Although a couple of gondolas took part, accompanying us some way down the River Erdre, I don’t remember seeing them in Nantes.

There was certainly a huge variety of boats involved in the Rendez Vous de l’Erdre 2014.

Click here for another photo on the website of Club d’Aviron de Suce sur Erdre.

The 240 vessels taking part ranged from sleek period motorboats to a barge once used to transport cattle, which was now taking jazz musicians downriver.

I loved seeing the steam boats or bateaux vapeur, including Ursula who was flying the flag of the SBA or British Steam Boat Association we once belonged to as a family.

After mooring up in the basin at Nantes,

the Mayor of the city treated us all to the most fabulous reception at the Hotel de Ville.

We found that a feast awaited us. Hungry sailors and oarsmen were rewarded for their efforts with a variety of delicious things to eat and local wines.

‘What did you do on your holidays?’

I am often asked what I get up to on holiday. We once rowed some forty-five kilometers down a tributary of the Loire, leading a procession of 240 traditional boats into Nantes for the Rendez-vous de l’Erdre –

The journey started in Portsmouth, where the crew from our boat club, City Barge, gathered to load two boats onto the cross-channel ferry to Le Havre.

We took Serena, a Venetian sandalo and The Royal Thamesis, a thirty-six foot shallop belonging to the Draper’s Company.

Towing them from Oxford to Brittany was no mean feat, but other vessels from Great Britain had also made the crossing, including a thirty-three foot steamboat.

We launched the shallop at a pretty town called Nort sur Erdre where a jazz band was already playing to herald the festival de la Belle plaisance française.

Stephanie Pasgrimaud from France Televisions Pays de la Loire came aboard to interview me – in French and English – for the regional News on France 3.

That afternoon we rowed some way down to Monsieur et Madame Courant’s B&B on the river where we met up with other members of the party and stayed for the next four nights.

I had the most lovely room overlooking the water; chambre d’Empire.

As the mist rose the next morning we put up our canopy to transport our passengers downstream.

We have a crew of six oarsmen, with a cox and a wiffler. I alternated with others, taking on all three tasks.

We row in medieval fashion, one oar each, seated on a fixed thwarts. Please click on the image for a history of the vessel. You may have seen our boat if you watched the Queen’s Jubilee pageant, rowing in third place, while old Father Thames glared down from our badge on the stern, elvers peaking from his beard.

That first morning in Brittany we practised various manoeuvres before rowing a short distance to a boat club, where we moored for a picnic lunch.

Here we met oarsmen from all over Europe.

Including those who row standing up.

We rowed on to moor up for the night at the small town of Suce-sur-Erdre

where Stephanie was reporting on our progress for France 3.

Here the crews of the 240 boats taking part in the event were treated to a special dinner held outside with a jazz band playing sea shanties.

The organisers had brought together traditional boats, passé nautique, of many kinds.

Although there were four steamboats and a number of canoes

most were in the class de voile-aviron ~ row and sail ~ principalement des bateaux de petites tailles, souvent anciens, et correspondent pour la plupart à des critères de rareté ou d’élégance.