Barwon, Bread and the British War

What is the connection between this British World War One poster and a Barwon member?

In December 1916 the Ministry of Food Control was established in Britain with their biggest issue the shortage of bread and grain; just six weeks supply was available. German submarines were sinking merchant ships headed to Britain in an attempt to starve the nation into submission and to destroy morale. 

In Australia, there had been a record wheat harvest in 1915-16, but shipping shortages had made the crop virtually unsaleable. The Australian government had established the Wheat Board in 1916 at the same time that the American wheat harvest had failed. The British government then agreed to buy the entire Australian wheat crop. Within two months the Australian government had passed legislation that allowed the Australian Wheat Board to control all shipping and marketing of wheat to Britain.

By early 1917 the shipping shortage was so severe that the wheat was left to moulder on wharves and there were plagues of mice and weevils. Between December 1916 and June 1917, 1,274,497 bags of wheat had been shipped from Geelong and more than 3 million bags were stockpiled at North Geelong station and Corio Quay.

Barwon Rowing Club member, Alexander Ritchie, was a clerk with the Dalgety and Co. Geelong office, with responsibility for finding ships to take the wheat to Britain. On Monday 30 July 1917, Alexander left Geelong by steamer on a short break, intending to travel around the company's agents in the Wimmera and Mallee districts. The next day he was seen at the Goldsbrough Mort annual ram sales in Melbourne, and then never again.

Another Barwon member, James Francis Guthrie, was the Geelong manager at Dalgety. On Saturday 28 July Alexander met him for lunch, where his boss advised him to take a short holiday. Since the beginning of the year he had been working seven days a week and was complaining of headaches and feeling "off-colour" and depressed. His job had been made even more stressful when in the middle of June that year the amount of wheat waiting in the rail yards to be offloaded into the stockpiles had reach 30 truckloads. The shipping agents' clerks had started to unload the trucks themselves, although apparently Alexander refused to participate. The union for 'wheat lumpers' promptly declared the wheat "black" and went on strike, putting at risk any future shipments from Geelong.

On the Monday following his meeting with Guthrie, Alexander boarded the steamer to Melbourne and was seen disembarking there, but strangely left his suitcase behind on the boat. His brother, William Ritchie, Barwon's former Treasurer, was informed of his disappearance by telephone at his home near Camperdown 3 days later and immediately starting making enquiries in Geelong, Portarlington and Melbourne. He even searched all the A.I.F. camps in case his brother had enlisted. No trace of him was ever found and it was thought at the time that he had either lost his memory or had drowned. Over the ensuing years his bank account remained untouched and a search of his lodgings revealed no clues as to his mental state.

In June 1925 the Supreme Court of Victoria granted probate on his estate, on the presumption that Alexander was dead. They made no finding on how he could have met his demise.

Learning From History - The Intercolonial Champion Gig Race 1872.

THE INTERCOLONIAL CHAMPION GIG RACE OF 1872

This week the Barwon Rowing Club is represented at the Australian Masters Rowing Championships in Tasmania. It is said that those who don't remember history are doomed to repeat it. With that in mind, this is the story of a Barwon crew who rowed in Hobart in 1872.

The Start of the Intercolonial Gig Race. Derwent River. Hobart.

Described in The Australasian as the most exciting race ever to take place in the Southern Hemisphere, the Intercolonial Amateur Gig Race, for bona fide  amateurs, was rowed over a five mile course [8000m], before 20,000 spectators on the 30th January 1872, for a cash prize of £100 and the title of Champion Crew  of Australia.

Initially there was little interest in competing at the regatta by Victorian rowing clubs, despite an offer by Edwards, a Yarra River based boat builder, to make at his own cost a boat, to train any crew and to accompany them to Hobart. Then, at a special meeting held in the middle of December 1871, the Barwon Rowing Club decided to accept the challenge and to send a crew of their own. Costs were expected to exceed £70, to be raised by the club members and public subscription. The crew chosen was Edward Nicholls, 30 years, bow, 11st. 2lb. [70kg], Charles Shannon, 31 years, 11st. 6lb. [72.5kg], and Captain of Barwon, James Strachan, 23 years, 12st. 4lb. [78kg], the crack oar from the winning Cambridge crew of 1870 and James Cullin, stroke, 11st. 6lb. [72.5kg], a pocket Hercules who pulled a splendid oar with extraordinary force and precision. Training commenced immediately with outings from the boatshed to Lake Connewarre and back, 15 miles at a smart 34 to the minute all the way and the men returning as if they could do it all over again! They would be up against two crews from Sydney - Sydney Rowing Club and a Parramatta River crew - and two crews from Hobart.

Early in January, the crew travelled to Melbourne for their first trial in Edwards' boat. Named the "Victoria", she was built of varnished cedar with brass fittings, and fitted with watertight compartments fore and aft and the option to fit a false bow and washboards should the weather prove rough. The Sydney boat was 42 ft [12.8m] long with a beam of 3ft. 6ins. [1m] deep, cedar planking and decking, with a keel and gunwhale of kauri pine, and weighed about 120lbs [54.5kg]. The Victoria was said to be about the same weight. She was then loaded onto a steamer bound for Hobart, accompanied by one of Edwards' men.

The four Barwon rowers, with member John Arthur as emergency and J. Ogilivie, the club's coxswain, departed Geelong on Friday 19 January by steamer for Launceston and then travelled overland by coach, arriving in Hobart on 28 January. The papers described them as a fine looking lot in tip top condition. They row a short, quick but powerful stroke, their time and swing are particularly good. They are as fine a lot of men as one would want to see step into a boat. Their rowing is unequalled by any four in Australia. At their first training row in local conditions, the Hobart Mercury declared them overall favourites: their swing is perfect; there are no bent arms, no meeting of the oar with the body before the stroke is finished; the hands are thrown well up, and ease and grace in the backward swing are thereby obtained.. Unfortunately the boat half filled with water, necessitating the fitting of the washboards and adding to the weight of an already heavy boat and crew. All the betting was on Barwon and many pounds changed hands in the hosteleries of Hobart.

On a fine Tuesday with a slight breeze, the five crews rowed to the start, with Barwon in the centre station. A good start was effected at 38 to 42:  the boats took the water well together and all dashed off in a splendid style, the Victoria's crew rowing a magnificent spurt to obtain a lead. But passing the first of four buoys the Sydney Rowing Club was in the lead and never lost it. At about the halfway point Barwon was in third place and their stroke called upon his men, making a desperate effort they gained ground. For a time a neck and neck struggle ensued, the Victorians not feeling disposed to take the last place without a struggle for the honour of the go-ahead colony.

The start of the race, Barwon Rowing Club in the centre.

To the general astonishment of the crowd, they passed the finish line in the following order: Sydney Rowing Club 36mins. 20secs., Parramatta 37mins. 10secs., Hobart light crew 37mins. 30secs., Hobart heavy crew 37mins. 45secs. and Barwon 39mins. 30secs. Many were the cheers for the winners, and also for Barwon, although the Mercury noted that these were of an ironical character, by heavy losers who had backed them too confidently. James Strachan later commented that the papers had expressed opinions which were not those of the crew, and that they had rowed their best.

Back in Geelong the mood was one of disbelief. The results were slow to come in by electric telegraph, announcing merely that the race had been won by the Sydney crew. Charles Shannon and Edward Nicholls had left Hobart on the following Saturday and successfully evaded the press waiting at the Geelong railway station by catching a steamer and disembarking at Queenscliff. However they could not avoid the media speculation for long. Rumours abounded that the crew had shown the white feather once they lost the lead, even that the stroke had shown his well known propensity for "caving in". The Captain's only comment was that the boat had proved to be unsuitable; after going a mile it lay like a log.

Another rumour surfaced some weeks later in the papers; that the Barwon crew, elated at their prestige and reception in Hobart, were anything but asleep during the witching hours of the night and morning before, and that they had paid more devoirs to Bacchus than to the muscular deity. 

Hence history's warning - make sure you pay your devotions to Bacchus after the race, not before!