Centreboards and Sails: The Rise of Open-Boat Racing in Sydney During the 1890s

Abstract

Open-boat sailing boomed in Sydney, Australia, during the 1890s, as a number of new sailing clubs emerged in the city's working waterfront suburbs. Open boats have since been remembered as ‘typically Australian’, radically opposed to the forms and ceremonies of the yachting establishment, and even as sharing the characteristics of the bushman, an archetype of Australian national identity. This article traces the rise of open-boat sailing as a working-class spectator sport and the associated image of an ‘open boat legend’. It argues that open-boat sailing remained a Sydney legend in the 1890s. However, links to working traditions and place have made it possible for popular histories of sailing and yachting to present the open boats and sailors of the period with identifiably Australian characteristics.

Dans les années 1890, à Sydney, en Australie, l'open-boat est en plein essor, quand un certain nombre de nouveaux clubs de voile émergent dans les banlieues ouvrières du front de mer. Depuis, les open boats sont considérés comme «typiquement australiens» et radicalement opposés aux formes et aux cérémonies de la plaisance traditionnelle, voire partagent les mêmes caractéristiques que le bushman, un archétype de l'identité nationale australienne. Cet article retrace le développement de l'open boat comme un sport de la classe ouvrière et l'image associée d'une «légende de l'open boat». Il fait valoir que l'open boat est resté une légende propre à Sydney dans les années 1890. Cependant, les liens avec les traditions et les lieux du travail ont permis aux histoires populaires de voile et de plaisance de présenter ces open boats et les marins de l'époque avec des caractéristiques identifiables comme australiennes.

La navegación con barcas de vela experimentó un gran auge en Sydney, Australia, durante los años 1890, cuando surgieron varios clubes náuticos en los barrios obreros de la costa. Desde entonces las barcas han sido consideradas como “típicamente australianas”, radicalmente opuestas a las formas y los ceremoniales de la náutica hegemónica, e incluso como algo concomitante con las características del bushman, un arquetipo de la identidad australiana. Este artículo rastrea los orígenes de la navegación con barcas de vela como un deporte popular entre la clase obrera, y de la imagen paralela de un “leyenda de las barcas”. Se argumenta que la navegación con barcas de vela se convirtió en un símbolo de Sydney durante los años 1890. No obstante, los vínculos con tradiciones obreras han posibilitado que los relatos populares sobre navegación a vela y náutica presenten a las barcas y a los navegantes del periodo con características típicamente australianas.

Open-boat sailing boomte in Sydney, Australien, in den 1890er Jahren, als eine Reihe von neuen Segelklubs in den Arbeiter-Hafenviertel-Vororten der Stadt entstanden. Open boats gelten seither als “typisch australisch“, den Formen und Zeremonien des Bootssport-Establishment radikal entgegenstehend, und auch weil sie die Eigenschaften des Buschmanns teilen, als ein Archetyp der australischen nationalen Identität. Dieser Artikel zeichnet den Aufstieg des Open-boat sailings als Zuschauersport der Arbeiterklasse und das damit verbundene Bild einer ‘open boat legend’. Es wird argumentiert, dass Open-boat sailing in den 1890er Jahren eine Legende Sydneys blieb. Allerdings haben Verbindungen zu Arbeitstraditionen und -plätzen es den populären Geschichten des Segelns und Bootssports möglich gemacht, die open boats und Segler dieses Zeitraums mit identifizierbaren australischen Merkmalen zu präsentieren.

十九世纪九十年代无甲板船在澳大利亚悉尼风靡一时，城市郊外的滨水工作区涌现了一批新的航海俱乐部。与开启游艇的仪式和形式截然不同的是，无甲板帆船被认为是“典型的澳大利亚特色”，甚至具有澳大利亚土著民族原型的特征。本文追溯了无甲板船这项吸引大量工人阶层的观赏性体育运动的兴起过程，以及与之联系的“无甲板船传奇”的形象。作者认为，无甲板帆船在十九世纪九十年代的悉尼创造了传奇，而正是那些与帆船运动相联系的航行传统和航行区域才使之有可能在帆船和游艇航行史上呈现出那个时期具有澳大利亚特色的无甲板船和水手的形象。

A navegação em barcos abertos cresceu em Sydney, Austrália, durante os anos 1890, quando um grande número de clubes de navegação surgiu a beira-mar nos subúrbios operários da cidade. Barcos abertos são desde então lembrados como “tipicamente australianos”, radicalmente opostos às formas e cerimônias de estabelecimentos iatistas, chegando a compartilhar as características do bushman, um arquétipo da identidade nacional australiana. Este artigo traça a ascensão da navegação em barco aberto como um esporte de espectadores operários e a imagem associada de uma “lenda de barco aberto”. Argumenta-se que a navegação em barco aberto permaneceu sendo uma marca de Sydney nos anos 1890. Entretanto, ligações com tradições e lugares operários tornaram possível que histórias populares de navegação a vela e iatismo apresentassem os barcos abertos e os navegadores do período com características identificavelmente australianas.

1890年代のオーストラリア・シドニーにおいて、労働者層が住む市郊外の海岸地区に数多くの新しいセーリングクラブが生まれる中、オープンボート・セーリングは急激に人気を獲得した。それ以来オープンボートは、旧来のヨットが持つ格式や作法に真っ向から対立する「典型的にオーストラリア的なもの」として、そしてさらにはオーストラリアのナショナルアイデンティティのアーキタイプであるブッシュマンの特徴を持つものとしてさえ記憶されている。本稿は、労働者階層のスペクテイター・スポーツとしてのオープンボート・セーリングの誕生、そして「オープンボート伝説」というそれに付随するイメージを辿っていく。オープンボート・セーリングは、1890年代のシドニーの伝説であった。しかしながら、オープンボートが持っていた労働者たちの伝統及び場所との結びつきによって、セーリングとヨットに関するポピュラーな語りは、オープンボートとその時代のヨット乗りたちを、優れてオーストラリア的な特徴を持ったものとして提示するようになったのである。

Keywords:

• sailing
• yachting
• open boats
• Sydney Harbour
• Port Jackson

Keywords:

• voile
• yachting
• open boats
• port de Sydney
• Port Jackson

Keywords:

• navegación a vela
• náutica
• barcas
• puerto de Sydney
• Port Jackson

Keywords:

• Segeln
• Bootssport
• open boats
• Sydney Harbour
• Port Jackson

Keywords:

• 航海
• 游艇
• 无甲板船
• 悉尼港
• 杰克逊港

Keywords:

• navegação a vela
• iatismo
• barcos abertos
• enseada de Sydney
• Port Jackson

Keywords:

• セーリング
• ヨット
• オープンボート
• シドニー湾、ポート・ジャクソン湾

Acknowledgements

This article is based on a chapter of a PhD thesis. I would like to thank my supervisors Ruth Balint, Sean Brawley, and the examiners for their valuable comments on this work. I would also like to acknowledge the anonymous reviewers for their assistance with this article.

Notes

^1. Illustrated Sydney News, February 15, 1886, 12, 14.

^2. Walter Reeks, “Yachting and Sailing,” Illustrated Sydney News, May 31, 1888, 8.

^3. “Origin and Progress of Australian Settlement,” Sydney Morning Herald, January 24, 1888.

^4. Reeks, “Yachting and Sailing.”

^5. Ross, Sailing Australians, 49– 50.

^6. D'Alpuget, Yachting in Australia, 152.

^7. Stannard, Bluewater Bushmen, 2.

^8. Molloy, Century of Sydney's Flying Sailors, 9.

^9. This article is based on a chapter of the author's PhD dissertation. See de Montfort, “Sailing Traditions.”

^11. Ward, Australian Legend, 212.

^10. Ward, Australian Legend.

^12. Elder, Being Australian, 189–93.

^13. See Gray, “Art and the Environment;” Wallace-Crabbe, “Escaping Landscape,” 158.

^14. White, Inventing Australia, 85, 92.

^15. See, for example, Davison, “Sydney and the Bush,” 109–30; Russell and White, Pastiche, 3; Nile, Australian Legend and its Discontents, 1–7.

^16. Davison, “Sydney and the Bush,” 109–30.

^17. White, Inventing Australia, 97.

^18. Hirst, “Pioneer Legend,” 174–96.

^19. Waterhouse, “Australian Legends,” 201–21.

^20. Reeks, “Yachting and Sailing,” Illustrated Sydney News, 7–8.

^21. “Origin and Progress of Australian Settlement,” Sydney Morning Herald, January 24, 1888.

^22. Slocum, Sailing Alone Around the World, 170–2.

^23. Mallory, “Yacht Types in Australian Waters,” Southern Cross, December 12, 1898, 31–5.

^24. MacLauren and Hunt, “Yachtsman's Guide to Sydney Harbour and its Neighbourhood,” Australian Yachtsman and Canoeist, December 19, 1896, 2.

^25. Allan, “A Trip in a 22-Footer,” Southern Cross, October 1, 1899, 405–8.

^26. Backstay, “Sailing Notes,” Referee, November 23, 1892.

^28. Lanyard, “Port Jackson's Pleasure Fleets,” no. 1, Evening News, October 11, 1907.

^29. Lanyard, “Port Jackson's Pleasure Fleets,” no. 1, Evening News, October 11, 1907

^27. “Sailing,” Sydney Mail, January 30, 1897.

^30. Backstay, “Sailing Notes,” Referee, December 31, 1890; Backstay, “Sailing Notes,” Referee, January 7, 1891.

^31. “Port Jackson” refers to Sydney Harbour.

^32. Broeze, Island Nation, 203.

^33. Stannard, Bluewater Bushmen, 4.

^34. “Sailing in the Twentieth Century,” Interview with Wee-Georgie Robinson, in Stephens and O'Neill, Larrikin Days, 27–32.

^35. Cunneen, “Webb, Chris,” 377.

^36. Sydney Amateur Sailing Club Historical Committee, The Amateurs, 130.

^37. Connell and Irving, Class Structure in Australian History, 189.

^38. Solling and Reynolds, Leichhardt on the Margins of the City, 122, 137–8.

^39. Connell and Irving, Class Structure in Australian History, 131.

^40. Solling and Reynolds, Leichhardt on the Margins of the City, 139.

^41. Mitchell, “Home Life on the Hungry Mile,” 86–97; Fox, Working Australia, 63; Broeze, “Seamen of Australasia,” 78–105.

^42. Beasley, Wharfies; Mitchell, “Home Life on the Hungry Mile,” 90.

^43. Connell and Irving, Class Structure in Australian History, 189.

^44. See Bellanta, “16 August 1890 The Maritime Strike Begins,” 74–86.

^45. Broeze, Island Nation, 206.

^46. Macintyre, Concise History of Australia, 124.

^47. Hopkins, “Labour Crisis,” Bulletin, August 16, 1890, in Dyrenfurth and Quartly, “All the World Over,” Fig. 6.11.

^48. Backstay, “Sailing Notes,” Referee, January 7, 1891.

^49. “Sailing Notes,” Sydney Mail, November 1, 1890.

^51. “History of the Clubs,” Australian Yachtsman and Canoeist, January 26, 1898, 14.

^50. “Sailing Notes” Sydney Mail, January 3, 1891.

^52. “Prospects of the New Sailing Season,” Sydney Morning Herald, September 29, 1894, 10.

^53. Backstay, “Sailing Notes,” Referee, March 18, 1891.

^54. Backstay, “Sailing Notes,” Referee, February 25, 1891.

^55. Backstay, “Sailing Notes,” Referee, November 30, 1892.

^56. O'Hara, Mug's Game, 68–74, 93–4.

^57. Waterhouse, Private Pleasures, Public Leisure, 82.

^58. Foy (letter to the editor), “Sailing Notes,” Referee, February 11, 1891.

^59. Lech, “Mark Foy's.” Dictionary of Sydney. http://www.dictionaryofsydney.org/entry/entry/mark_foys

^60. Walsh, “Foy, Mark (1865–1950).” Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University. http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/foy-mark-6367/text10721

^62. Foy, “Sailing,” Pamphlet (Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales, Sydney) circa 1891.

^61. Booth and Tatz, One-Eyed, 68(70. Also see O'Hara, Mug's Game, 94–102.

^63. Foy, “Sailing,” Pamphlet (Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales, Sydney) circa 1891

^64. Foy, “Sailing,” Pamphlet (Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales, Sydney) circa 1891

^65. Foy, “Sailing,” Pamphlet (Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales, Sydney) circa 1891

^66. O'Hara, Mug's Game, 103–4; Waterhouse, Private Pleasures, Public Leisure, 79.

^67. Backstay, “Sailing,” Referee, October 14, 1891.

^68. Sydney Morning Herald, October 19, 1891.

^69. “National Regatta,” Referee, January 28, 1891.

^70. “National Regatta,” Sydney Mail, January 30, 1892; Backstay, “National Regatta,” Referee, January 27, 1892.

^71. Sydney Morning Herald, December 1, 1891.

^72. Sydney Morning Herald, December 22, 1891; “Aquatics,” Illustrated Sydney News, January 2, 1892.

^73. Sydney Morning Herald, January 7, 1892.

^74. Sydney Morning Herald, January 7, 1892

^75. Sydney Morning Herald, January 27, 1892.

^76. “Australian Anniversary Regatta,” Sydney Mail, January 30, 1892.

^77. “Aquatics,” Illustrated Sydney News, January 30, 1892.

^78. “Australian Anniversary Regatta,” Sydney Mail, January 30, 1892.

^79. Backstay, “Australian Anniversary Regatta,” Referee, January 27, 1892.

^80. Molloy, Century of Sydney's Flying Sailors, 12.

^81. Stannard, Bluewater Bushmen, 13.

^82. Molloy, Century of Sydney's Flying Sailors, 11.

^83. D'Alpuget, Yachting in Australia, 152.

^84. Elder, Being Australian, 40–6.

^85. See Thompson, “Boats Bondy and the Boxing Kangaroo,” 59– 118.