Messing About on the River

Contrary to popular belief we do occasionally get some very hot days in this part of the world. On one of these recent ones my wife and I decided to take a lake cruise on Lake Windermere in the English Lake District. Rather than hire our own boat we took the ferry from Ambleside to Bowness and back. It was a lovely day and it got me thinking about past boating experiences. For several annual holidays we have hired canal boats, in one memorable year my late father, deciding to get an early start on our boating holiday in East Anglia, didn’t account for the tide and took the roof off our cruiser by attempting to pass under a bridge that we had easily navigated the day before! We all had a rude awakening that day to say the least. Surely most people saw some of the recent television coverage when a flotilla of boats of all sizes sailed along the River Thames as part of the Diamond Jubilee celebrations of Queen Elizabeth II. Leading the parade was the beautifully ornate rowing boat, Gloriana that had been especially commissioned for the occasion. Amongst the 18 rowers on board were Olympic medallists Sir Steve Redgrave and Sir Matthew Pinsent, this craft was accompanied by many other smaller rowing boats. The lead boat was charged with setting the pace at about four knots, nothing to all the powered boats, but no mean feat for all the rowers who had to keep the pace for the whole seven miles, from Albert Bridge to Tower Bridge, of the pageant. Once all the rowing boats had passed, the vessel carrying the Queen, The Spirit of Chartwell, left its moorings at Cadogan Pier and joined the procession. More than a thousand vessels of all sizes took part, these included some of the little ships that had played a part in the rescue of troops from the beaches at Dunkirk in 1940; a boat carrying eight specially cast bells, the peals of which were answered by bells from churches along the route; ten boats that carried musicians and choirs from all over the country. It is thought that over twenty thousand people sailed along in all the vessels during the pageant which took about four hours to complete. Many more thousands braved the rain and lined the banks of the river, whilst millions watched on television in the comfort of their own homes. The Queen’s barge moored up again so that the royal party could watch the rest of the steamers, tugs, pleasure craft, dragon boats and kayaks pass by. The final boat with musicians on board halted to give a short performance; it carried members of the London Philharmonic Orchestra and the Royal College of Music Chamber Choir. They played a nautical tune that was seen to be being enjoyed by both the Queen and the Duchess of Cornwall. One of my all-time favourite screen moments was in The African Queen when diamond-in-the-rough Charlie Allnut (Humphrey Bogart) and stuffy-spinster Rose Sayer (Katharine Hepburn) succeed in sailing down the Ulanga River into Lake Victoria and sinking the German gunship Louisa. Along the way they overcome storms, German artillery, rapids, swarms of insects and even leeches, by the time they get to the lake they realise that they have fallen deeply in love. Despite the sound of the story-line, to my mind this is one of the greatest on-screen love-stories in the history of film. So ends my little sojou into stories with rivers as their central characters – hope you enjoyed it!

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