Records missed — not missing records — show the valid lineage of the St. John’s Regatta
Although no evidence exists to show 1818 as the starting date of the St. John’s Regatta, everyone knows its 200th anniversary is being marked and celebrated in 2018.
Go figure.
Although there is undisputable evidence showing the Regatta was not a continuous yearly event, officials and media boldly refer to 2018 as the 200th running of the Regatta. Baffling.
The simple truth is neither assertion is true!
Yet the Royal St. John’s Regatta has a compelling history made up of facts and truth, which contain all one needs to know to represent it accurately.
At the source of the centurylong confusion over the starting of the Regatta is not missing documents, but documents missed by researchers.
In 2002, when the Royal St. John’s Regatta Committee announced that new evidence had come to light that proved the annual Regatta started on St. John’s Harbour in 1818, it had the effect of showing the Regatta to be eight years older than thought.
That new evidence, accepted and endorsed by the Committee, was that there had been a tradition of harbour regattas based on the celebration of royal anniversaries.
The 1818 Mercantile Journal clearly showed that the rowing contest on St. John’s Harbour that year was held, along with cricket matches, horse races and a 21-gun salute, to celebrate the anniversary of King George III.
The evidence presented was quoted from Hall of Fame records and stated, “This would appear to be the first such event held on an organized basis and, again, it took place on the Harbour of St. John’s.”
However, archival records do show that it was not part of any annual event. The records confirm that although King George IV was crowned King in 1821, no regattas were held from 1818 to 1823.
The beginning of our annual Regatta
The Royal St. John’s Regatta actually began in 1824 or 1825 as a two-day event with a rowing match on Quidi Vidi Lake on the first day, followed on the second day with a sailing match on St. John’s Harbour.
By 1890, one older fan — no doubt uncertain of the exact year it began — recalled to the best of his recollections that the Regatta was held on the harbour before moving it to Quidi Vidi.
The Octogenarian, writing in The Evening Telegram in 1886, recalled that the first Regatta was held, “Somewhere in the 1830s, about 1832” and then mistakenly suggested that the first races were held on the harbour.
The simple truth is there was no annual Regatta Day on the harbour prior to the founding of the two-day regatta at Quidi Vidi in the 1820s.
There were unrelated contests in 1810, 1816 and 1818, none of which were part of any traditional regatta.
During the first half of the 20th century, with very little recorded history coming forward, the Regatta Committee drifted from one starting date to another, until Telegram sports writer and historian Jack Rabbitts caught everyone’s attention with the publication of his research findings.
He revealed that he had found proof that the Regatta started in 1824. It is important to note that Rabbitts had earlier found the 1826 record, which resulted in the starting date being changed from 1828 to 1826.
When he died, the 1824 proof disappeared. However, he had shared his research with two prominent sports figures who made it public in the mid-1960s.
British records researched
The first record explicitly showing that a committee to organize an annual regatta is found in 1826 and describes it as an annual event. Records clearly limit the founding of the St. John’s Regatta to one of two dates: 1824 and 1825.
Frank Graham, with good reason, believed that the committee should recognize 1825 as the first Regatta. He based his view on the evidence in the 1826 record, which claimed it was already and annual event.
Rabbitts, only after taking his research to the British Museum in London, disregarded 1818 as the starting date for the St. John’s Regatta. He revealed his discovery in several pages of Regatta history published in The Telegram in the mid-1940s.
That revelation was followed by official recognition of 1826 as the starting date for the Royal St. John’s Regatta. Some years later, he made another discovery in which he showed that the regatta had actually started in 1824.
On July 18, 1960, Telegram Sports Editor Bob Badcock revealed that Gordon Kiss, a collector of sports history, had brought the 1824 claim to his office.
When Rabbitts passed away, his files were lost, stolen or tossed out. However, 1824 would be a likely date as the first Regatta because we have the fact that in 1824, Britain officially recognized Newfoundland as a colony which would have likely inspired marking the occasion with the beginning of an annual Regatta.
Graham, the Newfoundland sports archivist in his book “Ready, Set, Go!” came to the same conclusion, as did Rabbits, in disregarding 1818 as the start of our regatta.
Like Graham and Rabbits, I expanded and added to their research of that period repeatedly and arrived at the same conclusion each time. It’s interesting to note that all three of us ignored the repeated claims of missing records and sought out records missed.
In 2002, when the Regatta Committee accepted mistaken information to recognize 1818 as the regatta’s starting date, I published a 1,300 word feature in The Telegram’s Regatta Day supplement disputing their action.
Meanwhile, the added feature relating to the history of regattas and contests on the harbour, when combined, serve to round out the conclusive proof that 1818 is not the starting date of the Royal St. John’s Regatta.
Twenty years ago, Don Johnson was concerned over the emerging error claiming the Regatta had been held annually without interruption and was reviewing the exact number of Regattas held to that date.
He posed the question, “Do you have the dates we did not have regattas? I know we officially started in 1826 and we are now (in 1998) so this is the 172nd anniversary of the regatta, but there certainly has not been 172 Regattas. Do you have the exact number of regattas which were actually held?”
I replied that I did and I shared my research with him. He wrote, “Whether you like it or not, you are either officially or unofficially our, the Regatta Committee, historian, and I look to you for help.”
Since that time I have a complete record of the actual number of regattas held, and when it began. Don Johnson was among the most cooperative committee members when it came to seeking out regatta history.
Mike Harrington wrote about preserving history
In 1955, Evening Telegram Editor Mike Harrington made an observation that is applicable to the unfortunate way Regatta history was side-tracked over the past 100 years when historic facts faded from public memory. Harrington stated:
“Yes, the stories about our annual Regatta are colourful and exciting. There has been humour and tragedy, good sportsmanship, fine rowing ability, gallantry and chivalry, all displayed there at various times. As the years go by and imagination throws its varied hues over the ancient picture, it is hard sometimes to know where fact goes out and fiction enters, where history stops and legends begins. Yet, there remains room for preserving both factual history and legends and both are needed to foster the continuation and popularity of the Royal St. John’s Regatta.”