Sea kayaking history
Early 19th Century paddling
It has been a while since I posted partly because I was fairly drained after my summer trip. The 70 counties of England and Wales, in 70 consecutive days, to the highest point and paddle 10 nautical miles in each of the counties. It was completed on the day I identified 12 months earlier, very satisfying. The aim was to raise £7,000 but I actually finished having raised more than £10,500. I think I am just starting to gather my thoughts and reflect on my journey and I will share those in the next couple of weeks.
Since returning to Jersey I have been doing some paddling, some coaching (which I have absolutely loved, renewed enthusiasm) and some bits and pieces of research. I thought that I would share some pretty amazing facts about early sea kayaking, a few of which I was aware of and others, which are completely new.
I was reading through some of the digitised newspapers from the Societe Jersiaise from the early part of the 19th century. I had a starting point, as a number of years ago Doug Ford, who was the Education Officer, at the time sent me a copy of a page from “The Jersey Loyalist” for the 15th May 1830. It concerned a certain Mr Canham from London who had paddled his canoe from Cherbourg to Alderney.
The article states that the canoe was much like an “Icelander’s caiak”. It had a wooden frame covered in tarred canvas. About 10 feet long and 2 feet wide it had extra stability with inflatable bladders fixed on each gunwale, possibly the first sponsons. One end had a receptacle for provisions whilst at the other end was a receptacle for congreve rockets, which will be explained further later in the article. He was protected from the spray by a cover of tarred canvas (spray deck).
As he approached Alderney a local, who witnessed his approach, ran off in fear. The journalist who wrote the article stated that the canoe was on display at the Three Tuns Inn near South Pier but didn’t say on which Island. It took quite a bit of searching but this week I discovered that the Priaulx Library had a very old photograph, from the 1840’s, of the sea front in Guernsey and there was the Three Tuns Inn by South Pier. So he had paddled from Alderney to Guernsey, a trip which is rarely done today due to the distance and the tides.
The hint as to what might happen next is contained in the sentence “….we are told intends proceeding hence to Jersey, and from hence to Portsmouth, in this frail bark.” For a number of years that seemed to be the end of the trail until a couple of days ago (11th November) when I discovered the next part of the story.
The Jersey Loyalist newspaper of the 30th August 1830 stated that a Mr Canning had arrived in Jersey on the 19th August, crossing from Guernsey. I can only assume that this is the same person who arrived in Guernsey as Mr Canham. As an engineer he had developed some life saving devices, the congreve rockets, for use at sea which he was hoping to demonstrate to the maritime audience in Jersey. This is where the trail goes cold at the present time.
For many the acknowledged father of modern recreational paddling is John MacGregor, an English barrister who was introduced to canoeing during a trip to North America in 1858. His first book “A Thousand Miles in the Rob Roy Canoe” was published in 1865. In 1866 he helped establish the first canoe club in the world, the Royal Canoe Club in the Star and Garter Hotel in Richmond. On the 3rd August 1880 he was one of 24 keen canoeists who met on Lake George, New York and formed the American Canoe Association, an organisation which obviously still exists today.
I am continuing to research Mr Canham or Mr Channing to try and discover what else this adventurous paddler may have contributed to the development of recreational paddling in the first half of the 19th Century.
For those who are unaware of the geography of the Channel Islands these are the distances of the paddles that he is believed to have completed:
Cherbourg to Alderney = 24 nautical miles
Alderney to Guernsey = 22 nautical miles
Guernsey to Jersey = 25 nautical miles
Even with modern equipment and navigational aids these are challenging paddles through waters with significant tidal flows, which not that many kayakers have completed.