THE OCEANIC MISSION IV
They Said of Winston Churchill, Not Since Francis Drake Had Such a Man Been on the River by Peter Stanford "Hoo-hoo-ha-hoo-hoo-oo!" T he wo rk- elder, mo re organic li fe-ways still flourish journey to their resting place inland at the ing watercraft crowding the jostled waters like fresh-faced flowers in the crannied family plot in Bladon, near his birthplace at of the London River were sal uting their wall, where the river's story is remembered. Blenheim . C hurchill's grave is marked by a own, the sweating teams of the Barge D rivThis day is the watermen's, and they simple stone carrying his name and dates, ing Race of 23 June 2001 . T he race is run have reclaimed the river as the active force 1874 to 1965-years of peril, trial and by "dumb" barges, which have no power it has been in the life of London. T he high endeavor in freedom 's cause. but a solitary oarsman, or fo r the race, two for mer Port of Lo ndon launch Havengore First Lord of the Admiral ry in World oarsmen who cannily wo rk 20-foot sweeps led the parade of honking watercraft. War I (in which office he incidentally sponto maneuver their bulky, hippopotamus- Aboard is H arry Marshall, Lord Mayor of sored the first tanks, which came to dominosed craft into favorable currents in the Westminster, wearing his golden chain of nate all battlefields) , he became Prime M intide flooding in fro m the North ister in 1940, in the wo rst days of Sea to make their way upstream . World War II, with the promise It's that swirling current that carthat all he could offer was "blood, ri es the barge- the swee ps, roil, tears and sweat"- that, and manned with watermen's savvy, the un rel en ting fight against Nazi just work the hulk into the best Germany, whose dominance he stream. No one knows how long rightly said threatened a new dark chis art has been practiced- quite age for mankind. possibly it runs back to the wild T urned out of office when vicCeltic watermen who brought tory was wo n, he returned as cargoes into the Roman ciry of Prime M inister in 195 1 to play a Londini um, some 2000 years ago. remarkable role in advocating reT he Londo n River watermen sistance to the Soviet ryranny of today may not be wild Celts, which presented another deadly but they are anything but tam e. threat to freedom , and , remarkT heir whoop ing sirens echoed The race over, a honking gaggle of working watercraft accompa- ably, urging moderation in puroff the fretted srone fro nts of nies the barges downstream through the heart of London, with suit of the Cold War (his phrase) official buildings reaching back D oggett's Watermen (in red) and the Queen's Waterman (in which helped assure that that to the days of George III and green), accompanying ~he Lo~d Mayor _o f Westmin~ter aboard struggle too was won, a quarter H avengore to see to fiur p lay m the ancient contest ;ust ended. furt h er, to t h e era w h en t h e century after his life ended, withAmerican plantations were a colony gov- office to salute the occasion. He trained out the to tal war which he devo ted his fi nal erned from chis ciry and connected to it by with the US Navy in Norfolk, Virginia, years to avert. chis waterway. T he horn blas ts kept up, as and can speak pretry good American when C hurchill was a Tory, and few wo rking ifa flight of wild geese we re paddling down called on. T here are a few colonials or ex- people voted fo r him or his parry. But at his colonials aboard: myself, as an American funeral, the dockworkers on the London the river. T heir honks echoed off the great brick searcher-out of history, and O wen Palmer River lowered the cargo booms of their warehouses of the 1800s, when this water- as a New Zealand entrepreneur, embarked cranes in spon ta neous salute to a man who way served as the aorta of the oceanic En- with his wife Sally Browne, as owners. had changed history for the better. T he glish-speaki ng comirywhich now embraces T hey bought the H avengore in 1996 when toas t among the watermen at the T hree the globe. Surely the most importan t cargo the 85-foot vessel was in ro ugh shape. D awes was: "T he long life is over- the carried down the river in all those years was Supported by a crew of volunteers the pair mission continues." It is the task of the the English language, recen tly character- restored the graceful launch to operating H avengore to carry that mission forward, a ized by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan condition and have given her a new mis- mission rooted, as we have seen, in the affections of the people C hurchi ll served. as humaniry's first common language-a sion, the subj ect of this report. 1 As the long, triumphant day ended, the language which was changed by the world as the ideas it carried did their part to ship's company repaired to the T hree Dawes Leadership in Time of N eed p ub in Gravesend, near the river mouth, ro Leadership will always be needed to adchange the wo rld. And the hooting echoed brazenly off rejoice in the day and reflect on that mis- vance freedom 's cause, and today amid a th e suave glass faces of the condos inhab- sion-which the watermen considered so new worldwide threat to civilization we ited by today's new-rich, too manyofwhom important that they placed the Havengore can appreciate the imaginative but to ugh hardly know and generally could care less at the head of their jubilant, water-churn- qual iry of C hurchi ll 's leadership, which carried him and the cause he served thro ugh about the amazing sto ry th at led to the ing parade. Havengore had served as the funeral difficult and sometimes painful choices. wealth and freedoms they enjoy. Amo ng T he hardest choice to make was the these rather faceless fro ntages nestle, here barge which carried the mortal remai ns of and there, pubs of notable antiquiry, where W inston Churchill on the first leg of the decision to attack the French fleet at MersSEA HISTORY 101 , SUMMER 2002
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