Interview with Hanlan.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume I, Issue 46, 27 September 1887, Page 4

Interview with Hanlan.

Hanlan, passed through Auckland en route to Sydney, where he is proceeding to go into training tor ni match with Beach for the ship of the world and a stake or The contest is to take place on t.^ e " e " | pean Biver on the 29th November - next , - Hanlan seemed in good health spirits, though he had been suffering from mabde-mer. During the day he drove round the city and suburbs with some friends, and visited several acquaintances whom he had made in Australia and on his former visit to Auckland. In conversation with a Herald rep. tesentative shortly before the departure of the mail steamer, concerning the approaching match and the relative merits of the great oarsmen of the day, Hanlan remarked: “ Not one of the American oarsmen, Gaudaur included has any business with William Beach. I can, when myself, beat them all, but I would not like to say so about him. I might have won in our first contest if I had not been interfered with, but in the second match, I was fairly beaten. As regards the match, I know that I will do my best to win, and that Beach Will leave no stone unturned for the same purpose, and which will win 1 cannot say, but I hope to give him a big shaking-up for it. I know what sort of an Australian muscle he has, and he has the heart of a lion. I had heard nothing until I came to Auckland about a projected match between Edward Trickett and myself, but if my old friend wants to have a race, I do not see any objection to its being arranged. 1 cannot tell yet who will be my trainer or where I will put up during my preparation in Sydney. I had intended to bring a young man as a trainer with me from America, but at the last minute he could not get away. As to how long I shall remain in Australia, that depends alogether upon circiimblances, but I shall probably have a go at some of them in some of their big

regattas, of which I hear there are several coming off. There is one thing I would like contradicted, and which! intend to do in Sydney when I get there, that is, the statements made in the Australian Press that I have said I was badly treated by Beach while in Australia. I never said so nor thought it. When I was in .Sydney they treated me well all the time. 1 wished to row Beach when he was in England, but he thought I had come over too late in the season, and said “no,” and 1 said no more about it. The fact that I have come out to Australia again to row him proves that I was in earnest when I challenged him there ; but he said ‘No,’ then, and that he would row only in Australia, and I have to do it.” pj nu 'lan remarked upon the great improvemei?tt^at taken place in rowing during th* last five years, and that the "great guns’ oarsmen were, as a class, far superior to what they used to be. Speaking of racing skiffs, he said that formerly the boat was built, and the rower had to accommodate himself to it; “but now the boat is built to fit the oarsman the same as a pair of boots are.” Hanlan had with him on board the Zealatldia the skiff in which he intends to race Beach. It is a shell of 31 feet long, by 10| inches wide at the centre, its depth being 6 inches in the centre and 3 at the bow, and it weighs 271bs. As the last whistle of the steamer sounded, the great oarsman was the centre of a circle of friends, who wished him goodbye and success in his big match.

“ Pendragon," in the London tleferee used to be very severe on Trickett and Beach, but he has turned over a new leaf, and this is how he refers to Hanlan, who used to be with him the “ white-headed boy ” After a conversation with the shining lights, vou come to the conclusion that col. fusion among them must be very nearly impossible, because these sculler J dd' so hate and despise one another. Business is business, however, ail 4 you cannot point to oue straight race a year in which they take part. When the tribe were here last year they, as Usual, abused each other most liberally. Everyone came in for a copious share, but Hanlan was the Benjamin of the party. His messes in the way of ar* rangements were ten times bigger than his brethren’s, according to the latter’s unanimous chorus of deprecation and accusation. Every man’s hand or tongue was against him ; and if anyone of the fraternity was more bitter than the rest in denouncing the exchampion as a played-out impostor, Jacob Gaudaur was that exception. That was singular, because, curiously enough the chief charge brought by the other champions again Gaudaur, or Godder as he was styled, was that he and Hanlan worked together to fool the public. The force[of|the attack made an impression on me at time that I heard of it, because it seemed to point to Hanlan’sbeing better as a sculler than some of us fancied. You see that a partnership between him and Gaudaur would not be particularly offensive to their contemporaries and rivals unless the pair held command of the market between them. The evident jealousy meant that the outsiders would oust the firm if they saw how to perform that operation. The firms existence as a going concern showed that it mastered the situation.”