the first prize for first-class skiffs was also a young man from Hastings named Morton.
At the Eastbourne Regatta the only race that was open to the coast was for first-class four-oared galleys. The first boat was the Lord Warden, of Hastings, the second, the Widgeon of Newhaven, and the third, the Blink Bonny, of Southwick. See also opposite page.
At the Hastings Regatta on the 21st of August, the great race of the day was for 4-oared first-class galleys, the prizes of which were £15, £8 and £5. Ten boats competed, hailing variously from Brighton, Dover, Southampton, Margate, Newhaven, Ramsgate Folkestone and Hastings. It was a very exciting race, but the Lord Warden, manned by its redoubtable crew, scored another triumph, by reaching the goal several lengths in advance of the Anne, of Brighton, which came in second, whilst the Ariel, of Dover, was third. This regatta was to have come off on the 6th of August but was unavoidably postponed for a fortnight, in consequence of unfavourable weather as previously intimated by the meteorologist of the “St. Leonards Gazette”. This disappointment was, perhaps, more keenly felt by the Committee than by other persons; for, not only had they been unfortunate in the choice of day on that occasion, but the same thing had happened to them several years in succession, notwithstanding that the said journal had repeatedly pointed out the chosen periods of maximum spring tides as the least likely for a suitable sea. In its comments on the postponement for a fortnight when the same lunar influence on the tides would recur, the same journal said “Let us hope – and we do hope, rather than believe – that the postponement for a fortnight will prove judicious.” The day, however, came round, and for which the weather forecast was “Threatening for wind”. Not only was the wind too strong, but the sea was also too unquiet for skiffs and galleys to venture upon it. A couple of sailing matches were therefore all that could be attempted until the following day; when the rowing matches came off, and when, as before stated, the first prize for galleys was carried off by the crew of the Lord Warden. After the first postponement the following imaginary dialogue appeared in the Hastings News:-
“’Twas past 12, a.m., and all solemn and still,
I heard the chimes echo o’er valley and hill;
Now loudly and bold, then steal silent away,
To tell o’er the earth of the birth of the day.
Lo! from the south-west comes a loud rumbling sound,
And as it approaches the sea-waves rebound,
Till rides the white foam on the crest of each wave;
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