The Ancient Mariners......

A "Charley Story" By Guy Harper:

"During the summer of 1988, the Seattle Yacht Club organized a member men's rowing group that had the use of two light weight fours. We decided to hire a coach--who thought that the new way of rowing was to square the blades prior to entry. This did not set well with me as we used only the "Pocock stroke" in my four years ending in 1954 at the University of Washington.

Being more agitated and concerned regarding the SYC coach's demand for square blades, I decided to call Stan Pocock--our coach when we won the Freshman IRA race in 1951. Stan understood very well the situation and advised me to call Charley McIntyre--who I also hadn't seen for some 34 years. We met for lunch at the Seattle Yacht Club one afternoon and discussed "bringing back" the Pocock stroke--and decided the only way to do that was to start our own rowing club. This meant digging up some of the old UW rowers in order to establish that interest.

At that very magical moment, who walks into the SYC lunch room but Bill Cameron--who we also had not seen for years. We posed the situation to him and he was thrilled at the possibilities. He said he would call Rod Johnson and see if he was interested. Then Charley said that he would call Emmett Watson to see if he would meet with Stan Pocock and us and possibly do an article regarding the formation of such a club and ask for those interested oarsmen to "apply".

That evening, I related this wonderful turn of events to my wife, Pam. She thought that sounded great and said, "You ought to call yourselves the Ancient Mariners!" And so that name stuck.

The Emmett Watson article was published in the Seattle Times which resulted in ex-rowers coming in from all over the country--again, a magical moment.

And so the Ancient Mariner Rowing Club thrives today, mainly from the efforts of one, Charley McIntyre. Thanks, Charley--you have made many happy racing and personal memories since that meeting, twenty years ago! Your memory and associated wonderful stories will live in our hearts forever--and obviously get better as time goes by--along with those memorable races and practices we rowed together!"

Guy Harper
16714 31st Ave SW
Burien, WA 98166

206 242 4144

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

By Ancient Mariner, Jim Buckley:

Charley recruited me to the Ancient Mariners Rowing Club - or more aptly allowed me to drop by and row with them - one day at Green Lake in 1991.We got to know each other, watched rowing videos at his house when we lived in Madison Park and Charley, more than anyone, filled me in on rowing history from his days with Jack Kelly to the present. Charley also was always encouraging even to toward us "raw" Port Townsend rowers. There's a picture of him encouraging Lorna, one of our rowers, at the Everett Salmon Row in 2003 at http://www.pocockclassic.com/McIntyre.html. We will miss Charley.