CLASSIC REVISITED: The Rob Roy Canoe
by Brand Frentz
A Review of A Thousand Miles in the Rob Boy Canoe on Rivers and Lakes of Europe, J. MacGregor, 1866.
If you love history and the surprises it can offer, you will want to know that in 1865 an Englishman took a "canoe" trip around Europe, came home and wrote it up, and set off a craze that swept Europe and ultimately spread back to North America, where the canoe idea came from. In the late 1800s in America more canoes were seen among Eastern city folk seeking fresh air recreation than in the Northwoods itself.
John MacGregor was a wealthy 40-year-old Englishman of Scots origin, with the usual gentleman’s background of extensive travel for pleasure, when he conceived the idea of taking a European trip by canoe. He came up with it as a novelty, but before he had gone far he decided that canoeing was better than other ways of travel. And when his book about the trip became a best seller, he suddenly found himself recognized as a paddling guru and the father of a long and happy tradition of canoe travel.
But it all arises from the trip itself. First the boat. Although MacGregor called it a "canoe," it was really more of a kayak. He had it built in England to his own design: 15 feet long, 28 inches beam, 9 inches deep, made of oak with polished cedar decks fore and aft of an open cockpit. He used a seven-foot double-bladed paddle. His only luggage was a bag one foot square and six inches deep, and he had a small sail that he used when conditions were right. The "canoe" weighed 80 pounds. The word "portage" does not occur in the book, because he didn’t do it. He usually hired a horse and cart to carry the boat from place to place, and took the train for longer connections.
MacGregor put in at London in July 1865. He paddled down the Thames, took a boat across the English Channel to Belgium, rode a train to the first river, the Meuse. There he launched the Rob Roy and floated down to Holland, where the river’s name changes to Maas. From Maastricht he took the train to Cologne, Germany, paddled a couple of days on the Rhine and decided he didn’t like upstream travel. After a brief paddle on the Main River he took the train into the Black Forest, then hired a horse and cart to carry his boat and gear (he himself walked) over Rothenhaus Pass to the headwaters of the Danube. Down the Danube he went for several days, watching it grow from a mountain stream to a broad river at the city of Ulm. Another train trip took him to Lake Constance in Switzerland, whose outlet is the Rhine again. He followed ithe river to Schaffhausen Falls, a barrier he did not challenge. Short rail and horse connections took him to the Swiss lakes of Zurich, Zug, and Lucerne. The last is the origin of the Reuss River, where MacGregor faced a major rapids (for him, at least). This river runs into the Aar, which joins the Rhine once more. Down he went. To complete his trip MacGregor crossed the Vosges Mountains in northeastern France and followed the Moselle, the Marne, and finally the Seine into Paris. He spent three months on his trip.
It was not a camping trip. MacGregor traveled from town to town and stayed in hotels. He reports that he caused a sensation every time when he emerged from the river with his strange craft, hired a driver, and they marched to the best accommodations in town! A lively crowd usually followed. He enjoyed the attention and often hammed it up for them. There were lots of dealings with trains and horse carts to get his boat hauled form place to place, and many of them were humorous — no one had ever seen such a boat before!
The heart of the book is the paddling experience. MacGregor enjoyed himself and describes it well. As he emphasizes, the beauty of the Swiss Alps or Germany’s Black Forest is even more impressive seen from the water. And he found many river stretches where he had complete solitude — in the middle of Europe! He tells us again and again how good it is to travel under your own power beneath the open sky, and shares the feeling of a well-deserved rest after a hard day’s paddling.
He was warned that his little boat could not survive the Reuss Rapids in Switzerland. As he approached he heard the "dull, heavy roar," and then he saw the "well-known wave," which he estimated to be six feet high. He plunged ahead, the bow went under and "the mass of solid water struck me with a heavy blow...taking away my breath." But he popped out, still upright, "panting with a tired thrilling of nervousness and gladness strangely mingled." A lithograph of MacGregor cutting through this wave is the frontispiece of the book. It captures his dashing attitude as well as his stiff-backed English posture.
MacGregor wrote the book 135 years ago in England, another culture at another time. And yet, unfamiliar as his complex, somewhat formal writing sounds, it is clear and enjoyable to a contemporary reader. He uses words that we have forgotten, and he uses them in a polite way that is long gone, but it all works to create a friendly, enjoyable book.
Getting a copy of the book to read could be fun too. Of course, it’s out of print. It might be found through used book dealers. But if you can use the Internet there may be another way. The book appears to be in the public domain. Therefore you can get e-copies from various sources on the Internet, for $6-15 or you might find a free source. In August 2001 I was lucky to find that it was possible to download the book free from Eldritch Press at eldred.ne.mediaone.net/. In mid-September they went off the air, but who knows what is still out there. Good luck!
