Speed for a Dated Technology: Rowing Boats and High-Tech in the 19th and 20th Centuries

At the end of the 18th century an activity, previously performed by slaves and prisoners in the Mediterranean Sea, became an upper-class sport in England. It was so fashionable that it was among the first English sports to be adopted on the European continent. Due to subsequent technical improvements and new techniques of rowing, rowers became the fastest manpowered persons on water. This paper examines the mutual interaction between rowing and technology by exploring the application of high-tech materials and methods to traditional technologies in the case of competitive rowing. The main emphasis is on technology transfer into boat building, and how oarsmen and boat builders responded to these the high-tech developments.