The Annual Illustrated Catalogue 1871 and Oarsman’s Manual

Published by Waters, Balch & Company, Troy NY

Bill Miller

The Oarsman’s Manual is probably the single most impressive effort to capture rowing information from the middle 19th Century. It was so massive that no other edition was ever attempted.

Waters, Balch & Company developed and manufactured paper boats. Yes, shells made in a mold by applying paper and impregnating it with a shellac type substance, much the way shells are made today with fiber material (carbon/glass) and impregnated with resin (epoxy/polyester). They were the rage in and around the 1870-80s. This book compiles a huge amount of information and also promotes the virtues of paper over wooden shells.

The book is very rare because it cost $6.00, very expensive in 1871 so sales were few. All the ones I’ve inspected are all complimentary issues. There is a section showing all the rowing clubs in the U.S. and Canada. WB&Co offered a complimentary copy to each club submitting information. The inside leaf then was stamped “Presented To:”, the club or person’s name hand written followed by “with the compliments of” and hand signed “Waters Balch & Co.” A few exist in private collections and some of the college libraries that existed in 1871 have a copy. Mystic Seaport Museum library has a copy.

The book is large – quarto (9.5″x 12″). There are 494 pages with some fold out pages that show the lines for the WB&Co shells. Other pages have detailed drawings of boat parts. Each page has a red line border and outside vertical borders are paragraph/topic summaries.

Not only is the Oarsman’s Manual very impressive but it is chock full of details. It even has boathouse plans in case you needed a design. It is undeniably the greatest research source at a time when rowing was exploding throughout America.

Sample pages below: