und kein Hund

31 August 2018

By Göran R Buckhorn

It was with great pleasure Ralf-Peter Stumme of Germany read Chris Dodd’s series of Jerome K Jerome’ Three Men in a Boat.

Ralf-Peter Stumme, a member of Der Classic Boat Club e.V., Germany, is to be considered a typical ‘HTBS Type’. The readers of these pages might remember him as the winner of Chris Dodd’s quiz, which HTBS ran earlier in May. Of course, last week’s five-part series about Three Men in a Boat, which also sprung from the hands of rowing history master Dodd, was right up Ralf-Peter’s alley.

Ralf-Peter sent HTBS an e-mail with some images and wrote: ‘Maybe these can be a small addition to Chris Dodd’s wonderful series of Jerome K Jerome’s Three Men in a Boat. The book was once very popular in Germany, but now it’s a little forgotten. However, a German edition is still available.’ He continues, ‘For many decades, the book was official reading for those who took English lessons in Germany.’

Der Classic Boat Club e.V., located in Mülheim an der Ruhr, has a very interesting concept as a rowing club. The organisation is promoting rowing in historic rowing boats and aims to preserve the history of rowing and the tradition of building and maintaining wooden rowing craft.

According to Der Classic Boat Club’s website, the organisation plans to open a rowing museum. In its collection is one of the oldest surviving Renneiner, a racing single scull, from 1885 and other unique vessels. In the collection are also other rowing equipment, and literature, pictures and prints related to the sport. By opening a museum, the club hopes to create a cultural institution that showcases the history of rowing and boat building and provides a reference for the social environment of the sport from the 19th century to the present day.