Waterford News 7 September 1849
NAVAL ENGAGEMENT - ABBEYSIDE
The
gentlemen of this town having subscribed a few pounds for the amusement of the
inhabitants generally, to cheer up the drooping and desponding spirits of a
people surrounded by every sort of epidemic disease, and most particularly by
the ravages which Cholera has made, on the 2nd inst hundreds of persons
assembled to behold the aquatic sports. The Margaret
and Victoria were the boats owned by
Glanville and Rawley.
They were manned by
the most experienced of the Dungarvan and Abbeyside boatmen. The wager was £6
to the first boat at the flag-staff. The shot being the signal for the starting
- cheers and hurras of the many hundreds assembled gave additional impulse and
vigour to the exertions of the brawny rowers: but all their supposed fun and
merriment was soon changed into bitterness and disappointment by the stupidity
of one of the Abbeyside boatman, who violated the rules laid down by crossing the
course marked out by the judges. It was the cause of a great kick-up among the
belligerent powers contending for the superiority of the sea.
