The way we were

We tend to assume that bad manners and loutish behaviour were invented by the Mods and Rockers in the 1950s, but it has ever been thus.
In Victorian times yobs threatened to close Henley Royal Regatta. Thousands of Londoners went up by train and hired boats, so many that at one time it was said you could cross the river dryshod by leaping from punt to punt.
Annually through the 1890s W.B Woodgate, Vanity Fair's forthright rowing correspondent, raved about the chaos on the river. Here is a selection of his remarks, dating from 1892 to 1898:

“There were, if possible, more small craft than ever, and worse handled than ever, running amuck and quite devoid of watermanship. . . . It is intolerable that any cripple of a Cockney should be let loose for the day to do more damage that he is worth by incompetency to handle a common tub....
[Most] are largely made up of bounders and counter-jumpers on the spree. These creatures coolly tie up and loll in their boats, blocking the passage and enjoying the nuisance which their lubberly conduct produces....
The incompetence, and in many instances truculence, of non-rowing club cripples in the crowds on the reach becomes more marked each year. It would not be a bad idea for the Thames Conservancy to place some limit upon the presence of these adventurers....
“Keel to the current” is a maxim with all habitués when moving or halting; but duffers think nothing of sprawling broadside to the stream, blocking passage, and thus tangling a dozen or more passers-by in one knot of confusion....
"Then, again, many of these loafers are devoid of good taste, as well as of watermanship. Thus a brace of pariahs deliberately moored their punt, with ryepecked poles, in the middle of the Berks side-channel....and then lay down and amused themselves with watching the confusion which their obstruction occasioned. Unfortunately, there was no specific by-law to meet and punish this act of rowdyism this year....
One of the freaks of the normal Cockney on the spree at Henley is to lie in the bow of a progressing boat armed with a boat-hook, and to prod off with the spike all approaching craft, enjoying the fun of spearing timbers and ripping up carvels. There were at least half-a-dozen such mischief-makers on the course this year....
“Punt paddling” should be stopped during Regatta hours. A laden punt, thus propelled, cannot be “held” up sharply -- especially by the class of cripples who indulge in the trick -- when collision is imminent (unlike a row boat); it runs on like a battering-ram, and its iron-shod shelving prow sweeps destructively over gunwales and rowlocks of legitimate craft. It is a form of navigation painfully on the increase, because it commends itself to the unskilfulness of the tyro, and can be learned in minutes, while it takes weeks to learn to punt and months to row decently.

The solution was simple. In 1899 floating booms were chained between the posts that mark the regatta course to prevent the oiks mooring to them. People still hired boats in incredible numbers, however, as the picture above shows - it was taken in 1914. Nowadays race-watchers come by car and the urge to get out on the water seems to have abated.

Thanks to Wikipedia for the information and the image.