John MacGregor (sportsman)

John MacGregor (1825 – 1892), nicknamed "Rob Roy" after a renowned relative, was a Scottish explorer, travel writer and philanthropist. He is generally credited with the development of the first sailing canoes and with popularising canoeing as a middle class sport in Europe and the United States. He founded the English Royal Canoe Club (RCC) in 1866.

MacGregor worked as a barrister in London, and was an accomplished artist and drew all the art in his travel books.

Early life

The son of General Sir Duncan MacGregor, he was introduced to canoeing in the course of a trip to the United States and Canada in 1858. .

Boat designer

MacGregor was a champion marksman but turned to boating when a railroad accident left him unable to hold a rifle steady. The boat he designed was 'double-ended', (modeled after Indian canoes), but built in Lambeth of lapstrake oak planking, decked in cedar covered with rubberized canvas with an open cockpit in the center. It measured 15 feet long, 28 inches wide, nine inches deep and weighed 80 pounds (36 kg) and was designed y to be used with a double-bladed paddle. He named the boat "Rob Roy" after the celebrated Scottish outlaw of the same name, to whom he was related.

During the 1860s, he had at least seven similar boats built and he sailed and paddled them in Europe, the Baltic and the Middle East.

Writings

In 1866, he published "A Thousand Miles in the Rob Roy Canoe", which popularised the design and, more importantly, the concept: "in walking you are bounded by every sea and river, and in a common sailing-boat you are bounded by every shallow and shore; whereas, ...a canoe [can] be paddled or sailed, or hauled, or carried over land or water".

The book was internationally successful; with subsequent books and public appearances, it earned MacGregor more than ten thousand pounds. Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson's 1876 voyage by canoe through the canals and rivers of France and Belgium, published in 1878 as "An Inland Voyage", used "Rob Roy" canoes.

Death

Died 1892 in Bournemouth. [A History of the County of Hampshire: Volume 5 (1912), pp. 133-37]

Published works

*"Three Days in the East" (1850)
*"Our Brothers and Cousins: A Summer Tour in Canada and the States" (1859)
*"A Thousand Miles in the Rob Roy Canoe" (1866)
*"The Voyage Alone In The Yawl 'Rob Roy"' (1867)
*"The Rob Roy on the Baltic" (1867)
*"The Rob Roy on the Jordan, Nile, Red sea, & Gennesareth, &c" (1869)

References

External links

* [http://www.archive.org/details/brotherscousins00macgrich "Our Brothers and Cousins: A Summer Tour in Canada and the States"] . London, Seeley, Jackson, and Halliday, 1859. First edition, illustrated. From Internet Archive.
* [http://www.archive.org/details/thousandmilesinr00macguoft "A Thousand Miles in the Rob Roy Canoe on Rivers and Lakes of Europe"] . London: S. Low and Marston, 1866. First edition, illustrated. From Internet Archive.
* [http://www.ibiblio.org/eldritch/jm/TM.HTM "A Thousand Miles in the Rob Roy Canoe"] , text.
* [http://www.friend.ly.net/~dadadata/DD_Eric/baltic.html "The Rob Roy in the Baltic"] , from "Harper's New Monthly Magazine", 1867.
* [http://books.google.com/books?id=-G0BAAAAQAAJ "The Rob Roy on the Jordan, Nile, Red sea, & Gennesareth, &c"] . London: John Murray, Albemarle Street 1874. Fourth edition, illustrated. From Google Books.
* [http://books.google.com/books?id=zmEDAAAAQAAJ "The Voyage Alone In The Yawl 'Rob Roy"'] . London: S. Low and Marston, 1880. Fourth edition, illustrated. From Google Books.
* [http://books.google.com/books?id=fyUJAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA98&dq=%22a+thousand+miles+in+the+rob+roy+canoe%22 "Rob Roy"] , biography in "Dictionary of National Biography", 1897. From Google Books.
*Hodder, Edwin (1894). [http://www.archive.org/details/johnmacgregorrob00hodduoft "John MacGregor"] , a biography. London Hodder Bros. From Internet Archive.
* [http://www.seakayakermag.com/1999/aug99/johnmacgreg.htm "John MacGregor: A Victorian-era Paddler"] Sea Kayaker Magazine 1999 by Brian Kologe