Naughty bathers and genteel boaters

Rivers, boats and bathers rubbed shoulders in an awkward manner in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. If this Toronto Star article is to be believed bathing boys were an ongoing problem along Ontario’s Thames River;

Chatham’s Bad Boys
Swim out to Canoe Parties and Frighten the Ladies
Chatham, June 16—Canoeists on the Thames River have been caused a lot of annoyance lately by parties of boys.
 The youngsters have lately started a practice which is reported to be of a highly criminal nature, namely, some of their number go in bathing, and, when a canoe passes, they swim out to it and grasp hold of the sides, and in many cases nearly upset it. In fact, they make believe they are trying to do this, and have in many instances to be driven away by a strenuous use of the paddle on the heads of the recalcitrant boys. This has happened on several occasions, in one instance the canoe being loaded with young ladies and gentlemen the former of whom were nearly frightened into hysterics by the efforts of the lads.
 Pleasure seekers on the river have always put up with a certain amount of trouble with boys possessing evil inclinations but at present the matter has become unbearable. It is thought that it is high time that the boys were given a thorough lesson and convinced of the painful results that follow erring ways.[1]

The Thames wasn’t the only place where men and boys were up to no good. The Humber River routinely had encounters between bathers and boaters. A letter writer who went under the name “Decency” described in the Toronto Daily Star on Aug. 23, 1904 a recent Sunday stroll down by the Humber and the "number of men (?)" that he saw bathing there. The use of the question mark neatly illustrating his view on how their behaviour disrupted their status as men in his view.

“I observed about twenty well-matured men in swimming without bathing suits. While standing there a gasoline launch came up the river with two ladies and two gentlemen aboard. Some of the bathers, either from their absentmindedness or an inclination to vulgarly expose themselves, did not even get in the water, and, to make matters worse, the party in the launch were compelled to put up with such indecent remarks as “Come in and have a swim; the water’s fine,” and others unnecessary to mention to convince the police authorities that these baths should be compelled to do two things—equip themselves with bathing suits, and learn to mind their own business. In addition to the parties in the gasoline launch there were many other ladies and their escorts around the bathing place, and I think it would be in their interests if a policeman in plain clothes were commissioned to pay a visit to this spot.”[2]

Periodically the police did step in. In a June 25, 1905 article, The Toronto Daily Star noted that two constables visited the area and “secured a long list of names, some of which are incorrect, of boys swimming in the river without bathing suits. A large number of persons whose names were taken were naked, and others were using profane language to persons paddling up the river.”[3] It was an ongoing battle, however, and the day of the undressed bathers was far from over in the Humber River. A story the next year noted the York County Council was again receiving complaints of people in the Humber on Sunday not wearing their bathing suits.[4]

Class, gender, technology and the use of waterways and landscapes all collide neatly in these little vignettes. Had the bathers in Decency’s Humber scene minded their manners, kept quiet and ducked in the water when encountered by their betters they might have blended into the landscape and the people in the boats would have pretended to ignore them. But instead they used their naked bodies to take possession of the landscape and actively drew the attention of the boaters. In Decency’s mind they needed to be brought to heel.

---

[1] “Chatham’s Bad Boys,” The Toronto Daily Star, June 16, 1906, Page 5.

[2] “Nude Bathing in the Humber,” The Toronto Daily Star, Tuesday, Aug. 23, 1904, Page 4.

[3] “A Raid on the Humber Bathers,” The Toronto Daily Star, Monday, June 26, 1905, Page 1.

[4] “Severe Censure on South York Schools,” The Toronto Daily Star, Wednesday, June 13, 1906, Page 11.