ST. JOHN'S, N.L. — This week will mark the eighth time in the past century and a half that the Royal St. John’s Regatta has been cancelled by what might be termed a disaster or world events.
In 1874, the races weren't held due to rain. They were cancelled again in 1892 because of the great fire that swept through St. John’s in July of that year, destroying most of the city’s east end, including the downtown commercial area, and leaving over 11,000 people homeless.
The races were called off for four consecutive years (1915-18) during the First World War. The war had started in 1914, but just about a week before the Regatta that year. Soon afterward, the shores of Quidi Vidi instead became home to the tents of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment.
War again led to a cancellation in 1940, the first full year of the Second World War, but the races were held for the remaining years of that conflict (1941-45), with the participants’ numbers buoyed by the American and Canadian servicemen who were stationed in Newfoundland during that time.
Races had also been cancelled from 1861 to 1870, but not because of war or natural disaster, but because of political unrest.
According to the history project on the Royal St. John’s Regatta’s official website, riots broke out after a national election in May 1861, with the result being the calling out of troops, the reading of the riot act and an order to fire into the crowd of people, leading to the deaths of at least two people and the wounding of several others. Still, the riots continued in St. John’s and elsewhere in the colony, and come August of that year, the colony's governor, Alexander Bannerman, officially announced the Regatta would not go ahead and that he was withdrawing his patronage of the event.
The absence of the Regatta continued for a decade until 1871, when races resumed under the auspices of a much more active Regatta Committee.
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