the.com/scull
A boat where you face backwards, rowing blind toward a future you can't see.
means To propel a small narrow boat using either a pair of light oars or a single oar worked over the stern — or the boat or oar used to do so.
from A word of murky waters: 'scull' surfaces in late Middle English meaning a kind of oar, but where it rowed in from nobody is sure. Its origin is genuinely uncertain. It's a separate word from 'skull' (the bone) and from 'scull' as a shoal of fish — homonyms drifting in the same harbor, unrelated by blood.
- oar count
- Two oars per rower, one in each hand
- speed
- Olympic singles hit nearly 14 mph
- steering
- Rowers steer by glancing over a shoulder
- weight
- Racing shells weigh as little as 30 pounds
- homophone
- Not skull, though both demand a strong head
henley royal regatta — annual rowing event on the thames since 1839, features single and double sculls
world rowing championships — annual event with men's and women's single scull medal events since 1974
olympic single sculls — men's and women's single scull races at every summer olympics since 1900