In 1586, one Richard Ferris arrived in Bristol, having, for reasons best known to himself, rowed from London. He was greeted as a hero. The city records have an entry: "...with the Waites of the said Citie playing orderly in honour of our rare and daungerous attempt achiued [of Richard ferris]."
In Bristol: Records of Early English Drama, edited Mark C. Pilkinton University of Toronto Press. lxxxvi, 384, is described "an impromptu procession of local musicians and men carrying a rowboat `round about the Citie' in honour of one Richard Ferris, who had arrived the previous day from London in that same rowboat... Ferris's account of the procession in his honour is supplemented by a celebratory sonnet written by one of the civic waits."
click here for a poem by Ben Johnson which refers to Ferris' adventure (and to Will Kemp's morris dance to Norwich).