The Upper Boats comprise the ten-oared Monarch, and the two eights, Victory and Prince of Wales; the Lower Boats are more numerous, consisting of seven eights, which have characteristic names, such as Britannia, Dreadnought, Hibernia, and Defiance. Each of the Upper Boats has a distinctive colour just like any other school team, whereas all members of the Lower Boats wear the same cap.
At the head of the Eton wetbob world there reigns supreme the Captain of the Boats, who is always regarded in the eyes of a small Eton boy as next in importance only to the Prince of Wales and the Archbishop of Canterbury. He is captain of the Monarch, and after him, in order of merit, come the captains of the other boats, who act as his lieutenants; these captains are practically appointed by the first captain of the previous year, and were probably all members of the Upper Boats in that year.
At the beginning of each summer term the
Captain of the Boats calls a meeting of his other boat captains; he has by him a list of all those who were already members of the boats the year before, and he knows pretty correctly the form of every one of them; thus, with his lieutenants' help he can assign to each oarsman the boat in which he considers him worthy to row.
The first boat to be made up is the Monarch. Though nominally the first of the boats, the Monarch is actually composed of those who, from their place in the school, or from their prowess at other games, deserve some recognition; in fact, I may best designate the members of the "ten," as good worthy people, who have tried to row well and have not succeeded.
The next boat is the Victory, and here we find the pick of the previous year's Lower Boats. Though junior, and in order of precedence below all the captains of the various boats, these eight have just as much chance of rowing in the eight at Henley as any of the captains; for the younger oar, whose faults can easily be cured, is often preferred to his stronger senior, whose faults are fixed and difficult to eradicate.
Similar to the Victory, though of rather a lower
standard, is the Prince of Wales, or "Third Upper;" and this is composed of the remnants of the previous year's Lower Boats who are not quite good enough for the Victory. The great distinction in the present day between Upper and Lower Boats is that all those in the former may row in any boat on sliding seats, while to those in the latter only fixed seats are allowed.
Having completed his Upper Boats, the captain has now to fill the seats in the seven Lower Boats. A few of the refuse, one may almost call them, of the year before are still left; refuse, because it is rarely the case that a boy who is more than one year in Lower Boats develops into a really good oar. To these are generally assigned the best places in the Lower Boats, and after them come, in order of merit, as far as possible, all those who rowed in the previous summer in the "Novice Eight" race.
Thus, just as the Victory is always better than the Monarch, so the Dreadnought, the second Lower Boat, is often better than the Britannia, which may be composed of old "crocks."