Turning to rowing, we find that to Yale belongs the honor of having the oldest rowing club in America, four boats having been purchased by the students in the spring of 1843, with the idea of rowing for exercise and recreation, an idea hitherto unthought of. The system of class boat-clubs prevailed at Yale until the first Yale-Harvard race in 1852 led to the formation of the “Yale Navy,” in which all the active boat-clubs were consolidated. This first intercollegiate rowing match originated as an advertising expedient in the mind of an enterprising railroad man, who desired to bring into notice the Boston, Concord and Montreal Railroad, then a new road.
THE CREW—CHAMPIONS, 1888.
G. R. CARTER, ’88 S.
C. O. GILL, ’89. R. M. WILCOX, ’88 S. N. JAMES, ’90 (SUBS.). W. H. CORBIN, ’89. G. S. BREWSTER, ’91. J. A. HARTWELL, ’89 S.
S. M. CROSS, ’88 (STROKE). G. W. WOODRUFF, ’89 (SUBS.). F. A. STEVENSON, ’88 (CAPT.). R. THOMPSON, ’90 (COX.).
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LARGER IMAGE
WINNERS IN INTERCOLLEGIATE ATHLETIC GAMES, 1888.
G. W. WOODRUFF, ’89. T. G. SHEARMAN, ’89. H. L. WILLIAMS, ’91. C. H. SHERRILL, ’89.
W. G. LANE, ’88 (CAPT.). W. HARMAR, ’90.
Of preparation for this race there was almost none, as may be judged from the remark of a member of the Harvard crew, to the effect that “they had not rowed much for fear of blistering their hands.” Harvard won the race, largely owing to their superior boat, the Oneida, which being probably the best of her class, deserves a description. She was an eight-oared, “lap-streak” barge, thirty-seven feet long, three and a half feet beam, quite low in the water, and fitted with gratings at each end. Flat wooden thole-pins were used, a plain bar of hard wood served as stretcher, and a red baize cushion covered each seat. The oars were of white ash, and ranged in length from thirteen feet six inches in the waist to twelve feet at bow and stroke.
Occasional races were rowed between Yale and Harvard at Springfield and on Lake Quinsigamond up to 1864. These were three-mile, turnabout races, usually rowed in six-oared barges, although sometimes four-oared and eight-oared boats would contend with them, in which case an allowance of eleven seconds per extra oar would be made in favor of the smaller boats.