BEGINNINGS OF ROWING The idea that sport may be had out of pro pelling a boat with an oar is modern ; the heavy craft of our forefathers made rowing the hardest of labor, and it was not until the middle of the eighteenth century that it occurred to any one that a rowing boat might be made lighter and designed for racing. From then dates rowing in England as a sport, but another half-century had gone before the lighter barges found their way into American waters.
In the period following the Revolution a num ber of these barges were owned about New York, Philadelphia, and Boston. They were great, heavy boats, and rowed by 'longshoremen ; gentle men did not row, but, sitting in the stern, satisfied their sporting instincts by making up scratch races with the barges that they met in the course of their excursions. The New York men had many a brush with the Long Island sweeps, and the rivalry between these sections became so bitter that at last a challenge was given and a match made for the best four men of New York to row the best of Long Island from Harsimus, New Jersey, to the Battery ; and this is the first race in America of which we have a record. A day was set in the fall of 1811, and both sides went about having especially light and fast barges built. John Baptist was the leading New York builder, and he turned out the Knickerbocker, while Long Island relied upon John and William Chambers, who constructed the Invincible. There is no account left of these boats, but they were lighter barges than it was then usual to build— although heavy enough to our eyes.
On the day of the race half a gale was blowing; the big boats started up against the wind, but the Knickerbocker was the better sea boat, and soon left the Long Island crew far behind. The crew from New York were William Cracker, John Burt, Thomas Dixon, and Thomas Palmerton; while the Invincible was manned by John Chambers, James Rush, Peter Snider, and John Swinburn. John Palmerton steered the first boat, and William Chambers the second. The Knickerbocker be
came a famous boat, and drifted about from club to club, finally ending in a museum, where it was burned during a fire in 1865.
This race was the first of a long series in barges about the Hudson and in other parts, the most famous of which were those of the American Star —for the crews at that time and for many years afterward were known by the name of their boat. The Star was another production of the Cham berses, and it had a most honorable record. It was defeated in its first race with the New York over a course from Williamsburg, Long Island, to Castle William. The Star for a time had the lead, but the New York closed up at the finish and won with a gallant spurt. Then came the great match between New York and Staten Island ; New York in the Whitehall, with Cornelius and Alfred Cam meyer, Charles Beaty, and Richard Robbins, and John Palmerton, coxswain. Staten Island had the Richmond, but the Whitehallers were too fast, and won by about two lengths : the course was from Robbins Reef light to Castle Garden.
In the summer of 1825 the English frigate Hussar visited New York, and her captain, hear ing of the skill of the Whitehall crew, challenged for a race with four Thames watermen that he had in his ship. The course was to be from the frigate off Bedloe's Island to a stake-boat at Hoboken and back to the Battery. The whole countryside turned out for this, — the first inter national race, — and the old accounts floridly de scribe the cheering as the Whitehallers in the American Star rowed down to the start in their white Guernsey frocks and blue handkerchiefs.
The Englishmen were already on the line clad in the regular man-of-war dress ; their craft a London-built gig — was modestly named the Certain Death. Each boat had its national colors. The Star was off with the smoke of the cannon, raced away to the stake-boat, and straightened down the Hudson far in the lead. When they had passed the flagstaff, the Death was over a quarter of a mile in the rear.