The Castle Garden Association had been giving annual regattas all this time; but the in terest was waning, and in 1842 they gave their last regatta and went out of existence, but in that same year a large regatta was given at Castle Garden by the American Institute Fair—for re gattas thus early had attained a certain financial status and were good advertisements. The Chap man, a four, rowed by the Roberts brothers, beat the champion George Washington.
The rowing interest of Boston was steadily increasing, and on August 3, 1842, the first re gatta was given over the Chelsea course ; there were four eights, — the Red Michael, Star, Wash ington, and Bunker Hill, — all crack barges. The Red Michael won after a hard fight, and also won the second trial. The Star and Washington rowed with six oars for the second prize, and the former won ; there were three other boats which went over the course on time, — the Exchange, four-oars ; the Dart, two-oars, cross-handed ; and a skiff, cross-handed. A number of New York boats came up for the next regatta in the follow ing year, and they took away most of the prizes. The Spark of New York won the eights, with the Red Michael second ; the Curtis Peck of New York won the sixes ; and the Wave, the New York crew, won the fours. The Curtis Peck issued a general challenge after their race, but no crew was willing to test them further.
Harvard and Yale were in this zone of active racing, and, second-hand barges being rather cheap, several were purchased at each institution during the years 1843-1844, and the foundations laid for the racing clubs that followed within a few years. It was on May 24, 1843, that William J. Weeks, '44, purchased a four-oared Whitehall boat in New York, and bringing it to New Haven formed with Henry W. Buel, John W. Dulles, John McLoud, Virgil M. D. Marcy, John P. Marshall, and William Smith the first boat club at Yale, and which was also the first rowing organization at any American college. They called themselves the Pioneers, but lasted only a year. A month after the formation of the Pioneer Club, Edwin A. Buckley, '44, bought a four-oared Whitehall in New York, called the Nautilus ; with him were associated Henry C. Birdseye, James S. Bush, Henry Byne, Charles H. Meeker, Howard Smith, and Hannibal Stanley. In the same year Josiah B. Crowell, '45, bought a big dug-out on the Susquehanna ; it was forty two feet long with a beam of twenty-four inches, and cost but $45. They called the cranky and ungainly craft the Centiped, and the fifteen mem bers of the class of '45 who owned her—among whom were J. S. Bacon, William B. Bibbins, Daniel Chadwick, C. C. Esty, John A. Harding, G. D. Harrington, A. P. Hyde, Thomas Kennedy,
and William T. Reynolds—arranged a race with the Nautilus, the crew of which had been mak ing game of the more primitive creation of the lower classmen. The Centipeds were a canny lot, and, taking the precaution to lash a stone to the keel of the Nautilus, they won. The writer who gives the story of the race gravely remarks : " The Nautilus crew labored under a disadvan tage certainly, inasmuch as the Centipeds had strapped a huge rock to the keel of the Nautilus the night before ; but they would have won the more honor thus had they beaten." The first real racing boat at Yale was bought in 1844 by the members of the class of '47; this boat, the Excelsior of six-oars, was the foun dation of the racing spirit, and her crew were exceptional oarsmen for the time. In 1847 an other famous boat was added to the collection by the class of '48, — the Shawmut, eight-oars, thirty-eight feet long. It had seats for six pas sengers and a coxswain's seat high in the stern, so that the captain could look over the heads of the oarsmen, but it was a most uncertain perch in rough weather. During a storm in 1852 the Shawmut broke loose and was carried over to Long Island, where she was left until she rotted. From 1844 to 1854 there were fifteen boats owned at Yale: six eight-oars, six fours, and three sixes ; they were mostly stored in Riker's loft near Tomlinson's bridge.
The Chelsea regattas of 1842 and 1843 did much to create a boating interest at Harvard, and in the autumn of 1844 a barge, Star, was purchased by thirteen members of the class of '46 and rechristened the Oneida, because one of the members of the club happened to have a set of colors with that name on them. It was a low black eight, thirty-seven feet long, and of such an excellent model that it sold from class to class for nearly a decade, and occupies a lead ing place in the history of Harvard's rowing. Hardly had the Oneida Club been formed when '45 bought the famous Red Michael in Boston, subdued the name to Iris, and challenged the Oneidas. The race took place one evening after tea from the Winchester House to the Brighton bridge, a distance of about two miles. The whole university turned out and saw the new boat beaten by the Oneida by about five lengths. As yet the Oneida was the only club that had a house for their boat, but, several other clubs forming, a boat-house was built in 1846 where the Oneida, Iris, and the newcomers —the Huron and Undine, — kept their craft. The Oneida, in a series of races that roused the students, separately defeated all of these barges ; the Oneidas adopted crimson shirts as their uniform, which probably explains the Harvard colors.