Then the boating of Harvard began to decline ; some of the clubs graduated, and in 1851 the Ariels, " having been guilty of some irregularities in Boston," were disbanded by the Faculty, and they refused to allow other clubs to be formed. Thus from 1851 to 1854 the Oneida was the only club in the university.
The Yale oarsmen had their eyes on the prog ress at Harvard and, largely through the efforts of James M. Whiton, '53, a challenge was sent to Harvard to " test the superiority of the oars men of the two colleges," and a race was arranged for August 3, 1852, at Centre Harbor, Lake Winnipiseogee. The training of the men may be inferred from the remark of one of the Har vard crew, that they "had not rowed much for fear of blistering their hands," and there was a pleasing absence of all that childish formality that hedges a race at the present day. The Oneida ('53) came down from Cambridge, while Yale had three boats, — the Halcyon, manned by the crew of the Shawmut, the Undine, the crew of which had to be filled out from the shore, and the Atlanta, hired in New York for the race. So eager were they to race that they had, in the morn ing, a try out of the crews, and the Oneida won ; but the real test came in the afternoon on a two mile pull to windward from a stake-boat out in the lake. The Harvard boat again won the first prize, a pair of silver-mounted black walnut sculls ; the Halcyon was second. Ten minutes was given as the time by the imaginative timekeeper.
There was so much fun in the race that the crews thought they would have another go on the fifth ; but that day was very stormy, and the prize was given to the Halcyon as second in the first race. " Late in the day the storm lulled, and as a token of respect to the few visitors assembled, the uniforms were brought out, the boats manned, a little rowing indulged in, songs sung, the usual number of cheers given, and all said Well done.'" The whole party remained at the lake for a week and left together for Concord, where they parted. Such was the wholesome little regatta of 1852' The rowing had thus far been by classes or clubs, but in June of 1853 the Yale Navy was or ganized by members of the class of '53, who elected Richard Waite commodore. Boating was on a firm basis at Yale, but it was otherwise at Harvard, where the sport was nearly dead and only kept alive by the old Oneida, which passed from '53 successively to '54 and '55. Early in 1855 Yale sent another challenge to Harvard, and it was agreed that a contest should take place on the Connecticut at Springfield on Saturday, July 21. The crews went down the day before to look over the course, but there was no prelimi nary race. Yale had in the Nereid and Nautilus,
six-oars, and Harvard the Iris, eight-oars, and the Y. V., a four without a coxswain. The Harvard boats were both fairly new and had outriggers for the first time ; they were of wood and braced like those of a wherry running from the bottom of the boat across the gunwale. The smaller boats had a time allowance of eleven seconds to the oar ; the distance was three miles — one and one half down-stream and back, the turn being for the first time introduced in the college races. The Nereid got away at the start and turned the stake-boat ahead, but the two Harvard crews were rowing strongly and soon passed the Yale crew. The times were, Iris, 22 minutes ; Y. Y., 22.47 ; Nereid, 24 ; and the Nautilus, 25. The Yale men believed that the victory was due to the Harvard boat, and they talked so much about it that in the evening three of the Y.Y. crew and three of the judges, who were members of the Union Club of Boston, took out the Nereid and went over the course in fifteen seconds' less time than the Iris had made in the race, which was doubtless gratifying to Harvard. The Harvard men were the more powerful, but they also rowed a better and longer stroke than Yale, that of Yale being " convulsive and quick and impossible to maintain for any distance." The success of the Y.Y. without a coxswain led to the gradual dis carding of the coxswain and the steering by bow.
Many of the boat clubs that have been mentioned in the preceding pages had sold their boats, but there were new clubs being constantly formed ; they held many exciting match races, such as the great race between the four-oared boats Thomas Jefferson and the Duane for a silver goblet in 1846 from Bull's Ferry, New Jersey, to Day's Point and return. The boats were bow and bow for most of the course, now one taking the lead and now the other, but the Jefferson spurted at the finish and won by three lengths. Charles A. Peverelly was bow of the Jefferson, and, though never famous as an oarsman, he became a familiar figure at races for many years as an official, and is the chronicler of our early rowing. Another race of note was that between Stephen Roberts and Robert Martin in 1848 over a ten-mile course around Robbin's Reef ; Martin was ahead nearly all the way, but Roberts passed him in the last few miles and won in one hour and twenty-two minutes. This race was in nineteen-foot working boats cut down ; they were rowed on the gunwale, but were made of very light wood and rowed easily.