The boating of New York was on the decline in these years, and in 1848, when the present Atalanta Boat Club was formed, the older clubs such as the Manahatta, Duane, George Washing ton, and Conover had almost disbanded, and during the few years following they had all gone, leaving the Atalanta alone ; the Atalanta Club was formed on May 5, 1848, by Messrs. Charlton, Armstrong, Livingston, Carlisle, Cameron, Bailey, Thompson, Graham, Dunlap, and Aulger. They bought the Gazelle of the old Castle Garden fleet, but there was little racing about New York for some years.
In 185o occurred many professional sculling matches ; in this year James Lee rowed his first race, beating M. Conkling in nineteen-foot skele ton boats, then used for the first time, from the Battery around Ellis's Island and back, and later in the same year he beat the champion of the time, Charles Thomas, and again at the regatta of the American Institute Fair defeated the best oarsmen of the day, including Charles Thomas, W. H. Decker, Hugh Burns, Hugh Curran, and John Mazanna.
Lee rapidly came to be known as the leading sculler of America, and he had many contests with the other professionals who were sufficiently numerous at that time ; one of his hardest races was in four-oared shells between the George Wash ington, in which Lee rowed, the Zachary Taylor, and the Adeline, all manned by prominent pro fessionals. The three boats were lapping through out the whole four miles, and the Taylor won by less than a length. On. that same day, Lee and Hugh Curran in the Michael Murray beat the champion double Battery Pet, in which were Charles Thomas and W. H. Decker. Then came the final struggle with Thomas for the championship in 1851, in seventeen-foot boats, from Castle Garden around Ellis's Island and return, a distance of three miles. Turning the island Lee showed his boat a half-length ahead, and by this distance won in a great struggle. The two men rowed two more matches the same year, Thomas winning both, the second because Lee grounded. A sculler by the name of Price became prominent by winning the singles at the Institute Fair in 185i, beating all the best men ; but he did not succeed in winning from either Lee or Thomas in match races.
Rowing was rising about Boston, the annual regattas were good ones, and there was racing in plenty ; in 1851 the Union Boat Club, which has always contained men who stood for the best in the sport, was formed. At first the club did not go in for racing, but in 1854, when the city of Boston decided to make the regatta a part of the Fourth of July celebration, the members induced the officers to add a wherry race— the first of the kind in Boston. The regattas were open to both
professional and amateur oarsmen, but there was also a Charles River Amateur Association that held annual meetings. The line was being drawn between amateurs and professionals, but it was still a very hazy one. In 1857 the Union Boat Club became prominent in the formation of the Beacon Cup Regatta for amateur oarsmen, and they won the first race with their six-oar, coming in beside the Harvard eight-oar and winning on the time allowance. There was a corresponding activity throughout New England ; in 1857 the Quinsigamond Boat Club was formed at Worces ter, and two years later the annual regattas of Worcester were instituted, while in the same year Charlestown held the first Bunker Hill Regatta, and there were also regattas at Spring field ; there was some rowing in Maine, and in 1857 the North Star Boat Club was formed, which was the first in the state to have a regular organi zation ; it was followed in the next year by the Alpha Boat Club.
The Schuylkill in Fairmount Park is especially well fitted for pleasure rowing, and it is not sur prising that there should have been a number of clubs on the river at this time ; they were not the old clubs of 1835, but others that had taken the places and sometimes the boats of the former organizations. The city favored the building of boat-houses in Fairmount Park, with certain re strictions of style, which has resulted in the erec tion of many fine boat-houses. The Bachelor's Barge Club, still active, was organized in 1853, and in the following year a number of students of the University of Pennsylvania formed the University Barge Club ; the original members were R. Ashurst Bowie, H. G. Browne, Alexan der Brinton Coxe, Pemberton S. Hutchinson, Charles J. Maccuen, J. Beauclerc Newman, J. H. Peabody, Edmund R. Robinson, George H. War ing, and John W. Williams. In 1858 the Quaker City Barge Club came into existence, and in this same year the Schuylkill Navy was created at a meeting of representatives of the America, Camilla, Chebucto, Falcon, Independent, Key stone, and University Barge Clubs. The Undine Barge Club organized in 1856, and they, with the Bachelor's, joined the Navy at once, though they were not at the original meeting. The Schuylkill Navy aimed to better amateur oarsmanship, and they still retain the customs of the old barge days, and hold every year a review of the boats of the Navy by the commodore and then race for the championship.