COLLEGIATE ROWING THROUGH 1876 There was no intercollegiate rowing after the 1855 race between Harvard and Yale until 1859 ; but during this time both of the institutions were active and engaged in many outside regattas, put ting not a little money into their treasuries, for the college men then went in for the money races as well as for the trophies. Harvard entered in the regattas about Boston, first with a big eight-oar, the Harvard, and later in a shell that they had constructed by McKay in St. Johns ; it was built in 1857 and was the first six-oared shell in America. The boat was shorter, wider, and higher out of the water than the present-day boats, being only forty feet long and with a beam of twenty-six inches ; it was made of white pine and weighed one hundred and fifty pounds, while for the first time the outriggers were of iron.
In 1858 the Harvard Magazine suggested that an association of colleges should be formed to hold annual regattas, and accordingly letters were sent out and on May 26 delegates from Harvard, Yale, Brown, and Trinity met at New Haven and evolved the College Union Regatta. Neither Brown nor Trinity had as yet done any rowing, but their students were anxious to take up the sport. The representatives were Benjamin W. Crowninshield, Harvard ; Charles M. Smith, Brown ; G. A. Stedman, Jr., Trinity ; and William P. Bacon, Yale. The Freshmen of Yale also challenged the Freshmen of Harvard to a race at the same time, and the first regatta was set for that summer. Brown did not send a crew, but both Yale and Harvard, having for the first time chosen crews from all the oarsmen instead of from one club, went down to Springfield some weeks before the race. The Yale men saw the Harvard shell and at once decided that their lapstreak could have no chance with such a boat and sent to Boston for the four-oared shell of the Volante Boat Club. The Yale men had never before sat in a shell, and they had only a few days left until the race ; but they were improving rapidly when George Dunham, one of the crew, was drowned while out in a single, and, of course, the races were off for that year.
The next College Union Regatta was appointed for July 26, at Worcester, and the secretary, J. H. Ellison of Harvard, had instructions to invite all other colleges to enter. The Yale shell arrived at New Haven three days before the race, and it was found to be rigged with the stroke on the port side instead of the starboard, which was then usual, and the whole crew, in order to keep the same stroke oar, had to change. Four crews came to the start for the three-mile test (one and one-half miles out and back), the Harvard and Yale, six-oared shells, the Avon of Harvard and the Atlanta of Brown, lapstreaks. They were all away together, the high wind soon forcing the shells toward the west, while the gigs kept their course ; the Harvard shell had no steering gear and several times they had to stop and head in the course again, but they were so far better than the others that they won out by several lengths in 19.18 ; the Yale shell was second ; the Avon third ; and the Brown boat far in the rear. On the next day the Harvard and the Yale shells entered in the Worcester City Regatta for a prize of Poo for the first crew and $75 for the second ; there was a high wind, and the Yale boat, with a coxswain, kept out of the worst of the breeze, while Harvard, dependent on the oars, was all over the lake. Out to the turn Harvard led, but the steering of Yale on the last leg put them three lengths ahead of Harvard, and when the two crews straightened out for the finish, the Cam bridge champions could not cut down more than half of the lead. This was the first time that Yale had beaten Harvard, and, incidentally, the college rowing received substantial financial assistance.
As yet there had not been much attention to style; the object was to get there, and so long as a man was in time, it did not much matter what he was doing inside the shell.