Harvard reached Liverpool on July 20, and arriving in London were given the use of the London Rowing Club. They took a house for the period and were extraordinarily careful in their training and conduct ; before the race the interest became so great that the men feared the food might be poisoned by betting people, and for two weeks they had a secret supply delivered in addition to the regular. They continually experimented with boats ; two had been taken along together with Elliot, the boat-builder, but neither of these were satisfactory ; others came from English makers, and Elliot made another so that, finally, seven shells were on hand from which to choose. The tests showed the last boat of Elliot to be the fastest ; it was forty-four feet long, twenty-one and one-half inches in beam, and eight inches deep ; it is not unlikely that the time wasted trying out boats may have had some thing to do with the defeat.
The match brought probably the largest crowd that has ever witnessed a boat race ; it was esti mated that nearly three-quarters of a million people banked the four and one-quarter miles of the Thames, and the betting was very great. Harvard began at forty-six, and at once led Ox ford, who were rowing forty-two. The English men had a very long swing, caught with all their force, and recovered slowly, all the time keeping the back very straight ; the Harvard oarsmen did not lay particular stress on the catch, but pulled the whole stroke through and finished hard, swinging but little ; their entire stroke was faster than the Oxford's, especially the recovery.
The lead of Harvard increased to nearly two lengths, and an opportunity came to take the Oxford water, then a universal custom ; but Cox swain Burnham, because of an agreement with the Oxford cox, kept his course. And on the last half Harvard began to weaken, and Oxford, swinging evenly and strongly, came up ; slowly they came on, now lapping ; now bow by bow, and Oxford put their nose to the front with that same steady stroke, while Harvard was very tired and ragged. At Barnes's Bridge the English crew had two lengths, and then Loring raised his stroke and took the Harvard crew on a grand spurt that closed up part of the distance. But it was of no use ; Harvard was fagged, and the Oxford men as steady as ever, and thus they won by a length and a half. The time was 22.41.
The Oxford four was thoroughly representa tive of the best English rowing. F. Willan, the bow, now Colonel Willan, had rowed in four winning eights, A. C. Yarborough in two, J. C. Tinne in three, and S. Darbishire had twice
stroked to victory.
Harvard's defeat made no change in her style ; the second crew at home beat Yale easily, and in the next year, Harvard, taken with the short, fast stroke, used shorter oars and went up to forty-five and above in their race with Yale, who were rowing longer and slower ; Harvard had a hard time of it, but won by three lengths. In the race between the scientific schools Yale won by over two minutes. This victory of Yale prepared the way for the race of the following year ; Yale had sliding seats for the first time, while Harvard rowed on the old fixed seats ; they had increased their stroke to forty-four, but Harvard had gone still higher and were at forty-eight and often at fifty ; Yale fouled the Harvard shell at the turn, but they were clearly the better crew and came home more than a minute ahead ; the race was, however, given to Harvard on the foul. This is the end of Harvard's supremacy on the water.
A Freshman race had been added in which were entered Brown, Harvard, Amherst, and Yale ; and the Providence six, also rowing a high stroke, won easily, with Yale second.
Harvard's trip to England had drawn the at tention of other colleges to boating, and from 1869 on for some years there was a steady in crease in rowing, which brought out, for a time, more crews than had ever before or have since been rowing in intercollegiate races. Down at Princeton the " Nassau Lit" had been talking of rowing for a decade and of the advantages of the Delaware and Raritan Canal ; but it was not until 187o that some of the men clubbed together and bought two old six-oared gigs from Yale. They were decrepit tubs, and the whole college, scenting fun, turned out to see the first trial ; not a single member of the crew had ever before sat in a racing boat, and after a hundred yards of " the most ridiculous rowing were com pelled to swim ashore, the leaky old craft having filled and gone to the bottom." The enthusiasm survived even the ridicule attending such a per formance, and the Princeton College Boat Club was formed with C. W. Kase, president, and H. W. Guernsey, captain ; but Princeton did not appear at the college regattas for several years. Amherst, too, had the rowing craze, though their only course on the Connecticut River was very far from the college, and in 1870 they had a Freshman six in the regatta. Trinity had been trying to row ever since the College Union meet ing in 1858, and they now became more active, while the Massachusetts Agricultural College had also bought a boat.