New-York tribune., 1868-04-28
THE UNIVERSITY BOAT RACE

TIE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ENGLISH AND AMERI-
CAN COLLEGE CREWS.
To b> Editor Of The Tribune
SIR: AS one cOnversant with most OF the
reasons which led the Harvard University crew TO pro
pose race with the oxford University crew, would
your attention to two statements at variance
with tho general tenor OF the letter from your London
correspondent In THE TRIBUNE Of Saturday the 18th inst
lie says
"As TO the appearance of the two let me say
frankly our ambitious Harvard friends that never
saw University In America that could compare In
be- pTdced as good crews on the average cannot Age,
for thing, is in favor Of the Engshman, and again
reason for the successive defeats And even
the Cambridge men are at least year oaer than tae
Harvard-Oder ut that critical period when as between
two otherwise equal years superiority Successive
No data are yet given from which we may know the
ages the this year. in either boat But last year.
In the special dispatch TO THE TRIBUNE and Herald, OF
April IS, 1t said that in the winning Oxford
crew yet years Old and the average was under
Neither clause of this remark will apply TO the crew
which Harvard proposed TO send out this year. He then
continues
Neither crew ia quite first rate; either would have
beaten this morning the best crew ever saw pun IN
America IL IL pleasure TO me TO say So put Is my
business TO state facts and Impressions and after THIS
see more plainly than ever now Just was te Man
ing some months ago The average weight OF
the Oxford crew is II ST. ~ ana sa over
equal, or nearly equal this, her crews are mueh
they average under rather than over ii stone any rowing
man here would consider it absurd TO match them
against oxford dpung aside all other grounds OF hIe
riority."
| do not know wnat your correspondent have
seen this country but from the fact that those or both
Harvard and Yale for the last three years have material
y essened the time previously made she ud Judge hat
he had not seen any these The warning referred TO
was seen and weighed by those interested IN the proposed
contest though il would seem TO imply that no man from
here acquainted with rowing had had the chance Io com
pairing the two syste OF rowing which tho gentleman
himself has, which, by the way Is far from the iact As
10 the question OF Weight-the University races
at Worcester have generally been rowed IN the
latter part OF July hence the training for the
Bnt under sun which kept the thermometer well over
good part Of day and the part 00 IN wSn Pacn
on the lh OF April in the moist climate OF Ehgan9 WIN
hiring ew,doWnias low that above described does
one OF ours is problem difficult to solve. The pro
posed crew. sent woud propaDy nave % sgrasnu ha s ~
beef is not such an almpOrant requisite OF success IN
rowing find that the fastest eight oared crew which mas
ever appeared the famous Henley course III England
the Kingston crew OF lS0J-aVeraged III "eigh' Ohs
lj9i 10. . ....o. .,or ,tosa
from this side the wateri II be claimed that ner
experience much longer than ours how does
made at all or. perhaps with the exception Of Of
this years was made, as the Hat Of past trials
back in 1896 and this in the very first race ever %
rowed outrgger eghts They are kind enough TOO 70
ises and why may not derive as much oenent ron ron
these they tsy oSn 81 SseS them
A
up but pace great and they soon ost tner
form Harvard last Summer, on Lake QunsgamOhu,
strokes throughout the race and those VINO
saw that trial will that their form OH the nome
stretch as well the out, was almost faultless ~
fact an Oxford rowing man who saw II sald 10 me, iighs @
after the race "That rowing was simply perfect Cosu
he say this Of his at home, when ne reads lat
Darbshre me stroke caught bad craD az the
first stroke which fault he certainly never redeemed as
he WAS mapfestly behind his almost for the entire
course a. Or of the Cambridge men when on the str9Se
de scarcely two went together IN the wafer OF
when Just beyond Barnes,s bridge NO; eausat % ~
crab fell into the bottom OF the boat and nearly upset e
70 Harvard men help thinking that the fact
that four lumbermen from ST. John B peat the pcSea
four.oar of the London Rowing Club, the crack
crew of all England, three lengths IN mile
and a half In the race at Paris last June and tle
four selected from the victorious Oxford eight OF ast
wear live lengths In the distance had much 10 dO
with their declining to row crew which was %iitng gS 70
20 right 90 their doors, right to their own track OuS
the alleged that would not be far toe our
crew TO 20 without 100 lbs. additional weight even
we were willing to the risk, while they carried u
This much then, may safely consider galhen-that
nv refusing to match eight men rowing on the Ehgsh
Dsn with coxswan) against eight men rowing Oh lne
American plan wiz without oneJ they ADMIT the iater
10 be the faster method Does 1t not then seem rahef
ungenerous TO men TO 20 from good plan 10
poorer one and that too. when they aie willing 70 to
| 5000 miles settle the question.
| Boston, April "a, 1853