The New York herald., 1871-09-17

American and English Speed In Rowing.
How does the time made by the Wards the
other day compare with the best English time,
has been asked so often that we will endeavor
to lay before our readers some facts from
which they will be able to form at least
tolerably correct approach to an answer.
And were 1t customary on the other side to
row races frequently as here on "dead water"
or water unmoved by tide or current the reply
would be far more easy.
The time so often, we might almost say
uniformly, made by English oarsmen over
given stretch was so much less than Ameri-
cans wanted for the same distance that it was
held up to Hamill, and especially to the Har-
ward men. before they made the daring ven
lures that made the late races possible, as an
obstacle simply unsurmountable, and at first
it would certainly seem so The Harvard
men, for instance, had, in making their fastest
public time, required on Lake Quinsigamond in
July, 1868, seventeen minutes, forty-eight and
a half seconds in which to do three miles, and
they supposed then that they had done some
thing worthy of mention. But meanwhile the
Oxford and Cambridge crews were managing to
travel from Putney to the Ship Tavern at
Mortlake, on the Thames, four miles and
three furlongs, in less than twenty-one min
utes, and one Cambridge crew in private prac-
tice found at the finish that they had consumed
but nineteen minutes and fifty seconds-time
never equalled before or since. Notwithstand-
ing these startling facts the Harvard men went
out and Goliath shrunk up amazingly when
they once got fairly at him. They, too, found
that they could surprise themselves at the
brief time they needed to 60 from Putney to
Mortlake. Six of them at home had, as above,
covered three miles in seventeen, forty-eight
and half, or, allowing twenty-five seconds
for turning the stake, in seventeen, twenty
three and half. This would be at the rate
of about mile in five minutes and forty Eight
seconds, or, if they could keep up the pace Ga
simple impossbility), they would occupy on
the Putney course twenty-five minutes,
twenty-five and half seconds. But the race
was to be for four oars, not skies. Three sec
onds man per mile in favor of the boat with
the fewest men and four and five seconds have
been variously allowed in this coun-
try, where competing crews comprised
different numbers of men; but any
each arbitrary standard can only approximate
the exact allowance proper. Take, however,
the average-four. This would give the four
oar eight seconds in each mile, or in four miles
and three furlongs, thirty seconds. This,
added to twenty-five minutes, twenty-five and
a half seconds, as above. would give twenty
five, ifty-seven and half. But another and
new element came in, an incubus Of hun
dred pounds weight, q creature almost unheard
of in this benighted land-a coxswain. Not
heavy at first, long before the fourth mile is
covered he seems fearfully SO, and would
easily make the above crew need all of twenty
seven minutes to row over an equal distance
on Lake Ouinsigamond. Yet in their practice
on the actual course they needed but twenty
two minutes, and in the race itself, though a
stern one all the last half of the way, they
consumed but twenty-five minutes and twenty
seconds.
Even better instance, one exactly to the
Vi
gallant ex-champion of the Thames and of all
England, Harry Kelly, for he has had none of
these allowances to make, but has had the
pleasure of chasing Renforth over those same
long miles and furlongs, and again Of measuring
off some Yankee miles, going it red-hot after
Sadler over this very Saratoga track. Unless
we err gravely he has rowed from Putney to
Mortlake in twenty-three minutes and thirty
seconds, while over the Saratoga course, three
furlongs shorter, he spends over half an hour.
What can be the explanation of this? Can it
be that Saratoga water does not agree with
him and is only good for Yankees?
No, the explanation in both and in all like
cases is simply this the English usually row
their races ,oiM the current and as that runs
on the Thames four and sometimes nearly six
miles an hour (for that river is very narrow
and the tides rise as many as eighteen feet, If
Kelly had allowed his boat to simply noat
without his rowing her at all he would proba-
bly, have drifted over the distance in an hour
or less, and the Cambridge crew in question
would have, when they made their wonderful
time, drifted it in considerably less than the
hour, as they had high wind dead aft most
of the time.
four composed of Renforth, Taylor, Win
ship and Martin, and carrying very light
coxswain, have, we believe, rowed the Putney
track in about twenty -one minutes, thirty Sec
onds but last Monday showed that Englands
best crews to-day (and Taylor and Winship
were both there) found that even twenty-five
minutes would not suffice them for four miles
alone, TO say nothing of the three furlongs be-
sides.
But they also know how to make slow time
in England as well as fast. One of the most
famous Courses oYsg there u that at Henley.