The San Francisco call., 1895-07-21
BY Catching a Crab Fennell
Caused the Defeat of
the Crew.
RoWERs TREATED ROYALTY.
But the Criticism Of the British
Press Was Unfair In the
Extreme.

| crew, arrived at quarantine this morning
on the steamer New York and was in
tervieed by The United Press representa-
tive. The famous Cornell sport, notwith-
standing a slight attack of NAL de mer,
| said he had enjoyed the trip immensely
and was awfuIly glad to get back to New
| York England, he SAID, was very nice,
| but tie United States was good enough for
him. Commencing long conversation
! with The United Press reporter Courtney
said:
II wish to preface my remarks with this
statement: have absolutely no excuse to
offer for the defeat of the Cornell crew.
Fennell caught crab or as I put it,
went fishing on his own hook Why he
did it I of course don't know, but I do
know that he had no business to do so and
that his mistake or accident cost US the
race. With regard to the treatment we
received from the people at Henley of all
classes nothing could be finer. 1t was
simply splendid, but we were shamefully
| treated by the English press"
Courtney then commenced at the first
days racing and the Leander tiasco. As
he was i'll in bed from Friday evening until
the afternoon of the Tuesday when Cornell
was beaten by Trinity Hall, he, of course,
could not give the particulars of the actual
racing, but friend of Mr.. Courtney, who
was on the umpires boat, gave the exact
description as follows: "Colonel William,
| the umpire, addressed the crews. Now,
gentlemen, / will start you this way: 1
will ask, "Are you ready?" If I hear no
negative shall say 60" Now, then, get
ready. Are you ready? Co.
"Leander took two strokes and then
three negatives went up from two voices
on their boat. One man said mo- and a
second said mo- Colson, the Cornell
cockswain, turned to see where the Leanders
were and Colonel william waved him on,
and on they went"
Courtney said he did not see how the
| crew under the English racing laws and
| under Colonel Williams instructions could
have done otherwise than they did, and
| that the best class of rowing men agreed
| that their action in the matter was the
only course open to eight intelligent men
rowing race under certain conditions ab-
! solutely laid down. Mr.. Layman, coach
| of the Leander crew, said he was disgusted
with the way they (the Leanders) had
acted and told Kent the stroke OF the
boat, that with his experience and knowl-
edge of rules he should certainly have gone
on. Pittman of the new college Oxford
crew said that the Leanders acted like &
| lot of babies.
| The United Press representative then
read extracts from the Chicago Associated
Press story in the New York World of
Thursday, July H. the morning after the
race, in which four or five of the Cornell
crew are reported as fainting in groups,
cropping blindly for their oars, going to
pieces one after the other, ready to faint,
at intervals getting ratified like schoolboys.
| Fennell was represented as suffering
from valvular affection of the heart, which
caused big lump on his left side, and to
| have been in dead faint at the bottom of
the boat when the crew struggled past the
| judges boat, and Trinity Hall is reported
| as having leads varying from half length
to seven or eight lengths passing the mile
post. Courtney was completely thunder
struck at these statements and for q
moment could scarcely control his indig-
| nation.
'It is false and malicious lie. There is
not a vestige of truth from beginning to
end in it with the exception of the crab
caught by Fennell, and / cannot under
stand how anybody could have made such
report. AS said before, was unable to
see the race, but am able to give you the
description as given to me by eyewitnesses
and by Colson, the coxswain, and by other
members Of the crew.
"We had the Berks side of the course,
which is admitted to be disadvantage of
at least three lengths in comparison with
the Bucks shore, and got off little faster
than the Trinity Hall. At the top of Re-
menham Island we led by man and con-
tinued to go ahead until we led by half
length at Fawley Court.
'sAt the three-quarter mile mark the
Cambridge crew gained about quarter of
length, and coming up to the mile we
were on even terms. At the mile the Trim
ity Hall boat had her nose in front, and
then Fannell caught crab, the others
stopped, and Trinity Hall went ahead and
won. Fannell bruised his groin badly
! with one oar, and though able to pull well
enough could not recover without pain.
at no time did Fannell faint, either dur
ing or after the race. Not another man in
the crew met Will any hiiiu VI dCCluenC or
collapse, and the whole story is fake.
Why, Colston told me that if Fennell had
not caught that crab they would have won
hands down.
las for Freeborn, Hall, Spillman and
Louis they were the mainstays of the boat
and pulled as strong an oar at the mile as
they ever pulled. Hager, Dyer and Fen.
nell suffered from diarrhea caused by the
change of water for some days before the
race, but took the boys word for it that
they were in condition to row, and so they
were, and if Fennell had not gone crab
fishing we would have won. Fennell
suffered quite good deal and had doctor
for three days after. but he was never in a
serious condition and he left for London
with Spillman the day started for South
| ampton. This is the simple story and any
other is q lie."
The continual harping on the fast stro ke
of the American tends to make Courtney
very tired of cranks who seem to use the
idea as kind of sign manual of their ex-
pert knowledge.
He says that Cornell was no. in it for
L ~