The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1921-07-14


There are many reasons why the
sixteen cared boats have been aband'
oned. In the first place oarsmen
these days seem to take no interest
In sculling. More and more they are
combining themselves to sweep row
ing. instead of the more intricate,
more expert and more exhausting
form OF exercise.
, TEAMWORK DIFFICULT.
Then. too, 1t is a very difficult mat
ter to get up boat of eight scullers,
each of whom may have different
style of rowing, and make them work
in exact unison. After a boat Of this
sort is formed II does not last long.
There seldom has been a good crew
which stayed together more than
three or four years. Some of the
members move to other cities or be
come iii or find themselves too busy
to continue and then the eight must
be rebuilt With these discourage
ments TO face II is small wonder that
coaches do not want to undertake the
tiresome task OF forming an octuple
crew.
Octuples were invented In Eng
land. 1t is not known that they
were ever raced with before being
brought to this country, but they
were practised with quite extensive
ly at Newcastle on the Thames
James Ten Eyck and other Amer
leans saw them In action there and
were greatly impressed with their
speed. Ten Eyck. on returning, made
the remark that I'VE can now put
all our eight-oar shells in a pile and
burn them up. The octuples are sc
much faster that they will supplan'
the others as racing craft3
OCTUPLE WINS.
The first race between octuples ir
this country occurred on the Har
lem river in 1904, but previously
one had been rugged up at the ole
New York Metropolitan Club boa
house. When eight men manned 4
and started up the river for tria
they met the Union eight-oared shell
and brush ensued to determine
the relative speeds of the two craft
The octuple won by a small mar
gin, but II must be remembered
that the eight men who manned II
were new to that style OF rowing
and were but a hastily formed crew
while the older style racer had q
crew who were well trained, knew
their boat and had rowed together.
The first octuple event in national
regatta occurred In 1908. James
Pflkington conceived the idea of a
race between the best eight scullers OF
New York and Of Philadelphia and OF
any other cities that could form ar
octuple. Baltimore, Boston and Wash
ington intended to enter, but only
Philadelphia actually opposed Pilkine
tons crew when the race began on
August IL on the waters known as
Spring Gardens, branch OF the
Patapsco River, at Baltimore. The
course was a mile and half straight
away, with little tide or current to
hinder the race.
PILKINGTON'S GREAT CREW.
New York was represented by a
crew which was picked and coached
by Pilkington and which raced in a
boat that he had fitted as an octuple
at his own expense. The makeup OF
the crew was: Halse Jackson. Pail
SADIE Club, bow: Frederick Feuseh,
Harlem Rowing Club, No. q; Howard
Stivers, Nassau Club, No. 8; William
Mehrhoff, Nassau Club, No. 4; John
Hoben, Ravenswood Club. No. s; Fred
Veseley, First Bohemian Club. No. 8
Frederick Shepherd, Seawanhaka Club
of Newtown Creek, No. z: Constance
Titus, Nonpareils. stroke, and w.
Graham Smyth. New York Athletic
Club. coxswain. ---
Pilkington was laughed at when re
began to promote the intercity race.
People said that II would be impos-
sible to get eight good scullers OF dif-
ferent styles to row together and that
he could never induce Titus, Feusel.
Stivers and others, who
were constantly lighting each othA,