THE INTERNATIONAL BOAT RACE.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume IV, Issue 261, 5 November 1869, Page 2

THE INTERNATIONAL BOAT RACE.

(From the European Mail.) " Defeated, but certainly not disgraced," is a motto with which the Harvard crew may console themselves for their defeat upon the Thames upon the 27th August, which will for ever remain memorable in racing annals. The splendour of the weather; the perfect condition of the water, which was hardly ruffled by the gentle easterly breeze that was so refreshing under the bright and burning sun ; and the excellence of the arrangements made for keeping the coast clear, so as to give each of the competing crews a " fair field and no favor," made the race a model one, and its results must be taken as a fair and final test ol the merits of the different styles of rowing adopted by the rival Universities. It was about a quarter past five in ths afternoon, a little before the tide ceased to flow op stream, that, after the usual warning as to fouling, &«., the secretary of the Harvard club gave the signal to "Go" from the umpire's boat. The Harvard crew, who had won the toiss for choice for stations, and were onthe Middlesex side, were the first to catch

the water, and decidedly made the best start, taking a slight lead from the commencement. They worked well together, too; at first much better than their opponents, who were some time before they settled into that steady mechanical stroke for which Oxford is now famous. The lead which the Harvard meu first secured they continued, by very rapid and powerful rowing, to increase, till by the time a mile and ahalf was traversed they were (ully a boat's length ahead. The Americans cheered t tein on with their peculiar cry like the German " hoch" 4i booh" " hoch," or, us a correspondent describes it, " rajjh" " nigh" " rngh," which had a most quaint .-tf^ct. Still they drew ahead, rowing 45 strokes a minute to Oxford's 39, and it appeared that, if the Harvard coxswain had chosen, he might have taken Oxford's waier wheu about, a mile and three-quarters had been done. For a moment it seemed ns if he intended to do so, but whether fearing a foul, which had been already more thau once imminent from his boring on the Oxford boat, he hesitated, aud at last kept away, losing for ever the half-length by which the Harvards were then leading. During all this time the Harvard men had been rowing, with wonderful animation, a short, sharp, digging stroke, affording a remarkable contrast to the Oxford men, who apparently wanting life in their • rowing, came steadily alonjr with a swinging stroke never exceeding 39 in the minute. Half the distance had been accomplished, when the steadiness aud symmetry of the Oxford style began to tell; little by little thu dark blue overhauled the L-rimson ; at Barnes Bridge the Oxford was leading nearly three lengths, and though working most pluckily to the last, the Americans were finally defeated by three-quarters of a length. Oxford undoubtedly eased at last, and very nearly lost the race, from a ruffian sculling directly across their course, when they were within about 50 yards of the winning post. Most heartily were the gallant losers cheered for their splendid exhibition of courage and fortitude they had shown; for the best judges of rowing felt to have got where they did, with the disadvantages of a style unsuited to so long a race, and of a coxswain who did not make the best of the course for thera, was a very creditable performance. The Harvard crew were much distressed, and more than once tbeir coxswain astonished the onlookers by dashing water over the stroke and number three, by way of reviving them — a proceeding which was not a little shocking to the prejudices of those accustomed to our Euglish traditions.