AMERICAN ROWING COMES OF AGE Two Harvard men with more suitable blood lines, Francis O. Lyman and Joseph S. Fay, rowed in the crew that beat Yale in New London, and then “sailed for England. They arrived in London only two weeks before the race and promptly took the seats of Bass and Rice in the boat. This seemed strange because Lyman and Fay were much lighter in weight than Bass and Rice, and with the latter in the boat, the crew had been rowing four to five strokes a minute better in practice than the English.”1155 Oxford on the Thames in London in The Great International Boat Race. On August 27, 1869, Harvard rowed “The Oxford Four was thoroughly representative of the best English rowing,”1156 Oxford having won the Boat Race nine consecutive times. They were coached by none other than Dr. Edmond Warre, master and rowing coach at Eton, already considered the godfather of English Orthodoxy. Bow-seat Frank Willan, Eton and Durick 1869 Oxford Crew Alfred C. Yarborough, Samuel D. Darbishire James C. Tinné Frank Willan, J.H. Hall But the Harvard student body and the American press found the selection controversial and problematic. Simmons was perhaps the strongest man ever to pull an oar for Harvard up to that time, and Loring had been the only freshman ever to row on a Harvard Varsity, and both were “gentlemen of New England stock.” But the bow-pair, Bass from Illinois and Rice from Oregon, were “sons of the soil,” i.e., lacked the aristocratic blue blood of their teammates. While the issue was being debated at length in such periodicals as The New York Times, Spirit of the Times and The Nation, the Harvard Boat Club voted in support of Bass and Rice at a general meeting. Exeter College,1157 165lb. 75kg, was undefeated in the Boat Race since 1866, winning his fourth Blue in 1869, prior to the race with Harvard. The 2-seat Alfred C. Yarborough, Eton and Lincoln,1158 168lb. 76kg, had been Willan’s teammate since 1868, and the 3-seat James C. Tinné, Eton and University, 189lb. 86kg, since 1867. Stroke-seat Samuel D. Darbishire, University College School and Balliol,1159 159lb. 72kg, had stroked the Dark Blues to victory for two consecutive years, and coxswain J.H. Hall, Canterbury and Corpus 1155 Durick, pp. 57-8 1156 Crowther, p. 37 1157 They row with red blades. 1158 They row with dark blue blades with a light blue band at the tip and a small light blue triangle based at the neck. 1159 They row with bright blue blades with a small red triangle based at the neck. 305
