THE SPORT OF ROWING shouted the partisans of the other crews in the intervals between their shouts of encouragement to the crews from the Eastern colleges. But just then, as though to prove the foolishness of such remarks, Wisconsin lowered her stroke to 32 to the minute, and with every one of those strokes took such a good grip on the waters of the Hudson as to send her shell flying along on an even keel and at a pace that meant serious business for every one of the other crews if the Milwaukee lads could only keep up such perfect blade work as they were doing. “Captains of each of the other crews were forced to make a spurt thus early in the race, and so upset all their previously made calculations as to how the race was to be rowed, all of which had been made with Wisconsin figured as a crew that was of no account in the race. “Spurt as they would, however, and try as hard as they did, Wisconsin refused to allow them to cut down by even the least trifle the lead that she had attained thus early in the race, and so it happened that as the mark of the first half mile was passed, Wisconsin had a length to the good over her rivals. Cornell’s boys, spurting through their lane on the outside of the course, had secured second place by about a quarter of the length of their shell from Pennsylvania, whose men, rowing steadily and well, were about the same distance in front of Columbia. The latter’s boat seemed to sag and hang a bit even in this early stage of the race. But Columbia was by no means done at this point, for under call from her coxswain, her eight young men bent themselves to their work with vigor and force enough to enable them to creep up on the leaders. “Between the half-mile and the mile mark, Cornell had been doing such effective work that as the mile mark was reached she was in second place. The Wisconsin lads had eased up a trifle at their slow stroke so that their lead was reduced to half a length. “Pennsylvania had taken things so coolly and easily that at the mile she was absolutely last, Columbia leading her by about a quarter of a length. But once that mile post was passed, there was renewed life in two of the boats. The lads from Wisconsin under their cool-headed captain had kept at their 32 stroke, while Pennsylvania and Cornell were both rowing about 34, trying at this lively rate to get the lead away from the Wisconsin boys, who, they had now decided, were the ones they had to reckon with before they should know the taste of victory. “Cornell spurted and Pennsylvania spurted, and, save for some trifling splashing on the port side of the Wisconsin shell, all of these thirty-two young men in the shells moved in unison like some splendid piece of machinery. “At the end of the mile and a half the spurting was over, and all the crews had settled down to business and rowed steadily and without any fancy work for the next mile. In that distance, Wisconsin had recovered its lead of a length. The exertions of its rivals had told on them, while the Wisconsins, taking things easily and saving themselves for the final brush further down the river, had simply held their own. “The Pennsylvania boys gradually bettered their position, and at the two-and-a- half-mile mark got their shell into second place, being but a foot ahead of Cornell, which was now a good length ahead of Columbia. The latter never showed plainly that she would be a factor in the race, though her boys held pluckily on to the end. “It was just at this point that there happened a little incident, hardly noticed at the time of its occurrence, which in all probability had much to do with the final result of the race. Right in the path of the Wisconsin shell was a floating fish crate or box of some kind that the coxswain had to turn far to the right to pass in safety. This brought his shell over too near the west bank 1354
