Time, 19 m. 31 sec. Time, 19 m. 43 1/2 sec.
Holworthy, although well worked together, was not beyond criticism. The whole crew rolled badly out of the boat at the end of the stroke, and some bad faults at the finish of the stroke were made up for by "meeting" so as to be in time for the next stroke, especially in the upper part of the boat. Had Weld or Holyoke been as well "together" as Holworthy, they would have undoubtedly beaten, from superior strength and style. However, Holworthy had one important excellence which all the other crews lacked. They kept their oars in the water until the end of the stroke, getting the drag on the end, and keeping up the shoot of the boat, while the other crews each more or less snatched too soon from the water, and thus, besides losing a part of the stroke, which though not a hard is a very useful part, they also let their boats down too suddenly into the water, making them bury after the stroke and taking off the headway, just when it is most important that it should be kept up. It is indeed tempting in a race to hurry on to the strong part of the next stroke, and neglect the "elbows well home past the sides" and the "easy finish."
The time of the six-oar crews was astonishingly fast, being it is said more than a minute faster than the fastest class-crew shell time, and yet the crews rowed in laps twenty-six inches broad and carried coxswains. In taking the time, there were two stop-watches used, and one made the time about a minute longer than that given above; but the referee decided the official time according to the most reliable.
It is a great pity that the first crews do not row in shells, for watermanship will be a lost art outside of the University and Freshman crews, and the candidates for the highest boating honors of the College will have had no opportunity of learning how to "sit" and "trim" a light boat.
It is to be hoped that next spring the first-crew race will be opened to shells with no allowance to laps, and that the clubs will each own and enter a shell.