| 3rd Boat Race | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Date | 3 April 1839 (1839-04-03) | ||
| Winner | Cambridge | ||
| Margin of victory | 35 lengths | ||
| Winning time | 31 minutes | ||
| Overall record (Cambridge–Oxford) | 2–1 | ||
| Umpire | C. B. Wollaston (Oxford) C. J. Selwyn (Cambridge) W. H. Harrison (referee) | ||
| |||
The3rd Boat Race took place on theRiver Thames on 3 April 1839. It was the second of theUniversity Boat Races to be held on theRiver Thames, this time betweenWestminster andPutney. Cambridge had competed againstLeander Club in 1837 and 1838; it had been three years since Oxford and Cambridge raced against one another. Representatives of both universities and an independent referee oversaw the proceedings. Cambridge won the race by 35 lengths, as of 2023 the largest winning margin in the history of the event.
The Boat Race is aside-by-side rowing competition between theUniversity of Oxford (sometimes referred to as the "Dark Blues")[1] and theUniversity of Cambridge (sometimes referred to as the "Light Blues").[1] The race was first held in 1829, and takes place on theRiver Thames in southwest London.[2][3] No race between the two universities was held in 1837 or 1838, instead Cambridge raced againstLeander Club those years.[4] Theumpires for the race were C. B. Wollaston (for Oxford) andC. J. Selwyn (for Cambridge), while W. H. Harrison acted as referee.[5]
Cambridge's boat was constructed by Searle of Stangate, while Oxford's "beautifully constructed" vessel was built by King of Oxford.[6] The race was scheduled to take place on a five-and-three-quarter-mile stretch betweenWestminster Bridge andPutney Bridge.[7] Oxford were trained by a Thameswaterman while Cambridge were guided by theircox,Thomas Selby Egan.[6]
The Oxford crew weighed an average of 11 st 10.5 lb (74.4 kg) per rower, almost 10 pounds (4.5 kg) more per man than their opponents.[8] None of the Oxford crew from the 1836 featured in this year's race; however, both the stroke Edmund Stanley and cox Egan returned for Cambridge, the former being described byBell's Life as "really terrific, one of the severest we ever saw".[9] Oxford's boat club president was Calverley Bewicke who rowed atstroke for the Dark Blues, while Cambridge had a non-rowing president in Augustus Granville.[10]
| Seat | Cambridge | Oxford | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Name | College | Weight | Name | College | Weight | |
| Bow | Alfred Hudson Shadwell | St John's | 10 st 7 lb | Stanlake Lee | Queen's | 10 st 4 lb |
| 2 | Warington W. Smyth | Trinity | 11 st 0 lb | Berdmore Compton | Merton | 11 st 5 lb |
| 3 | J. Abercrombie | Gonville & Caius | 10 st 7 lb | Samuel Edward Maberly | Christ Church | 11 st 4 lb |
| 4 | A. Paris | Corpus Christi | 11 st 4 lb | Wm. Jas. Garnett | Christ Church | 12 st 10 lb |
| 5 | C. T. Penrose | Trinity | 12 st 0 lb | R. G. Walls | Brasenose | 13 st 0 lb |
| 6 | W. H. Yatman ‡ | Gonville & Caius | 10 st 10 lb | R. Hobhouse | Balliol | 12 st 0 lb |
| 7 | W. B. Brett | Gonville & Caius | 12 st 0 lb | Philip Lybbe Powys | Balliol | 12 st 0 lb |
| Stroke | E. Stanley | Jesus | 10 st 6 lb | Calverley Bewicke (P) | University | 12 st 0 lb |
| Cox | T. S. Egan | Gonville & Caius | 9 st 0 lb | Woodforde Ffooks | Exeter | 10 st 2 lb |
| Source:[8][11] (P) – boat club president[10] ‡ – Yatman replaced Vialls of Trinity College through illness two days before the race[12] | ||||||
[Cambridge] wore whiteguernseys and white straw hats with light blue ribbons, thesteerer having a rosette of the same colour on his breast. The Oxonians wore dark blue guernseys with white stripes, dark straw hats with dark blue ribbons.
The umpires for the race were Charles Woolaston and C. J. Selwyn, while W. Harrison Esq, the Commodore of theRoyal Thames Yacht Club, fulfilled the position of referee.[12] The race was held on a Wednesday, 3 April 1839, the start time of "precisely" 4.47pm, in conditions described by MacMichael as "cold, cloudy and windy, and just the very worst sort of day for an aquatic expedition".[12][14] According toBell's Life, Cambridge were slight favourites.[15] Oxford won thetoss and elected to commence closest to the Middlesex shore of the river.[12] After a close start, the Cambridge boat started to draw away and byVauxhall Bridge were "several boats' lengths" ahead.[16] They increased their lead further byBattersea Bridge and shotPutney Bridge 1 minute 45 seconds ahead,[17] and won by a margin of 35 lengths which remains, as of 2023, the largest in the history of the event.[18] Cambridge's victory took them to an overall lead in the event of 2–1.[19]
Notes
Bibliography
boat race oxford cambridge.
