The Boat Race 1839

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)

← 1836

1840 →

Oxford versus Cambridge rowing race

The 3rd Boat Race took place on the River Thames on 3 April 1839. It was the second of the University Boat Races to be held on the River Thames, this time between Westminster and Putney. Cambridge had competed against Leander 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.

Background

The Boat Race is a side-by-side rowing competition between the University of Oxford (sometimes referred to as the "Dark Blues")^[1] and the University of Cambridge (sometimes referred to as the "Light Blues").^[1] The race was first held in 1829, and takes place on the River Thames in southwest London.^[2]^[3] No race between the two universities was held in 1837 or 1838, instead Cambridge raced against Leander Club those years.^[4] The umpires for the race were C. B. Wollaston (for Oxford) and C. 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 between Westminster Bridge and Putney Bridge.^[7] Oxford were trained by a Thames waterman while Cambridge were guided by their cox, Thomas Selby Egan.^[6]

Crews

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 by Bell's Life as "really terrific, one of the severest we ever saw".^[9] Oxford's boat club president was Calverley Bewicke who rowed at stroke for the Dark Blues, while Cambridge had a non-rowing president in Augustus Granville.^[10]

Seat	Cambridge			Oxford
Seat	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]

Race

[Cambridge] wore white guernseys and white straw hats with light blue ribbons, the steerer 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.

MacMichael^[13]

The umpires for the race were Charles Woolaston and C. J. Selwyn, while W. Harrison Esq, the Commodore of the Royal 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 to Bell's Life, Cambridge were slight favourites.^[15] Oxford won the toss 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 by Vauxhall Bridge were "several boats' lengths" ahead.^[16] They increased their lead further by Battersea Bridge and shot Putney 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]

References

Notes

^ ^a ^b "Dark Blues aim to punch above their weight". The Observer. 6 April 2003. Archived from the original on 11 September 2014. Retrieved 1 September 2014.
^ Smith, Oliver (25 March 2014). "University Boat Race 2014: spectators' guide". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 1 July 2014. Retrieved 1 September 2014.
^ "The Course". The Boat Race Company Limited. Archived from the original on 28 October 2014. Retrieved 1 September 2014.
^ MacMichael, pp. 55–57
^ Burnell, p. 49
^ ^a ^b MacMichael, p. 58
^ "The Boat Race". Oxford University Boat Club. Archived from the original on 21 April 2014. Retrieved 30 September 2014.
^ ^a ^b Dodd, p. 287
^ MacMichael, pp. 57, 59
^ ^a ^b Burnell, pp. 50–51
^ MacMichael, p. 59
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d MacMichael, p. 60
^ MacMichael, p. 61
^ "Boat Race – Early races". The Boat Race Company Limited. Archived from the original on 7 November 2014. Retrieved 22 April 2014.
^ MacMichael, pp. 58–59
^ MacMichael, p. 61
^ MacMichael, pp. 61–62
^ "Boat Race 2014: a history of pain, mutiny and sinkings". The Week. 4 April 2014. Archived from the original on 6 October 2014. Retrieved 30 September 2014.
^ "Boat Race – Results". The Boat Race Company Limited. Archived from the original on 12 July 2016. Retrieved 26 October 2014.

Bibliography

Burnell, Richard (1979). One Hundred and Fifty Years of the Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race. Precision Press. ISBN 978-0-9500638-7-4.
Dodd, Christopher (1983). The Oxford & Cambridge Boat Race. Stanley Paul. ISBN 978-0-09-151340-5.
Drinkwater, G. C.; Sanders, T. R. B. (1929). The University Boat Race – Official Centenary History. Cassell & Company, Ltd.
MacMichael, William Fisher (1870). The Oxford and Cambridge Boat Races: From A.D. 1829 to 1869. Deighton. p. 37. boat race oxford cambridge.