“Adelaide” The ‘Victory’ has always been the secoud boat since 1834. And the favourite names of other boats whose places have changed in different years are the ‘ Rivals,’ ‘Prince of Wales,’ “Vrafalgar,’‘ Prince George, ‘Thetis,’ and ‘Dreadnought.’ There has never heen any difficulty in getting crews for the one ten- oar and seven eight-oared boats, and in fact the names put down usually have exceeded the number of vacancies. In 1869 an additional boat was put on in consequence of the collegers being allowed to join, and in 1877 the ‘ Alexandra’ was added to the list owing to the increased number of entries, Be- fore 1869 the collegers had fours and sometimes an eight to themselves, but did not join the precession of the boats ; and as they did not belong to the oppidan ‘boats’ they could not row in the eight of the school.[1] But they rowed some successful matches against University men on several occasions. There was never any racing between collegers and oppidans, and the collegers could only race between themselves. Before 1840 they kept their boats at a wharf by the playing fields and had a bathing place there. ‘hey used to row down to Datchet and Bells of Ouseley, but from that time were forbidden to go below bridge and were put on the same recognised footing as oppidans.
As soon as the boys return to school after the Christmas holi- days a large card is placed at Saunders’ shop, on which those fifth and sixth form who wish to join and are not then in the boats in- scribe their names. “There is some excitement for a time while the captain of the boats appoints the captain to each boat, which he does usually in the order of ‘choices’ (a term which is ex- plained hereafter) of the previous year ; but sometimes it is thought best to put a high ‘choice’ or two in the ‘Victory’ and appoint as captain of some of the lower boats some good fellow who is not likely to get into the eight of the school, in order that when the eight is practising these boats should have the advantage of their captains to take them out. The captain of the lower boats ranks higher than the captain of the third upper
- ↑ In 1864, however, Marsden, a colleger, rowed in the eight, though collegers were still excluded from the boats.
