A Yank at Cambridge: B.H. Howell: The Forgotten Champion

"A Yank at Cambridge – B.H. Howell: The Forgotten Champion" is the story about Benjamin Hunting Howell of New York, who arrived at Trinity Hall, Cambridge University, England, in the autumn of 1894 to study. Howell had not previously rowed in America, but he soon found himself out boating on the River Cam. The following summer, the young American was in the Trinity Hall Boat Club crew that took the Grand Challenge Cup for eights, the most prestigious event at Henley Royal Regatta. In the autumn of 1896, Howell tried a new river adventure: sculling, and in this discipline he would excel to the fullest, taking the two finest amateur titles in the world at this time: the Diamond Challenge Sculls at Henley in 1898 and 1899, and these years also the Wingfield Sculls, the Amateur Sculling Championship of the Thames and Great Britain. This biography not only presents Howell, it also depicts many of his contemporary oarsmen: 'Old Blues' from Oxford and Cambridge, legendary rowing coaches and rowing writers.