He Swam to Fame

THERE are channels and seas separating many countries and continents but the strip of sea that separates England and France, the English Channel, has always offered the supreme challenge to long — distance swimmers.

It is believed that the first man to swim this channel was a French prisoner-of-war, Jean Marie Saletti, who in 1815 leapt from a ship moored on the English side and swam home.

However the first official crossing was made by Captain Matthew Webb of the British merchant navy in August 1875.

Webb did not succeed in his first attempt. Rough seas forced him to give up halfway. Twelve days later he waded into the surf again at Dover and began to swim.

Not many people expected him to reach the other side. Swimming experts had warned that it was foolish for a man to try to swim the channel without a life-jacket. Great was the jubilation of the crowd gathered at Calais therefore when they saw the gallant captain coming ashore. It had taken him 21 hours 45 minutes to conquer the channel.

Webb became a national hero. T.W. Burgess was the second man to swim the channel, but he took almost an hour longer than Captain Webb.

The first woman to succeed was Gertrude Ederle who on August 6, 1926 swam from Cape Gris Nez, France to Deal in England in the then record time of 14 hours 39 minutes.

Many swimmers never make it to the channel swimmers' club despite repeated attempts. The most indomitable of these unsuccessful ones was Jabez Wolfe who beginning from 1906 made no fewer than 22 attempts to swim the channel.

Once he got to within hailing distance of the French coast but was beaten back by the tide. To his dying day (he died in 1943) he maintained that he would have reached the other side on that occasion if he had not been washed back into the sea by the opening of the dock gates at Calais.