The history channel
STINGING jellyfish, abrasive salt water and chilly conditions are among the hazards which have faced English Channel swimmers over the decades. Captain Matthew Webb was the first to successfully make the crossing 145 years ago on August 25, 1875.
It took the merchant navy captain 21 hours and 45 minutes to swim from Dover to Calais doing the breaststroke and it made him the first person to successfully complete the challenge without the aid of any flotation devices.
He trained at the Lambeth Baths in London beforehand, but had to abandon his first attempt on August 12 when a storm broke out just a few hours into the swim.
However, his second attempt saw him jump off Dover Pier smeared in porpoise oil and make it to Calais accompanied by three support boats. He was stung by jellyfish along the way, but simply had a swig of brandy and carried on. His memorial bears the engraving “Nothing easy is great.”
It was another 36 years before anyone matched his feat. Yorkshireman Thomas William “Bill” Burgess became the second person to swim the Channel in 1911. He had won a bronze medal for water polo in the 1900 Olympic Games and was 37 when he successfully swam the Channel after several failed attempts.
He famously wore motoring goggles when he was swimming and his crossing from South Foreland Lighthouse to Le Chatelet took 22 hours and 35 minutes.
One of his first failed attempts saw him swimming with five other men Australian actress and one-piece swimsuit creator Annette Kellerman.
Bill successfully trained American Olympic gold medal swimmer Gertrude Ederle when she smashed the challenge in 1926 to become the first woman to swim the Channel.
She swam from France to Kent in a time of 14 hours and 34 minutes doing the crawl. Like Burgess, she wore motorcycle goggles to protect her eyes from the salt water. She said: “To me, the sea is like a person, like a child that I’ve known a long time. It sounds crazy, I know, but when I swim in the sea I
MARION McMULLEN looks back at the brave souls who have hit the water to swim between Britain and France