CAPTAIN WEBB'S LAST SWIM.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3801, 20 September 1883, Page 4

CAPTAIN WEBB'S LAST SWIM.

A New York correspondent says the story of Captain Webb's rash swim is very simple and very brief. When ho had fully determined to attempt his last adventure, ho found some difficulty in dweoveringa boatman daring , enough to row him out into the Hiid-Strcam. At last he persuaded a man to do him this service, and on the way tho boatman asked how much Webb had realised by his various exhibitions. Tho Englishman said he had netted twenty-five thousand dollars, of which fifteen thousand wore still left. The man at the oar remarked that lie had better return to shore and enjoy what remained. Webb only smiled in reply, and began to undress. The boatman said, " You will never need your clothes again," to which Webb responded, "Meet mo with blankets at Swiss Glen, as I want to get on to Boston as soon as possible." The captain was naked, except that he wore a band to protect tho stomach. The boat was near the now Canada Southern Railway Bridgo when Webb dived into the water at twenty-eight minutes to six. He quickly rose to the surface, and at first abandoned himself to tho current, making no effort to advance, but simply sustaining himself at the surface, and apparently reserving his strength for the struggle before him at the whirlpool. All through the first rapids the watchers on the shore report that he seemed to be going very nicely. Once, however, ho was almost turned over by the fearful tumult of waters; and more than once ho dived through the angriest waves, and each time came up to the surface readily, almost in the very centre of the channel, where tho water is several feet higher than at tho sides, owing to tho compression of so enormous v volume of water within a narrow bed. Along the steep banks of the Niagara river it is impossible to make a continuous walk at tho level of tho water, since the bordering cliffs sometimes descend sheer into the river. The spectators who had witnessed the start, therefore, hurried across to tho next point whence a view miyht he expected. Those stationed at the rapids above the whirlpool saw him approach, but they could not make out what condition he was in, as the water repeatedly swept over him. At the entrance to the whirlpool Webb threw up one arm. The lookers-on think it was a signal of distress; but it was the last that was seen of the unfortunate man. A careful examination had been made down the river to Lake Ontario, on both sides, but nothing has been discovered. Usually a tree or other object which has come over the falls is never soon again ; hut sometimes it is carried swiftly round and round the whirlpool for weeks. As to Webb, nothing more is known at present than that he has disappeared. Tho spot where he was last seen was rather on the American side of the centre of the river, where the average height of the waves is forty feet. His plan was to endeavor to pass tho whirlpool on the Canada side. The only conclusion that can be arrived at is, that a struggle for seventeen minutes with water, which is frightful merely to look at, had completely exhausted Webb by tho time he arrived at the most dangerous and difficult part of his journey. Webb's error lay in believing that it was possible to conquer currents which generate _ forces that arc altogether unknown and incalculable. Ho had carefully examined the scone of his exploit beforehand, and thought he understood what he had undertaken to do. Ho estimated that ho would have to struggle for two or three hours with the whirl of waters in the pool; but in all probability ho was exhausted, and perhaps senseless, before he got so far. Ho had made his will before starting on his fatal journey ._ No inducement had been hold out to him to undertake the feat; the main influence was his pride in his own strength. No wager was pending upon the issue; neither had the Railroad Companies or tho hotels offer to make up a purse for him. The number of spectators was not large, it was certainly under five hundred, so few people credited the published announcements that were made. Even the residents in tho neighborhood did not go to the bridges and other points of the view, as they considered it impossible that any man would attempt such a foolhardy enterprise. In 1861, the little steamer Maid of the Mist (which used to run from tho ferry to the foot of the Horseshoe Fall), with a crew of three men, in order to avoid the Sheriff's writ ran down the rapid, through tho whirlpool, and down the lower reach of the Niagara River into the lake. These are the only human beings who have over survived a journey by this route.