CHANNEL SWIMMING JUBILEE.

Dunstan Times, Issue 3135, 18 September 1922, Page 2

CHANNEL SWIMMING JUBILEE.

If Dover has a vacant date next month [August] and! ai sense of gratitude it ought to celebrate the jubilee of Channel swimming, writes a contributor to the Daily Chronicle. The first attempt was made in 1872. and since then the crowd 1 of aspirants who come year alter year to 1 wait -for a favorable opportunity has brought much grist to the Dover mill. To Mr J. B. Johnson, of Leeds, a well-known long-distance swimmer of Victorian times, belongs the credit for beginning the business. He arrived at Dover in August. 1872, and announced that he was going t« swim to Calais on the date of the fetes there, ft wuti not a very serious l attempt. Early on the morning of the 24th a procession, beaded by the baud of the Royal Surrey Gardens, and including Mr .Johnson, wearing 2(1 decorations on bis breast, marched to the Admiralty Pier. The pier officials, not being then so familiar with these excursions as they have since become, refused admission, and' it was not until 10. 40 that •lohnson dived into the water. He swam two miles in 20 minutes, and went so fast that he overhauled' the accompanying steamer. However, when seven miles had been covered Johnson, "owing to numbness of the legs," had to give up, and he made the rest of the journey to Calais by steamer. Johnson, like many of his imitators, under-estimated the task of swimming the Channel, and imagined! that the race was to the swift. Matthew Webb made a juster estimate of the opposition. He was a. man of magnificent physique' and indomitable endurance. He carefully surveyed the Channel and its tides 1 , discovered that it could only be crossed by a swimmer who l coulld stay in the water for over 20 hours. and after one. trial trip, a few days before his real attempt, swam from Dover to Calais on August 25, 1875, in 21 hours 45 minutes. More than a score of swimmers, including four women, have since tried conclusions I with the tides and cross currents of flic Channel. Very few of them have come near success; only one has made the journey. It was achieved by Thomas Burgess, a Yorkshiremnn. on September 5, 1911, after a swim of 22 hours and 35 minutes. He followed almost the same course as Webb. Burgess was. and still is, a prosperous merchant in Paris. T/ong distance swimming was his darling hobby, and for several years he spent his summer holiday at Dover, practising and waiting for a day which would give him a good chance of saving his steamer fare home. He must have spent a small fortune on his attempts, 13 in all, for be left nothing to chance, and always had a flotilla of boats in attendance. Burgess is an enthusiast in the matter, as any man must be who hopes for success. When he was preparing to make his tenth attempt, of which I was a spectator, I remember him saying thafc once a man had tried to swim the Channel it was impossible for him to give it up; there was an irresistible lure about it which always brought nim back to have another try. That may he so to a.man of herculean strength, of inexhaustible staying power, impervious to punishment and Job-like in patience, as Burgess was. But there are very few like him. and it is extremely doubtful whether the present Channel swimming season, which has already set in with its usual severity, will see another name added to the brief list of those who have done the deed.