ANOTHER. SUCCESS

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 53, 31 August 1926, Page 9

ANOTHER. SUCCESS

CHANNEL AGAIN CROSSED

THIS TIME BY A GERMAN

BECOBD TIME CREATED,

(United Preis Association.—Copyright.)

(Reuters Telegram.)

(Received 31st August, noon.)

LONDON, 30th August,

A German swimmer named Vierkottor swam the Channel in 12 hours 42 minutes, starting from Cape Gris Nez at 1.35 o'clock in the morning, and landing at the South Foreland light. Ho is the sixth man to succeed since 1875, and creates a uew record, the previous best being that of Tiraboschi, in 1923, 16 hours 33 minutes, Vierkotter was accompanied by a French tug, a motorboat, and a rowing boat. The soa bocame choppy near the end of his journey.

Captain Matthew Webb was the first man to cross the Channel by swimming, doing so on 24th and 25th August, 1875, and taking 21 hours 45 minutes. For very many years his effort was the only successful one on record, and remained so for 36 years. Thomas William Uurgess was the first of the new order of swimmers to get across, swimming from Dover to Calais on sth and 6th September, 1911, but taking 22 hours 35 mm, nearly an hour longer than Webb. For twelve years Burgess shared the honour with "Webb of being the only men able to swim across, but since then there has been an epidemic of Channel swimmers and a number of successes have been recorded. On sth and Gth August, 1923, an' American, Henry Sullivan, swam from Dover to Calais in 27 hours 33 mins. The same year, but six days later, Sebastian Tiraboschi, an Italian swimmer, crossed in 16 hours 23mins, and his time was accepted as the record until lowered this year first of all by a woman, Miss Gertrude Edorle, and now again by the German Vierkotter. Charles Toth, of the United States, was successful in crossing fiom Calais to Dover on Bth and 9th September, of the same year (1923), taking 16 hours 54mins. For a couple of years there were numberless attempts, but none were successful until sth and 6th August this year, when Miss Gertrude Ederle, an American champion, crossed in 14} hours, being the first woman to do so and also lowering Tiraboschi's time by 1 hour 53 mm. This week Mrs. Clemington Carson, also an American, crossed from Cape Gris Nez to Dover in 15 hours 40 mins, and now comes the German's record which knocks a further 1 hour 48 mm off the record, and sets a difficult task for future attempts.