CROSSING THE CHANNEL

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXII, Issue 175, 9 July 1932, Page 1 (Supplement)

CROSSING THE CHANNEL

SEVERAL NOVEL METHODS SUCCESS OF 17 SWIMMERS. DOMINION WOMAN'S AMBITION “Poised on an aquaplane behind a fast motor-boat, the New Zealand swimmer, Miss Lily Coppiestone, crossed the English Channel from Dover to Calais in 63 minutes.” that brief news item appearing in last week’s “Tribune” shows that although Channel swimming is said to be on the wane, the search for novel means of conquering this notorious stretch of water goes on

Although the Channel was crossed on a surfboard by a young Frenchman, Roger Tronquet, last October, Miss Coppiestone is probably the first, woman to accomplish the feat. Her time shows a considerable improvement on the six and a-half hours occupied by Tronquet to cross from Boulogne to Folkestone, towed by a fishing-boat, in .exceptionally, rauglj weat her.

The cavalier manner in which the Channel has been treated by aspirants to novel record honours has for long surprised those who regarj an ordinarysteamer crossing as something of an adventure. In a period of 57 years there have been about 150 attempts or more to swim the Channel, but only- 17 have been successful. No other strip of water in the world has exercised such a lure as the “Straits.” It has brought swimmers from all parts of the world to attempt its conquest. LAST SWUM IN 1930. The most' recent successful Channel swim was by a 19-year-old South African girl, Miss Peggy Duncan, who occupied 16 hours, in September, 1930. The Auckland swimmer, as reported in yesterday’s cablegrams, will make another attempt in August, having been forced to abandon the project last year owing

to unfavourable conditions. Miss Copplostorie was the last of 15 aspirants forced to give up the attempt last year. Burgess, her trainer, is confident she will achieve success,as she has several notable wim already to her credit. Earyl ast year Miss Copplestono was placed third in an endurance contest In Manly Baths, Sydney, her time being a little over 4o hours. The event was won by Miss Mercedes Gleitze, a successful Channel swimmer, in 48} hours. A few months later Miss Coppiestone completed a six-mile swim down Sydney Harbour in slightly more than three hours. Although Captain W. Webb firs; swam the Channel in 1875, he remain cd the sole claimant to the distinction for .36 years before T. W. Burgess accomplished the feat in .1911. Then in 1923 three crossings were made and in 1926 the first Channel swim by a woman was achieved by Miss G. F.dcrle In that year there were four olher sue cessful- attempts, a id in each of thv two succeeding years there were three. The only crossing since 1928 was Miss Duncan’s in 1930. Of the 17 people who have so far swum the Channel, seven were women.

If a Channel crossing by swimming has so often been attended by failure, there arc other means of accomplishing it. Last year a young Austrian, Karl Naumestnik, “walked” across the water, but the Vskis-” he used are no new device. The feat was accomplished in 1878 by a Mr Fowler, an American, who walked across the Channel on what he called a “podoscaph. ” MAN IN A RUBBER SUIT. Paul Boynton’s india-rubber suit floated him successfully from Dover to Calais in 1875, after an attempt with his “Merriman” life-saving suit had failed in a previous effort. The first to arouse public interest In quite another form of Channel sport was Lord Desborough, who stroked an Oxford eight from England to France in 4 hours 22 minutes. There was a lull in the excitement of these crossChannel expeditions until the Rev. S. Swan, an old Cambridge Blue, established a record by rowing from Dover to Calais in a 20ft skiff in 3 hours 50 minutes in 1911. There followed a variety of this class of adventure. Then

came the Frenchman, Blcriot, who on July 5,1909, flew the Channel in an aeroplane from - Franco to Dover. Miss Trehawke Davies was the first woman to cross the Channel in an aeroplane. A new era had opened. Novel methods which have been used since are a submarine, glider; motorboat, water podal-cycle, water motorcycle. and canoe.