SWIMMING.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 14806, 9 October 1911, Page 9

SWIMMING.

BURGESS'S SUPREME EFFORTS. WINS BY PLUCK. The feat of swimming the English Channel performed by T. W. Burgess on September 5 was only done after a plucky effort. He was almost abandoning the attempt, but when nearly half way luck seemed to turn. Hie wind did drop, and the sea became smoother, and at the end of six hours Burgess was going stronger than at any time up to this. The ebb tide carried him at a very great rate to the south, and within seven hours of starting he was 10 miles on the way to France very nearly half way across the Channel. The afternoon boat to Dover passed miles away to the eastward of him. At one time a big tramp steamer had been seen steering almost straight for the party in the boat. They stood up and waved to the captain to go round behind the swimmer, and he did so. When those on board the steamer were) told what was happening they shouted, "Good Luck to the swimmer, and went off up channel. t It was daring the next tide that Burgess broke the back of the swim. That, tide carried him up channel all through the first half of the night. The water was oily smooth, and those on board the launcn could heap the continual .swash of trie, swimmer's strokes alongside in the stillness. He was in great spirits, and said he wouia not have changed his position then for any that he had occupied in any previous swim. His eyes were still a little troublesome to begin with, but Mr. Weidman, a rival Channel swimmer from Dover, who was on board, handed him a pair of his own goggles, which suited the swimmer better; and ne was more comfortable than perhaps at any time during the swim. At nine ociocs Weidman dived in and swam with Burgess until midnight, which did a, great ueal to cheer him up. Burgess had some grapes at, nightfall, and he took hot milk and grapes every half-hour during the first part of the night. The tide was actually takuik xiini back towards England across the ridge and sandbank, but later on he began to jorge slowly towards France. There was haze on. tho water, but the lights on the English shore and on Cape Grisnez could be seen at, times. During the night Burgess, was stMS by a pink poisonous jellyfish, but did not worry greatly. , Towards ' morning the tide turned again. Burgess had been carried up Grisnez to past Calais. Now tho reverse carried him southwards again. About 4.20 on Wednesday the morning broke, and they were able to take the bearings of the French, coaat. Sangatte was just three miles distant But a log covered the shore, and for a considerable time it was impossible to make it out. Just during this period Burgess began to feel a little delirious, although he was not troubled physically. He asKed for iho Marseillaise." " I've a fit of the blues, ana if you boys don't sing to me. belaid, 1 " be chucking it presently, So all those on. board sang " The Marseillaise. The swimmer soon plucked up, but then, came the first sign of a more serious trouble-cramp in the region of the heart. For several hours Burgess kept. going dejectedly, and at last, under the impression that ho was still many miles off land, he asked for 20 drops of champagne every hour. He was then told he was only a mile off the land. Burgess, immediately Be heard tills, refused the champagne. He took some pepnermint and a tabloid to ease him of his pain, and went ahead again. At eighto'clock he had another attack of cramp in. the stomach. It looked as if he wouM fail in his object when he was there, close under the French shore. He had not got round the corner of Cape Grisnez, as he had hoped, and now the tide was turning, ana would carry him out to sea agaan- Ho stopped and held a short consultation in the water, and decided to make for the noint, the cape itself. Half an &«ur later he found that he had missed if e*s*.alf a Those on the launch thought that the game was up, but Burgess's pluck saved it. Little by little he ploughed into the slack water in the bay north of the cape. Weld man jumped in and swum alongside him. Suddenly Weidman shouted to him. lut> down your feet," he said. Burgess did so, and beneath him was the sand of France. He stumbled out of the water into an enthusiastic crowd of Frenchmen, and Bat there crying like a child, with Weidman crying beside him. Bureess is a Yorkshireman, 6ft tall, very broad, and well covered with fat. He carries on a motor business in Paris, and some of the papers put him down as a French subject But in his answer to King George congratulations he designedly spoke of himself as not only an Englishman, but as a subject of the King.