CHANNEL SWIMS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21919, 1 October 1934, Page 11

CHANNEL SWIMS

TWICE IN ONE DAIY MAN'S UNIQUE RECORD AUSTRIAN WOMAN'S SUCCESS [from our own correspondent] LONDON, August 31 August is the month when ions:distance swimmers respond to iht call of the channel. On one day last week two successes were recorded —ons fioni England to France, tho other from France to England. Mr. E. H. Temnie, a London insurance clerk, left the South Foreland at 6.11 a.m. and landed at Blanc Nez at 10.5 p.m., swimming a total distance of about 38 miles, the time taken being 35 hours 54 minutes. He has beaten Captain Webb's record time for the swim from England in 1875, which was 21 hours 45 minutes. Mr. Tenime had made several previous unsuccessful attempts from Dover, but in 1927 he swam at his first attempt from Cape Gris Nez to Dover in 14 hours 29 minutes. He is the first person ever to have swum the English Channel both ways. Conditions when Mr. Temme entered the water were perfect. Later the wind at times rose and made the sea choppy. He used the trudgeon stroke from start to finish, and generally did 20 strokes to the minute. No doubt the fact that the temperature gradually rose from 62.6 degrees to 64.7 degrees was helpful, but toward the end of the swim he had to make a fight against the tide, which for a time carried him parallel with the shore on the French side. Mr. Temme was accompanied by the Dover tug, Lady Brassey, which had on board Messrs. H. A. J. Ryeland and W. Havdon, of Dover, who are acting as the official witnesses for the committee of the Dover Town 'uold Challenge Cup. This will be awarded to the swimmer who crosses from Dover in the shortest time this season. Frau Faber, of Austria, was successful on her third attempt. She completed her swim in 14 hours 40 minutes, enly six minutes slower than Miss Gertrude Ederle's record time for the Cape Gris Nez-Soutli Foreland course, iac.dc in 1926. Last summer, swimming from Cape Gris Nez, Frau Faber gave up five miles from the English coast, when she had been in the water nearly 12 hours, and a week ago she abandoned an attempt from Calais owing to the rough sea when within 10 miles of the English coast.