CHANNEL GLIDE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23117, 16 August 1938, Page 7

CHANNEL GLIDE

| SWIMMER'S AMBITION . ' [from a special correspondent] LONDON, July 23 F A man who once swam the English channel now wants to be the first to glide across from a straight take-off.. He is Mr. Norman L. Derham, whose record timo of 13 hours 55 minutes for the Channel swim, set up in 1920, was not beaten until Tom Blower lowered it by 25 minutes last year. "1 want to glide the Channel from; a straight take-off," lie said. "So for it*has been done only when the glider has been towed to the necessary height by an aeroplane. And then 1 think that will be enough records for me." When Mr. Derham was 15 he avura,/ from Cowes to Calshot. He was the r . first to swim the Thames'JKstuary from Shcerness to Westehffv a very difficult feat, in spito' of tlie relatively shore distance of eight miles, because of tides and currents. On another occasion swimming backward and forward between Tilbury and Southend, he covered a distance of 75 miles. But Mr. Derham, who is now working as swimming pool superintendent at a Surrey road ho use, is sorry ho ever made the sAvim that made him world-famous in a day. "I thought I was made." ho said, "but the world forgets quickly. For a year or two 1 lived like a lord, but in the long run I lost money over it. And then 1 now to find a new career." •• # • 1