MR HOLBEIN'S GREAT SWIM.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXIX, Issue 9530, 10 September 1902, Page 4

MR HOLBEIN'S GREAT SWIM.

LONDON, August 2.

As a trial of his strength in preparation for the attempt he intends to make to swim the English Channel, Mr Montague Holbein essayed a coast swim from Dover to Ramsgate. Mr Holbein, it will be remembered, tried to swim from the French coast to Dover last year in a gale of wind, but failed in his attempt by four miles after a most 2'Jucky effort. Yesterday, again owing to adverse circumstances, he failed in his object, being compelled by a strong contrary tide, coupled with a heavy sea and head wind, to relinquish his endeavor when some four miles from Ramsgate. His performance, all the same, was a fine one. He remained in the water for four and three-quarters hours, and swam some eighteen miles.

This is the exact distance between the nearest points on the French and English shores. The distance "as the crow flies" along the. coast between Dover and Bamsgate is reckoned at twenty miles. The distance for the swim, with the unavoidable deviations from the straight course, is about twenty-two miles. It was shortly after nine o'clock in the morning when, accompanied by his manager, Mr Gray, Dr Murphy, and a few friends in a couple of pilot boats, Mr Holbein started out from Dover. It was 9.27 when, having been rubbed over with oil and wearing a mask, Mr Holbein slipped into the water with a favoring eastward tide but a head-wind. The mask was composed of American sticker's plaster, with glass let in to enable him to see, and effectually preserve his eyes from injury. Last year after his Channel swim his eyes suffered so severely that he was unable to see at all for four days. CHAFFING SEASICK PASSENGERS. Mr Holbein started on his breast at twenty-five strokes a minute, but soon turned upon his back, his favorite position, and struck out steadily at twenty strokes a minute. This is a remarkable stroke, the hands being brought up to the breast, and so extended without emerging from the water.

Such headway did he make that the heavy boats were hard put to keep up with him. It had been intended to keep well out into the Channel to catch the full force of the tide, but so heavy was the sea, owing to the cross-wind—though the swimmer himself did not complain—that the boats must have been swamped had they held on, so they were compelled to put into shore again. Throughout, in fact, Mr Holbein made much better weather than the boats.

Three or four times he came alongside the doctor's boat, and without having a hand on it. took beef essence in-liquid form and sandwiches, which he found most sustaining. He swam on, chaffing cheerily the 'drenched and seasick passengers in the boats.

He passed Deal at twenty minutes to one, and was cheered by a crowd. The tide was now beginning to swing, but he held on for another three miles, making slow headway.

REFUSED TO COME OUT.

So strongly was the tide running against him that it seem°d impossible for the boats to make Ramsgate. Mr Gray insisted on Mr Holbein's desisting from his effort. The swimmer,, however, refused to enter the boat, and swam back towards Deal, only coming out of the water at 2.10 in time to dress for going ashore.

Mr Holbein was much the freshest of the party when he landed, and the pulse and heart were normal. He ate a hearty luncheon, and after walking to the station travelled up to London. He will return to Dover in about a week's time to await a favorable day to swim the Channel.

The doctor says Mr Holbein, who is a man of magnificent physique, is much better than he was last year.

The possibility of a sudden storm arising is what Mr Holbein dreads. The distance is comparatively nothing, he says. He once swam forty-three miles in the Solent.