Monday Milestone: Channel Surfing

“It’s not about the distance. Lots of people can swim the equivalent in a pool.
It comes down to the cold”
– Alison Streeter, most prolific English Channel swimmer in history

This Week in History:
1875, August 25
Captain Matthew Webb wades ashore in France and in doing so becomes the first person to ever swim the English Channel.

Breathe. Just breathe.

I force my head down. I’ve never been good at this. Just a few more seconds. Push through the water. Almost there. I can see the wall. Just a little further…

The Milestone celebrates this week a time when relations between England and France were perpetually strained, and crossing between the countries was much more difficult than today. It was also a time when a ship captain, by the name of Matthew Webb embarked upon a unique passge between the nations setting off from Dover to conquer the English Channel. Like so many landmark acheivements in the history of sport, it was, of course, considered impossible at the time.

Indeed the very concept of swimming across the twenty-one mile English Channel was only a relatively new one. It had been born in 1862 when a merchant seaman clutching a bundle of straw turned up ashore in Dover after setting off from France sparking the simple question: What if the Channel could be crossed without the aid of buoyancy? Human curiosity coupled with a competitive streak can be a bitch.

This was how Captain Webb came to leave Admiralty Pier in Dover that afternoon, and was last seen by the English being swept out into the main waters of the English Channel. Many assuming he was lost.

He almost was. Like any pioneer, he faced plenty of unanticipated challenges. The tides of the Channel were unexpectedly, yet in hindsight unsurprisingly, different for a swimmer from the River Severn, than the ships that passed through the waterways. There were jellyfish to contend with – a sting mid-Channel almost crippled the twenty-seven year old, and his efforts. The temperature of the cold English water even in the height of summer was nearly enough to withdraw from the attempt, not to mention his sheer mental and phyiscal exhaustion during the last two and a half hours.  

But he survived. And when he waded ashore on the French beach in front of thousands, that morning he was a hero.

Experts say his swim was closer to 39 miles as he zigzagged across the Channel, avoiding ships, spending 21 hours and 45 minutes in the water, showing remarkable endurance. Although a curious fact, is that it is said, that throughout the swim, Webb’s diet consisted of beer, brandy and beef tea. So perhaps it’s little wonder Webb made it to France. He was probably half wasted most of the way.

Regardless, the significance of Matthew Webb cannot be understated. His feats would be unmatched for a generation. Only in 1911, after approximately eighty unsuccessful attempts did anyone else complete the twenty-one mile crossing.  

An unfathomable distance for me as I burst forth out of the water spluttering, having almost certainly inhaled litres of chlorine. I’ve barely swum fifty metres yet I slump exhausted against the wall of the pool.

Bugger the English Channel for a joke.

I’ll just take the train.

 

Milestone Five: Important English Channel crossings

5. Roger Allsopp completes a crossing in 2011 at the age of 70, demonstrating how possible it still is for most aspiring swimmers.

4. Des Renford becomes the first Australian to swim the English Channel in 1970 in his first of seventeen crossings.

3. Englishwoman Alison Streeter, the’ Queen of the Channel’ completes her first channel crossing in 1982. She holds the record with 43 crossings, including the only woman to complete a triple crossing.

2. American Jon Erikson becomes the first man to complete a triple crossing of the Channel in 1981.

1. Captain Matthew Webb becomes the first man to swim the English Channel in 1875.