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List of successful English Channel swimmers
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This is a list of notable successful swims across the English Channel,[1] a straight-line distance of at least 18.2 nautical miles (20.9 mi; 33.7 km).[2]
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First attempts
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First unaided attempt, by J. B. Johnson
The first attempt to cross the channel with no artificial aid was made by the 23 year old J. B. Johnson on 30 August 1872.[3] Johnson hired a brass band in Dover to promote his attempt and entertained the crowd for three hours at Dover before diving in and starting his swim.[4]
Johnson swam for 45 minutes before having a quick break to down some brandy. He then continued until he had swum for 1 hour before having another break to drink more brandy. After 1 hour and 20 minutes, Johnson boarded the boat because the cold water was too much for him to manage.[5] Despite this, the boat continued on to Calais, where Johnson jumped off the boat and swam to shore. The crowd waiting for him believed Johnson had swum the channel, and Johnson briefly entertained this idea. However, later he said that he never intended to swim the whole channel, and that it was all a stunt for publicity.[5]
First successful crossing, by Paul Boyton
The first successful attempt was by Paul Boyton, wearing a rubber survival suit designed for passengers of sinking ships. On 28 May 1875, on his second attempt, he entered the water at Cap Gris-Nez at 03:00, accompanied by the Prince Ernest and captained by Edward Dane.[6] By 06:00, Boyton was 5 miles from the French coast, and at 11:45, he was halfway.[7] At 18:30, Boyton was 4 miles from Dover, and by 02:30, he had landed at Fan Bay, near the Port of Dover.[8] He completed the swim in around 231⁄2 hours.[9] The press began to portray him as a rival of endurance swimmer Matthew Webb.
First unaided successful crossing, by Matthew Webb
Matthew Webb made the crossing without the aid of artificial buoyancy. His first attempt ended in failure, but on 25 August 1875, he started from Admiralty Pier in Dover and made the crossing in 21 hours and 45 minutes, despite challenging tides (which delayed him for 5 hours) and a jellyfish sting.[10]
Second unaided successful crossing, by Thomas Burgess
80 failed attempts were made by a variety of people before Thomas William Burgess, on 6 September 1911, became the second person to make the crossing without artificial buoyancy. He crossed from Dover to Cap Gris Nez in 22 hours and 35 minutes at his 16th bid. Burgess ate a hearty meal of ham and eggs before starting his swim. He had trained for only 18 hours beforehand, and his longest practice swim was only 10 kilometres (6 mi).[11]
Other early crossings
Henry Sullivan was successful at his seventh attempt, becoming the third person, and the first American, to make the crossing. He entered the water in Dover at 4:20 on Sunday afternoon, 5 August 1923. Choppy waters and capricious tides forced him to swim an estimated 90 kilometres (56 mi). He reached shore at Calais at 8:05 pm on 6 August, finishing in 27 hours and 45 minutes.[12] Two other swimmers completed the swim that same summer. Enrique Tirabocchi, from Argentina, completed the swim on 13 August, finishing in a record time of 16 hours and 33 minutes and the first person to swim the route starting from France.[13] American Charles Toth of Boston completed the swim on 9 September 1923, in 16 hours and 40 minutes, two days after the expiration of a £1,000 prize offered by the Daily Sketch for anyone who completed the swim, a prize that both Sullivan and Tirabocchi received from a representative of the Daily Sketch waiting on the shore with a cheque in hand.[14][15]
First crossings by women
American Gertrude Ederle's successful cross-channel swim began at Gris Nez in France at 07:05 am on 6 August 1926. Her trainer was Burgess.[16] She came ashore at Kingsdown, Kent, England, in a total time of 14 hours and 39 minutes, making her the first woman to complete the crossing and setting the record for the fastest time, breaking the previous mark set by Tirabocchi by almost two hours. A reporter from The New York Times, who had accompanied Ederle's support team on a tugboat, recounted that Ederle was confronted by a British immigration official, who recorded the biographical details of Ederle and the individuals on board the ship, none of whom had been carrying their passports. Ederle was finally allowed to come ashore, after promising that she would report to the authorities the following morning.[17]
L. Walter Lissberger financed the $3,000 in expenses that Amelia Gade Corson and her husband incurred in preparing for the Channel swim. Lissberger made a wager with Lloyd's of London betting that she would succeed in crossing the Channel, and received a payout of $100,000 at odds of 20–1 when she completed her swim.[18] She was one of three swimmers who were trying to make the swim across the Channel at the same time starting at 11:32 at night on 28 August 1926, leaving from Cape Gris Nez. The two men with her failed, Egyptian swimmer Ishak Helmy dropping out after three hours and an English swimmer failing one mile (1.6 km) from Dover's Shakespeare Cliffs.[19] With her husband rowing alongside in a dory and providing her with hot chocolate, sugar lumps and crackers, she completed the swim in a time of 15 hours and 29 minutes, one hour longer than the record set by Gertrude Ederle three weeks earlier.[20]
Jackie Cobell had intended to make the crossing by a more direct route in July 2010, but inadvertently set the record for the slowest solo swim, when strong currents forced her to swim a total of 105 kilometres (65 mi) in 28 hours and 44 minutes.[21]
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First swims
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National firsts
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Other notable crossings
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Records
Fastest
Most crossings
Oldest swimmer
Youngest swimmer
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Sources
- Watson, Kathy (2001). The crossing: the glorious tragedy of the first man to swim the English channel. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. ISBN 1-58542-109-X.
- Dolphin (1875). The Channel Feats of Captain Webb and Captain Boyton. London: Dean & Son.
References
External links
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