Brief history of Channel swimming
Captain Webb was the first man to swim across the Channel, back in 1875.
Until then this was thought impossible and extremely dangerous.
This amazing feat was achieved by the 27 year old son of a Shropshire doctor.
He achieved it after several attempts aided by top-ups of brandy, beef tea and
hot coffee, his body greased with porpoise oil. Inclement weather and stings
from starfish didn't stop the plucky hero arriving on the Calais shore some 21
hours later. He soon became a national hero and featured everwhere from
comic books to matchbox labels. Sadly this hero was undone by his fatal
attempt to swim the rapids below Niagara Falls.
typhoo t card 'great achievements'
erroneously showing the hero swimming the 'crawl'. Apparently, he swam breastroke!
Since then, many have attempted, failed and even cheated to gain the prestige
of this achievement. Gertrude Ederle, an Olympic gold medallist was one of the
first women to successfully cross the Channel in 1928.
More recently, David Walliams of Little Britain fame unbelievably completed
the swim in about 9 hours!
In 2007, we met Peter Jurzynski, aged 56, a plucky American who has swum the
Channel 14 times. We also met a Brazilian, Igor de Souza, who had acheived a world
record for a 'there and back' swim in 1997, and was awarded a Rolex watch in
the days when this company sponsored the swim.
We also met Tony Espin who in 1978 made the heroic crossing and is now an
active Observer and promoter of the sport. He also kindly gave me a copy of the
Channel Swimming Association handbook, which will tell you all you need to know
about planning your swim as well as containing inspiring facts and personal recollections.
2007 was obviously a good year for crossings as a Mexican relay team swam the
fastest 3-way relay in 30 hours 7 minutes.
This year, 2010, Clive Burbage dropped by. He features in a short film called 'crossing Hell's Mouth' and
has swum most of the tricky swims around the world. He was part of Team 2+2 CSA and crossed the Channel
in 13 hours 25 minutes. He was wearing a wonderful swimmers watch which not only had info on the tides,
temperatures and direction(compass) but also told the time!
The Rolex Watch Company , for a period of 35 years, from 1970 - 2004, presented
a 'Submariner' watch to the fastest channel swimmer of the year in addition to supplying
each Observer with a totally accurate timepiece for the purpose of timing the swim!
Of course not all attempts to swim the Channel are successful
and the motto that appears below Captain Webb's memorial on the Dover seafront,
"nothing great is easy" says it all.
SOME FACTS TO AMAZE YOU....
The oldest man to have achieved the swim is Clifford Batt (Australia)
who at 67 years old swum across in 18hours 37mins in 1987.
The oldest woman is Carol Sing (USA) who succeeded aged 57
in 12hours 32mins in 1999.
The 'King of the Channel' is Michael Read (UK) who has swum 33 successful crossings.
The 'Queen of the Channel' is Alison Streeter (UK) who has swum 39 successful crossings.
REMEMBER - If you can see France from the English coast, this is a sign of
bad weather to come.
and one ancient line of wisdom
'For wreaking havoc upon a strong man, even the very strongest, there is nothing so dire
as the sea' - Homer
Channel Swimming Association coat of arms
which appears on every certificate for an officially recognised swim.
limited edition of 25
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limited edition screenprint
edition of 30
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limited edition 2025 spring £25 each and postcard £1