The Ouachita telegraph. [volume] (Monroe, La.) 1865-1889, 1879-01-24
swIMMING IN ICY WATER.
Paul Boyton's Trip Up and Down the
East River.

Paul Boyton's Trip UP and Down the
East River.
New York SUM-
Ice was floating in the bay before
Castle Garden when Capt. Paul Boyton
stepped from the landing for a swim
up the East river. The flood tide was
nearing high water. He wore rubber
suit weighing 100 pounds-the one
made for him to travel down the Volga
river in Russia for q days. It was of
double thickness, and it had seven air
compartments. Around his neck was
slung flask of brandy. Blowing up
his suit for q minute before he launched
himself and for a minute afterward, he
called for his little standard of Stars
and Stripes, and stuck it in socket in
his heel. Then striking his double
bladed paddle in the water he said,
"Good-by, boys" and struck out for
the strong tide. Those who followed
him along the piers up the East river
front could not keep up with him. A
boat containing few of the Captains
friends followed him. Opposite Fulton
Ferry were five huge boats, and the
Captain tossed on the waves, but he
padded along steadily in the center of
the channel, pausing now and then to
dip his flag in response to whistles.
The steamboat Harlem passed him and
the passengers cheered him with hats
in hand. Capt. BoytOn grabbed his
flag and waved it three times around
his head while he stood upright in the
water. Then he proceeded up stream,
and in forty minutes from the start he
was off Williamsburgh.
He had kept in midstream, but there
the current carried him very near the
Williamsburgh Ferry, where the cur
rent strikes and bounds off toward the
New York shore. The Captain was
carried 80 far over toward New York
that he could not land where he first
desired, so he kept on, and encircled
Blackwell's Island, taking the east
side up and the west side down stream.
When opposite the west center boat
shot out from the Island with two con-
victs and a corporal of the guard.
"Who are you," the corporal cried,
''and where are you going?"
"I'm traveller, and am going to
land here-abouts," the navigator re-
piled.
"Well, you can't land" the corporal
of the guard retorted. "Come along
with me.''
So Capt. Boyton had to go to the
Island with the boat. On landing he
quickly satisfied the exacting official.
Returning to the water, he landed
at Hunters Point in two hours and a
half after his start. He was to have
lowed q boat back with the rope in his
mouth, but the boat was unfit, and
after a stay of few minutes he
launched on an ebb tide. "This will
be flying trip" he said, as he lighted
a cigar and padded off. In five min
utes less than an hour he arrived at
the Dover street pier. Nan the News
boy handed him Il rocket, and the
Captain stuck the tail of it in the
water while he lighted the fuse with
his cigar. It rose and exploded, and
attracted throng of sightseers to see
him land. His face was in a glow.
Although the river was unusually
free from ice, the Captain occasionally
struck belts of floating cakes. He did
not avoid but padded through it at q
slow pace, the blades of his oars rattl.
ing along the hard surface OF the mass.
The Hunters Point landing was made
through thick coating of ice. Some
men in a boat offered to clear a passage
to the pier, but the Captain refused.
When he landed by crawling up a
ladder placed for him his uniform was
coated with ice frozen to it.