The Press., 1883-08-02
THE DEATH OF CAPTAIN WEBB.


 swimmer, had 8 most ignoble ending of his daring career, having ssdied as the fool dieth" in an attempt too foolhardy, to even allow of sympathy for its failure.
 It may be remembered that Webb visits ed the falls in June and looked the situa- ton over. In an interview after the visit he is reported as saying that his object in attempting to swim the rapids was to earn BIO, ,OOO, but there could have been no such money on this swim. He tried in vain to make an arrangement with the railroads to run their trains; and let him have forty per cent. of the excursion proceeds. The Niagara Falls hotel proprietors were asked to guarantee $1, ,O0O. Neither roads nor hotels would make terms, and he returned to Boston. But the affair was widely mo- ticed, and the captain seems to have made the attempt merely for the name of it.
 THE CAPTAINS STATEMENT. ..~2
 In the interview referred to Webb is re- ported as saying 'sI am going to swim the whirlpool rapids, and I will say that is the angriest bit of water in the world I came over from England to make the trial, and I went to the rapids last week and made critical examination. They are rough, tell you, and the whirlpool is a grand one, but think am strong enough and skillful enough to get through alive. The people of Niagara tell me that it will be simply committing suicide. You ought to hear the blood thrilling tales they re- lated for my benefit. A year or two ago a boy who was padding around in the shoal water was drawn into the rapids and had his head cut off, A girl fell into the river last summer from the suspension bridge, aed when her dead body was picked up at the end of the rapids it was bereft of all clothing but pair of stockings.
 "My plan is this :: The current, they say, runs thirty miles an hour, and the river is ninety-fve feet deep. It is wide just below the falls, but narrows at the rapids. I am only afraid of two awful lodges of rock which jut out from the shore and cut the whirlpool. The water fairly shrieks and hisses as it boils over them now. I want to avoid the sides, and yet I dare not go into the middle, for there is the vortex, and that means death. l. will go out into the middle of the river in small boat, just above suspension bridge. At the time appointed will leap into the river and float into the rapids. Of course, I will make no attempt to go forward, for
 THE FEARFUL SPEED OF THE WATER
 will carry me through. When the water gets very bad I will go under the surface and remain beneath until am compelled to come up for breath. That will be pret ty often, I'll wager. When reach the whirlpool will strike out with all my strength and try to keep away from the suction-hole in the center. My life vii then depend on my muscles and my breath with little touch of the science behind them. It may take me two or three hours to get out of the whirlpool, which is { quarter of mile long. When I do get through I will try to land on the Canads side, but if the current is too swift, as think it is, I will keep on down to Lewis ton on the American side."
 | This seems to be an outline of the pla1 which Captain Webb really attempted tt follow, but instead of floating easily witl the current until he reached the whirlpool and being then ready to strike out with al his power, the probability is that the ter rible force of the water buffeted him abou and completely exhausted, if it did no kill him. Finding himself helpless, h. may have given up the struggle, when h. disappeared, or he may have dived ant lbeens unable to; rise. In any event, Sh feould not have struggled long in the poo without being seen.
 Mrs. Webb is at Nantasket Beach witl her two children. She is in comfortabl circumstances, her husband having settlet say 5000 and some real estate upen he after his successful exploit in the Englisl Channel.