New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1913-08-04
SW|MS ALMOST TO HOOK
Alfred Brown Thrown Back by
Tide When Close to Goal.
HIS FEAT REMARKABLE
Breaks Battery-to -Coney Rec
ord and Makes Gallant Effort
TO Reach Highlands.

The tide. which has wrecked tho hopes
Of so many long distance swimmers in
tho waters around New York. again
drove back Commodore Alfred Brown or
the Flushing Bay division Of the Amerl-
can I.ifesav wing Society, Yesterday. AFTER
he had arrived within about a mile or
Sandy Hook in his attempted twenty
,hree-mile swim from the Battery.
n was estimated that Brown covered
nearly thirty miles. but. although ne
broke all speed records over the course
and vas within sight Of his goal. the
turning OF the tide beat him by few
minute. and compelled him 10 admit de-
feat I'm his third effort TO reach the HOOK
Browns calculation was that he could
start from the Battery at high tide ana
by rapid swimming reach Sandy Hook
before the tide turned. ~ 10 O'Clock ne
dove from the platform OF the Barge
Office at the Battery. and. using the
trudgeon stroke and taking advantage or
the obh. raced through the water AT a
remarkable rate 81 speed Tor long dis
lance swimmer The conditions OF tide
and weather were IDEAL He was accom-
panied by Paul Frounhofer and Charles
Kaufman. OF his lifesaving division. who
were In a rowboat. They were followed
by a launch with committee or the So
cietv. composed OF Edward Brennan. the
presldont. Commodore @ u. Spalding. Of
the Arvcrne division. and Drs. @. Fish
Clarke and u. 4. Leick.
Brown reached Buttermilk Channel in
forty minutes. and was swept rapidly
through II by the st:ong outgoing cur
rent He covered the seven miles from
the Battery 10 Bay Ridge Dock In two
hours and fifteen minutes and the ten
and "A half miles TO Fort Wadsvorth In
three hours.
When he arrived at Coney Island Point
he had been swimming for three hours
and ffty-two minutes Since he was then
fully a mile out in the bay and had gone
far out Of the regular Battery Coney-
Island course IL was concluded that by
that time he could have made the Concy
Island landing II he had been swimming
to that point He thus broke the record
for the distance made by Bud Goodwin
In 1903, which stood at four hours and
thirty minutes. and his own record or
four hours and forty-hve minutes, made
I'm 1909
At o'clock he had como within sight
Of the Hook. At 1855 o'clock the tide
slackened perceptiby and Kaufman and
spalding both jumped into the water to
sa,Im with Brown and hearten him for
"A final home-stretch effort. II was soon
evident. however. that no human being
could expect to swim from the Battery
to Sandy Hook on one tide. At $50
o'clock the buoys were erect. Within
ten minutes the. tide turned and began
TO carry him back.
Although every one IN the party knew
then that Brown could get no nearer the
Hook by battling with tho tide. they
urged him to. swim across tide and try TO
reach Atlantic Highlands and make
landing there Nobody had ever swan
10 the Highlands. and that feat would
DO n record.
IAN right" sang out Brown, az fresh
as a daisy III swim for the Jersey
shore"
For another hour and half he con-
tinued his fight The last half hour was
spent under the most trying conditions.
Brown swan into n field OF oily water.
which. by flying In his eyes and covering
his body with thick. greasy splotches.
made further progress n sickening pro-
cedure. At last. convinced that he would
only become III II he remained in the
water longer, he decided TO enter the
boat But merely 10 prove that ii was
Mother Nature and not Brown who was
responsible for his disappointment, he
made a final racing squirt OF nifty yards
Just for fun. At 8 o'clock he ended the
swim. after being In the water eight
hours and covering far more than the
distance between the Battery and the
Hook.