Evening star., 1925-08-02

drift caused by the strong tides here
of the Atlantic Ocean meet.
The fascination of the English Chan
mel for swimmers undoubtedly lies in
the difficulties to be faced. The flood
tide coming up the channel from the
Atlantic runs for nearly seven hours
east of Dover. Then there is the ebb
tide settling back to the westward,
toward the Atlantic, for five houlE.
Ordinarily these tides run at a speed
OF four TO five miles an hour and fol-
lowing strong winds may even in
crease this rate. There is however.
period of slack tides known as the
neap tides, when the currents slow
down to about two miles per hour
The slackest period of these neap tides
is between July and September. There
fore these months usually are Sc
lected for the channel swim.
Sandbanks Divert Tides.
If the tides ran true up and down
the channel there would be small
chance of any one swimming across
even with the two-Inle tide running.
But experience has shown that there
are certain points where the sand
banks in the English Channel throw
the tidal currents out toward the
French or English coasts, and so give
the swimmer a certain amount of help
loi several flOuTS IL ne OF Sne Is lucky
enough to get their aid
There is, for instance. just one par
ucular moment at which the swimmer
should get to the Goodwin Sands,
three miles off the English coast. Sim
ilarly with the Varne Sands six miles
off, and the Ridge Sands. in mid-chan-
mel. The wrong time of arrival will
mean meeting a tide which will set
the swimmer back toward the oppo-
site coast, a disappointing occurrence
which has defeated many a swimmer.
The time of start is, therefore, ar
ranged to give the swimmer the best
opportunity of reaping full advantage
from the assisting currents. From
the French side it is best to start
with about two hours at least of the
west-going tide. in order to make sure
of getting away from the small sand
banks along the French coast and to
enable the swimmer to strike a tide
which sets advantageously to the east
of Ridge Sands. Thence the course
is across to the tail of the Goodwin
Sands. when the following tide sets
well up to the back OF Dover Admiral
ty Pier, but it requires a speedy
swimmer to get inside the line of the
pier, and failure means swimming out
some portion of another tide.
Women Who Have Tried.
The first woman to attempt the
swim was Nine. Isacescue, a Vienna
post office employe, who in 1900 start
ed from Calais and accomplished IA
miles in 8 hours.
A few years passed without another
woman making the attempt. Then
Annette Kellerman made two at
tempts from Davor to Calais. She
was then quite young, and her ac-
complishment of one-third the dis
70
considering that both times she suf
fered severely from seaSickness.
An Englishwoman, Miss Lily Smith,
daughter of a London fire department
official, was the next aspirant She
made repeated trials, but seldom did
better than about s miles directly
across channel.
There were no further attempts by
women until 1922. when Nine. Sion OF
France swan for II hours and showed
that there was at any rate poSsibil-
ity of a woman achieving success.
The following year, when a prize
of 1000 was offered by an English
newspaper, Nine. Sion did even bet
ter, abandoning her attempt only
after 16 hours in the water. The
same Summer an American contender
appeared, Mrs. Clemington Corson of
New York, who reached within a mile
of Cape Griz Nez after 141a hours and
had to quit only because of increasing
bad weather.
Last year marked the entrance of
Miss Lillian Harrison of Buenos Aires
on the lists of would-be channel swim
merS. After two unsuccessful trials,
she postponed further efforts until
this Summer, and she opened the sea
son this year on July 10, when she
was defeated by chill in the cold
water after s hours 81 minutes.
Mishaps of Channel Swimmers.
There are all sorts of risks and
dangers to be guarded against by
those who accompany Miss Ederle on
her swim-anything from the sudden
collapse of the swimmer to the whole
party being run down by a passing
vessel.
In the past, there have been many
such mishaps in the course of the
200 or more trials that have been made.
JabeZ Wolfe, who now is Miss Ederle's
chief coach, was once halfway across
when, swimming at night, he struck
his leg heavily against a piece of
partially submerged wreckage and sus-
tanned an injury which compelled him
to abandon the attempt.
Several of the swimmers have been
badly stung by jellyfish and thereby
compelled to abandon their swim.
The cold water is the most serious
enemy of the swimmer. A long spell
of warm weather is required to bring
the water up to a bearable tempera-
ture, giving reasonable chance of
success. In this respect, Miss Ederle
would appear to be fortunate. While
the water will not be as warm as it
was for Capt. Webb and William Bur
CESS, vet there has been a long spell
of brilliant sunshine in the south of
England, which has warmed up the
channel to a gratifying degree.
Jellyish Are Poisonous.
Unfortunately, as soon as the water
warns up swarns of jellyflsh infest
the channel and many of them are
of the type whose bite is pisonous.
During the day a jellyfish can be seen
from the accompanying tug and the
swimmer. can be warned to avoid ii,
but at night this is impossible, and
several previous contenders have
struck into a shoal of jellYfish, which
have given him an uncomfortable re-
ception. Miss Kellerman had a very
uncomfortable experience of this kind
during her second swim.
Copyright 1925. by North American News
paper Alliance. All rights reserved.l
HJERTBERG TO COACH RICE.
NEW WORK. Artoust (D} --Err,ia