Evening star., 1953-10-05
Mr.. Weller Swin7s to Asia
As Miss Chodwick's S Pupil
She Smiles SweetIy
And He Does His
FIoundering Best
By George Weller
Foreign Correspondent of The Star and
the cheoso Daily News


Foreign Correspondent of The Star and
the chieoeo Dolly News
ISTANBUL, Turkey, Oct. S.
The wettest way to travel from
Europe to Asia is by swimming
the Bosporus. But it's much
easier if you have Florence Chad
wick. worlds champion Channel
swimmer, coaching you.
I dived, yesterday, into the
spinning current below the me-
dieval towers of Robert College,
where Florence will plunge at 8
o'clock tomorrow morning, and
almost certainly made a record
for the Europe-Asia crossing.
My swim was an exploratory
effort to test the currents for her
and get some idea of her sensa-
tionS when bucking the flve-mile
millrace pouring down from the
Black Sea into the Sea of Mar
mora between the high, rocky
walls of the Bosporus. But with
out Florence herself master
minding the crossing I should
never have reached Asia.
Confidence Skin Deep.
I was wearing nothing but a
pair of white jockey shorts and
a spurious expression of conf
dence. Seeing the choppy white
caps and the spreading whirl-
pools, Florence, low-voiced and
easy, in white terry jumper and
blue knee-length shorts, said,
Better wear my Channel gog-
giles" She broke out a yellow
rubber pair intended for her
Thursdays Dardanelles swim
and fitted them to my face.
I dived from the Shiny green
breakwater at a signal from
hefty Fred zusy, Associated
Press chief for Turkey and ad-
miral of our fleet of one motor
boat and one roWboat.
The instant I pierced the
water the long green arm of the
current seemed to carry me
away. Snatching for the goggles
I found they were gone; I tried
to swim down where I thought
1 saw phantom flashes of yellow
but it was nothing but seaweed
speeding along the bottom. Dis
mayed I broke the surface, gave
helpless waves to the motorboat,
and struck out for Asia using the
crawl.
Flo Gives Orders.
TRY to swim steadily even if
you cannot swim FAST" were
Florence's last orders.
o. Following Admiral zusy's
reckoning of the currents I
aimed for another medieval
tower on the Asiatic side. But
after less than a couple of hun
dred strokes my breath turned
to gasps and I switched to the
breast stroke. Florence'S advice
was: wherever it's rough ride
low and make yourself a pocket
for breathing by speed" But I
was heaving too hard to get
speed in a crawl.
Yet when 1 raised my face
in the breast stroke, the waves
slapped it and filled my mouth.
Trying the side stroke and some
times rolling on my back, be-
gan losing sense of movement
or direction of the bow of the
motorboat.
Florence's manager and friend.
Reporter Helen Abel Of the San
Diego Union, was pointing a
movie camera at me. She's
making a documentary on how
to drown, l thought.
But Florence remained faith
fully at the gunWale watching
me. Whenever gave dripping
look at the boat she would flash
her wonderful smile and say,
you're going fine" Her words
spurred me to fail out a few
more crawl strokes. When I
came up for unwatered air I dis
covered that the castle instead
of facing me had travelled up
stream toward Russia. Instead
of the medieval tower I was
splashing toward an anchored
freighter which I remembered as
far downstream toward the
Golden Horn.
Soon I'll be chewed up by fer
ryboats and then the pieces will
be laid out on the marble floors
of mosque, I thought, between
wave SlapS.
I noticed my supporters look
irg worried. They kept peering
over their shoulders at the
Asiatic headland, marked by
chateaux with crusty walls.
How about giving us little
more crawl?" called Florence,
who alone kept her smile.
ObedientlV I MT on another