Posts Tagged ‘English Channel’

Images from SPLASH! Mermaids of Brighton

Continuing the series of posts from my new book SPLASH!

From Chapter 9: “The Great Swimming Cover-Up.”
In this 1829 illustration titled “Mermaids of Brighton,” formidable older women known as dippers introduce female bathers to the wonders of the sea. The bathing machines were horse-drawn.

 

 

Images from SPLASH! Gertrude Ederle

Continuing the series of posts from my new book SPLASH!

From Chapter 8: “Climb Every Mountain, Swim Every Sea.”
Gertrude Ederle was the first person of either sex to swim the English Channel using the crawl stroke and the first woman to ever successfully cross it. Her 1926 Channel swim shaved almost two hours off the previous record.

 

 

Images from SPLASH! Matthew Webb

Continuing the series of posts from my new book SPLASH!

From Chapter 8: “Climb Every Mountain, Swim Every Sea.”
For the ancient Romans, the English Channel was the “horribilem salum,” the terrible swell. In late August 1875, Capt. Matthew Webb became the first person known to swim it. He’s shown here being helped out of the water at Calais, soon to be the most famous man in the world.

 

 

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