#captain matthew webb

[frimleyblogger]

Paul Boyton, The Fearless Frogman

Paul Boyton, the Fearless Frogman, crossed the English Channel before Captain Webb, wearing an inflatable suit and using an oar @CSAswimmers @csandpf

Paul Boyton was born in County Kildare in 1848 and shortly afterwards was taken by his family to the States. He grew into a strong swimmer with a sense of adventure, spending his youth in the navy and then establishing the United States Life-Saving Service, the forerunner of their Coastguards. A meeting with Clark S Merriman, who had recently invented an inflatable, rubber life-preserving suit,…

View On WordPress

[frimleyblogger]

Captain Webb, The Dawley Man

Captain Webb from #Dawley in #Shropshire was the first man to swim the English Channel unaided. @CSAswimmers @cs&pf

Like Everest, it presents an irresistible challenge to the adventurous, simply because, to echo George Mallory, it’s there. At its narrowest point, between Shakespeare’s Beach at Dover and Cap Gris Nez, a headland between Calais and Boulogne, the English Channel might just be 18.2 nautical miles wide, but it forms a formidable barrier that tests the endurance, skill, and enterprise of all but a…

View On WordPress

[movies-derekwinnert]

Captain Webb *** (2015, Warren Brown, Steve Oram, Georgia Maguire, Terry Mynott, Hannah Tointon) - Movie Review

Captain Webb *** (2015, Warren Brown, Steve Oram, Georgia Maguire, Terry Mynott, Hannah Tointon) – Movie Review

Warren Brown captures exactly the right note as retired merchant seaman Captain Matthew Webb, who on 25 August 1875 survives fierce winds, treacherous currents and multiple jellyfish stings to swim from Dover to the shores of France, taking almost 22 hours for the 39 miles.

Captain Webb (19 January 1848 – 24 July 1883) thus became the first recorded person to swim the English Channel without…

View On WordPress