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Last week, I reviewed the film My Oxford Year, after reading the book last fall. Tina knocked another book off her Classic Club list by reading The Quiet American by Graham Greene, but she didn’t particularly like it.

This year we celebrate the first successful swims across the English Channel. The narrowest point to cross is the Strait of Dover where it is just over 20 miles of open water between Dover and Calais.

On 28 May 1875, Paul Boyton completed the first successful swim, but he used a buoyancy suit.

This Monday, we get to celebrate the first unaided crossing. On 25 August 1875, Matthew Webb completed the swim in 21 hours and 45 minutes. The swim took longer than expected due to unfortunate currents and a jellyfish sting.

Matthew Webb in The Illustrated London News, 1883

The next successful swim happened 36 years later, with 80 unsuccessful attempts in the meantime. Since then, there have been more than 2500 crossings.

Next year, we can celebrate the one hundredth anniversary of the first successful crossing by a woman. American swimmer, Gertrude Ederle crossed on 6 August 1926. She beat the previous record by over two hours by using the crawl stroke rather than the breast stroke that was favored by earlier swimmers. Her total time was 14 hours and 39 minutes. She swam the opposite direction, from France to England. I was amused by the story that she was challenged by immigration officials in Kent. She didn’t carry her passport!

Gertrude Ederle from the George Grantham Bain collection at the Library of Congress

The record for the slowest swim is held by a woman, Jackie Cobell. She fought strong currents and finished in 28 hours and 44 minutes in 2010. At first glance, owning the record for the slowest swim feels like a bad thing. But it’s not — unlike the many swimmers who failed, she kept going.

The current record holder for the fastest swim across the English channel is German swimmer Andreas Waschburger. In September 2023, he swam the channel in 6 hours and 45 minutes. Yvetta Hlaváčová of the Czech Republic holds the women’s record of 7 hours and 25 minutes from a swim in 2006.

My dad had a fascination for open water swimming and, especially, the English Channel crossing. So, this feels like an important anniversary to observe but I’m not sure how widespread that sentiment is. Are you excited to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the first successful swim across the English Channel?

Matthew Webb was born in Shropshire, England and there will be observations of the anniversary there. He will be featured in a parade this weekend and a local children’s author has been commissioned to write a book about him. A new public swimming pool, named in his honor, has been proposed. The nearby Ironbridge Gorge Museum curated a special exhibit about the life of Matthew Webb.