11 AUGUST 1923, Page 3

Mr. Henry Sullivan, the American swimmer, has swum the Channel

and is the third man to do so. He started from Dover last Sunday afternoon and at first intended only to have a practice swim. But feeling in the mood he decided after swimming some way to go on and make the great attempt. By 11 o'clock on Monday morning he was within easy sight of the French coast, but unfor- tunately the tide was then against him and he was swept first east and then west without making any headway. At all events, he was not swept a considerable way back, as happened to Mr. Burgess when he swam the Channel in 1911. When Mr. Sullivan landed at Calais he had been in the water for about twenty-seven hours. The real impediment to swimming the Channel is loss of bodily temperature. When the bodily temperature falls below a certain point a collapse follows, which, as was pointed out recently in an entertaining article in the Democrat, is described by various names, of which " sea sickness " is perhaps the most familiar. To swim the Channel, therefore, you should be well covered, and it is not a disadvantage even to be fat. Mr. Sullivan, though under five feet eight inches in height, weighs about sixteen stone. If a stout man deserves a prize of £1,000 for swimming the Channel, a thin man would deserve at least £1,500. Have the newspapers, which compete in giving prizes, thought of these possible variations ?

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