Through this book you will come to see just how dramatically the culture of our nation has changed, and how we have subtly influenced the customs of other peoples. It exposes the underlying reason for the prejudice shown towards swimming in the great outdoors and in the first chapter you will see how the attitudes of our nation have transformed beyond recognition in the last hundred years. The revelations contained herein will show how and why the British people, once proud of their swimming heritage, developed their prejudice towards swimmers. To begin with let us look at the history of swimming, its rise to popularity and its fall from grace.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dusting off the Past

Bath Time

The Seaside Fashion

Swimming Captivates the Nation

The French Connection

A milestone in British swimming history saw the successful cross channel swim by Captain Matthew Webb in 1875. As the crow flies, the distance from Dover to Calais is just less than eighteen miles, but tides and winds mean a longer distance has to be covered by the swimmer. It took Webb twenty-one hours forty-five minutes to complete the crossing. He then held on to the accolade of channel supremacy until 1911, when T W Burgess managed to swim across on his sixteenth attempt.

The effect of Webb's success had a dramatic impact on the nation's youth as reported in the New York Times:

'The London baths are crowded; each village pond and running stream contains youthful worshippers at the shrine of Webb and even along the banks of the river, regardless of the terrors of the Thames police, swarms of naked urchins ply their limbs, each probably determined that he one day will be another Captain Webb.' 

The 1880s saw a surge in swimming interest; there were now hundreds of swimming clubs with many members.

The first lady to swim the Channel was an American: Gertrude Ederle.She took the world by storm, crossing in a record time of fourteen hours thirty-nine minutes. This remarkable woman not only knocked two hours off the record, but she also shifted the emphasis away from the male domination of the sport so evident up until then, encouraging many women to get involved in this form of healthful exercise. Swimmers between the ages of eleven and seventy years have since made many successful crossings.

The interest of the public in swimming seemed insatiable. At the Music Hall, entertainment often centred on underwater acts. A glass tank would take centre stage and performers (scantily clad ladies being most popular), would stay under water for extended periods. They would drink from a bottle, undress, write on a slate, eat grapes and even smoke underwater. These novelties were the prelude to the main attraction: staying submerged for times approaching five minutes! The show would end in drama, as the performer would try to rise to the surface, but fail and have to be rescued. How much of this was part of the act it's hard to say, but it kept audiences on the edge of their seats and was the main draw.

Distance swimming also caught the imagination of many. One of the most popular events - the fifteen mile swim through London, first held in 1907 - was won by Mr J A Jarvis of Leicester. Lake Windermere hosted a sixteen-mile event, and all over the country similar proceedings drew big crowds.

Snatched from Death

The Royal Humane Society founded in 1774 had a receiving house built on land that King George III had donated, next to the Serpentine Lake in Hyde Park. It was considered at the time unlucky to rescue a drowning person and even more so, to attempt to resuscitate someone. Permission from the Mayor had to be obtained before a corpse could be landed, and the very idea of attempting to resuscitate an individual was seen as being on par with endeavouring to raise the dead. Such attempts were held even by men of eminence to be 'idle and visionary.' Because of the superstitions surrounding such deaths, people were reluctant to come to the assistance of others. For example, it was considered unlucky to get wet when lifting a corpse from the water. Fishermen would not lift a drowned person into their boat but would tow the body behind it instead. They would not allow a pier to be used to receive the body as this was seen as potentially detrimental to the fishing industry. These superstitions probably originated from our Germanic ancestors, who believed that all accidental drownings were meant as sacrifices for an ill-tempered river spirit. To save a person from their fate, or worse still to resuscitate a person who was apparently dead, was seen as a sure way to bring calamity upon oneself. It was even believed that the rescued party, having been snatched from his destiny, might seek out the rescuer and cause him capital injury! Even those who managed to save themselves were sometimes viewed as being one of the living dead and thus they were shunned.

Disconcertingly, the RHS had on hand a deadly    looking recovery device. A long pole with four lethal looking spikes enabled them to hook people out of the water, or to drag them up from the bottom. Although staff were on hand around the clock to aid individuals who had drowned in the lake, their success in saving lives was hampered by their naive methods. The apparently drowned person was to be pulled from the lake by his hair or in the case of baldness by the arm and placed into a bath of hot water in the receiving house. Thus, the warming of the individual took first priority, to be followed by attempts at resuscitation with the aid of bellows. It was not until 1887 that a standardised, medically sound procedure materialised. Meanwhile many unnecessary deaths were the result. 'The Public Bath and Wash Houses Act' was amended in 1878, giving powers to local authorities to erect swimming pools for the people. According to the record books this was a particularly bad year for deaths by drowning: in England, 3,659 people met their end in this way! In the main, swimmers were either men or boys as women were given very little opportunity or encouragement to swim, but this was far from satisfactory. The need for things to change became apparent following a terrible disaster on the Thames. The steamboat Princess Alice sank with nearly three hundred and fifty female passengers on board, only one of whom survived: she, the only swimmer. This was probably due to the lack of swimming opportunities then available  towomen  and the virtual  non-existence  of  instruction  for  females. As swimming baths were provided predominantly for men, women found themselves restricted to a small number of establishments; the river and the sea. However, when owners realised that a large number of females were prepared to use the baths, they introduced special sessions. The next thirty years would see vast improvements. Moral concerns had separated the sexes and British prudery had raised objections to the sight of female flesh, but these unnatural attitudes were costing lives. If women had been encouraged to swim sooner, the disaster on the Thames might well have turned out quite differently. Just two years earlier, men and boys were moved out of the small lake in Victoria Park, London and into the purpose - built concrete lined pool (pictured in the introduction). The boating lake in which they had swam since 1845 was then turned over for use by female swimmers. This, it is believed, is the very first attempt to accommodate women anywhere in Britain, with the exception of plunge pools.

The Royal Humane Society, although unsure of its procedures in the early days, did prevent many from drowning. For instance, in the year up until October 1911, the number of bathers using the Serpentine Lake was 275,745. With such large numbers attending, the Society made sure that boatmen were always present on the water to rescue anyone in trouble. During that year not one person drowned and all because of the watchful care of the Society. When you consider that up to 6,000 council school children would be bathing in the lake at a time, the boatmen's job cannot have been easy. On hot sunny days it was common for as many as 1,200 ordinary Londoners to come and bathe. The boatmen had rescued 34 people that had got into difficulties by this point, but not one of them required attention at the receiving house. This, I'm sure you will agree, is wonderful testament to the adage: 'prevention is better than cure.'

For every argument there was in favour of swimming, there was always a counter-argument to advise against it, as drowning is an ever-present possibility near water. In 1891 the Royal Life-Saving Society began its work in teaching rescuers how to release themselves from the grip of a drowning person, which can so easily lead to the death of both. With the excellent instruction provided in recovery to the bank and in resuscitation, many unnecessary deaths were prevented. For example, Police Constable Alfred Taylor of the Bath City Police Force used this invaluable information when he came to the aid of an eight-year-old boy on August 24th1911, saving his life:

'When about twenty yards away I saw the body being lifted from the water, where it had been for nearly fifteen minutes. The body was perfectly purple, the arms rigid, no sign of life whatever…the lad's limbs were so rigid that the arm had to be held in position under the forehead. I then proceeded to restore breathing… as laid down in the book of instructions issued by the R.L.S.S. this I continued for thirty minutes before any sign of life was observed.'

This account reveals something quite remarkable about the human body; we each have extraordinary qualities of self-preservation. When a person drowns in very cold water, the body reacts by slowing down vital processes. This means that resuscitation can successfully be achieved even after an extended period without breathing. It may take several minutes or even, as in this case, half an hour or more for the person to revive sufficiently for them to breathe for themselves; yet despite the fact that their brain has been short of oxygen, those revived generally suffer little or no lasting brain damage. The three R's: Release, Rescue and Resuscitation as instructed by the Society, led to the saving of many lives, and because of its excellent work, the Society received royal recognition at the behest of King Edward VII. More...

Like a Duck to Water

The Plug Is Pulled

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Reviews

 

Soar Magazine April 5, 2011 "Outdoor swimming used to be one of the most popular leisure activities in Britain, but as more and more indoor pools have been built and concerns about health and safety have increased, it seems that the outdoor swimmer has been hung out to dry. ...the book covers the changes to British swimming habits over hundreds of years. 'Hung Out to Dry' is an extremely interesting and informative book, which is a useful reference tool and an entertaining read."

 

Contents

From Pride to Prejudice

Cleanliness Versus Godliness

Sex, Sea and Swimming Trunks

Sunny Days, Dark Shadows

Lidos Open, Rivers Close

Leicester, Swim City

The Last Stand