24 August
1875 · everyday
Matthew Webb became the first man to swim the English Channel
Captain Matthew Webb dived off Admiralty Pier at Dover, swam breaststroke through the night, was stung by jellyfish, drank beef tea and brandy passed down from a rowing boat, and came ashore at Calais just under twenty-two hours later. He had no wetsuit and no goggles — only a pot of porpoise oil.
He drowned eight years later trying to swim the rapids below Niagara Falls. There is a memorial to him in his home town of Dawley in Shropshire.
“What is the hardest physical thing you have ever made yourself do?”