Young Woman and the Sea: How Trudy Ederle Conquered the English Channel and Inspired the World

by Glenn Stout

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  Selected Books

  Cleveland, Marcia. Dover Solo: Swimming the English Channel. Canada: MMJ Press, 1999.

  An account of the preparations necessary to swim the Channel today.

  Cox, Lynne. Swimming to Antarctica. New York: Knopf, 2004.

  The most accomplished open-water swimmer of the modern age, Cox's acute observations about long-distance swimming and her colorful accounts of her various swims, including her swim of the Channel, should be required reading for anyone contemplating swimming the Channel or writing about it.

  Danzig, Alison, and Peter Brandwein, eds. Sport's Golden Age: A Close-up of the Fabulous Twenties. New York: Harper and Brothers, 1948.

  Louis de Breda Handley authored the chapter on American swimming.

  Dawson, Buck. Mermaids on Parade: America's Love Affair with Its First Olympic Women Swimmers. Huntington, NY: Kroshka Books, 2000.

  Dawson, the executive director of the International Swimming Hall of Fame, profiled more than thirty women swimmers, including Trudy Ederle and other Women's Swimming Association stars such asAileen Riggin, Ethelda "Thelda" Bleibtrey, Helen Wainwright, and others. His 1994 interview with Ederle is the most thorough ever published. Although Dawson incorrectly states that it was her first interview in more than fifty years, it was certainly her most revealing. She had politely turned down interview requests for years before Dawson surprised her the day after her eighty-eighth birthday and spoke with her for two hours.

  Ederle was surprisingly frank. In addition to her remarks about herself, she offered that she did not believe that many who claim to swim the Channel actually accomplish the feat. She stated bluntly that Louis de Breda Handley told her that "the next one," Mille Gade Corson, "didn't do it honestly."

  Gipe, George. The Great American Sports Book. New York: Doubleday and Company, 1978.

  Contains a surprisingly accurate account of her swim and a valuable overview and background on the development of women's athletics.

  Handley, Louis de Breda. Swimming for Women. New York: American Sports Publishing Company, 1925.

  Handley was widely considered the greatest swimming teacher and coach of the era. This book was endorsed by the Women's Swimming Association and includes valuable background on the organization.

  Johnson, Captain Tim. History of Open Water Marathon Swimming. Buzzard's Bay, MA: Captain's Engineering Services, 2005.

  An overview of the history of swimming, focusing on long-distance swims in open water.

  Johnston, Charles H. L. Famous American Athletes of Today. Essay Index Reprint Series. Freeport, NY: Books for Libraries Press, 1971.

  A reprint of a book first published in 1928, it includes a lengthy, if somewhat overwrought, profile ofEderle's career.

  Mortimer, Gavin. The Great Swim. New York: Walker and Company, 2008.

  Although I was initially distressed to learn that another author was writing about Trudy, Mortimer's thorough account focuses not on Trudy Ederle alone, but on the events of the summer of 1926, when more than a dozen swimmers were planning to swim the Channel. Although I disagree with his thesis, which I believe much overstates the competition between the four swimmers he chooses to focus upon, it is nonetheless a worthy addition to the literature of the sport.

  O'Donnell, Edward T. Ship Ablaze. New York: Broadway Books, 2003.

  A superb account of the Slocum disaster.

  Unwin, Peter. The Narrow Sea. London: Review, 2003.

  A thorough survey history of the English Channel.

  Watson, Kathy. The Crossing. New York: Jeremy P. Tarcher/Putnam, 2000.

  A fine biography of Matthew Webb, the first person to swim the English Channel.

  Wennerberg, Conrad. Wind, Waves, and Sunburn: A Brief History of Marathon Swimming. New York: Breakaway Books, 1974.

  Contains a lengthy chapter on swimming the Channel.

  Whelan, Grover. Mr. New York. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1955.

  Whelan provides a detailed account of Ederle's reception in New York.

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  Notes

  Prologue

  My account of Trudy's time in the water during her successful swim is gleaned from a number of sources, but the extensive interview she gave to Buck Dawson of the International Swimming Hall of Fame, which appeared in his book Mermaids on Parade, was among the most valuable, as were the accounts of her swim by her ghostwriter, Julia Harpman, for the News-Tribune syndicate, Alec Rutherford's reporting for the New York Times, and wire reports. As previously stated, all impressions, events, and experiences I assign to her during her time in the water are based on facts and on statements later made by Trudy Ederle herself or by others. Background on the history of Channel swimmers was provided by three Web sites: www.channel swimmingassociation.com, the governing body overseeing Channel swims today; www.channelswimming.net, the site of the Channel Swimming and Piloting Federation; and www.doversolo.com, Marcia Cleveland's Web site promoting her book of the same name.

  1. Overboard

  The role that the sinking of the General Slocum played in the dissemination of swimming, particularly in regard to women, was inspired by an online exhibit maintained by the International Swimming Hall of Fame (ISHOF). Edward T. O'Donnell's account of the disaster, cited above, was invaluable. Anna Weber's story was one of many first-person accounts made by survivors of the disaster and appears on www.garemaritime.com/features/general-slocum/. Sadly, her tragic experience was typical. The online exhibit at the International Swimming Hall of Fame, From Bloomer's to Bikini's: How the Sport of Swimming Changed Western Culture in the 20th Century (www.ishof.org/pdf/history_swimwear.pdf), first alerted me to the connection between women's swimming and the Slocum disaster.

  2. The Challenge

  I found no single comprehensive history of swimming to be entirely satisfying, but the online resources of the International Swimming Hall of Fame were useful, as was ISHOF's "The Development of the Modern Stroke," as reprinted by the Washington Post online during the 2004 Olympics (nd). See also Charles Sprawson's The Swimmer as Hero and Johnson's History of Open Water Marathon Swimming. Unwin's The Narrow Sea provides a comprehensive history of human interaction with the English Channel.

  3. Highlands

  Background and history of the Ederle family was acquired through New York Passenger List records, Petition for Naturalization Records, World War I Draft Registration Cards, Social Security Death Index, and U.S. Census Records for both 1910 and 1920. Background on the Highlands came from a variety of standard reference sources. Flora T. Higgins's Remembering the 20th Century: An Oral History of Monmouth County, Interview with Mae Schwind Bahrs (Monmouth County Library, Monmouth, NJ, 2002), and "Still Making Splash" (Star-Ledger; October 3, 2003) were particularly useful to provide detailed background.

  4. The Painter

  George Catlin's Letters and Notes on the Manners, Customs, and Conditions of North American Indians, Vol. I and II (Willis P. Hazard, Philadelphia, 1857), first published in London in 1844, was invaluable, as was the online biography of Catlin maintained by the National Gallery of Art that appears at www.ibiblio.org/nga/catlin.html. Profiles of John Trudgen and other swimming pioneers can be found on the Web site of the International Swimming Hall of Fame.

  5. The Women's Swimming Association

  The pioneering role of the WSA in women's athletics is unquestioned and well documented. Of particular use was "The Cradle of American Champions, Women Champions ... Swim Champions: Charlotte Epstein, Gender, and Jewish Identity and the Physical Emancipation of Women in Aquatic Sports" by Linda Borish ( International Journal of the History of Sport 21, no. 2, March 2004, 197–235), and The Women's Swimming Association of New York: The Golden Years 1920–1940 by Harold Lerch and Paula Welch, Educational Resources Informational Center, ERIC #: ED174591.

  Oral histories of several swimmers (see chapter 16) and profiles from Dawson's Mermaids on Parade were also of great help in charting the course of the WSA and the role of Ch
arlotte Epstein, as was Handley's Swimming for Women. See also "An Olympian's Oral History: Aileen Riggin," an interview by Dr. Margaret Costa (Los Angeles: Amateur Athletic Foundation of Los Angeles, 2000), and Kari Lydeson's "An Olympic Life" from Swimming World and Junior Swimmer (April 2000).

  6. The Crossing

  Kathy Watson's The Crossing is the most thorough published account of Matthew Webb's life.

  7. The Teacher

  For background on Handley, see Cecil Colwin's article "The Gentleman Jim of Swimming," which appeared in Swim Canada 22, no. 7, (1995): 16–19. Handley's own work provides the best description of the development of the American crawl and his teaching methods, as do a number of interviews with Ederle and Aileen Riggin.

  8. The Channel

  Sanjeev Gupta and Jenny Collier at the Imperial College, London, were the first to prove definitively that the Channel was created by two megafloods; their work appears in Nature 448, (2007): 342. See also New Scientist 195.2613, (July 21, 2007): 11. John McPhee's article "Season on the Chalk" in The New Yorker (March 12, 2007) includes a description of the creation of the chalk beds that underlie the Channel. The best information available on the impact of the tides on a Channel swimmer can be found at www.channelswimmingassociation .com.

  9. The Best Girl

  The description of the Day Cup swim is based on newspaper reports from the New York Times, Herald-Tribune, and others. Trudy's achievement was carried by the Associated Press and widely reported all over the country, the first time she came to the attention of the general public. For the next four years she was easily the most famous woman in America.

  10. The Next Man

  Somewhat surprisingly, the stories of Jabez Wolffe and Bill Burgess have only been told in pieces. Newspaper accounts were most valuable, in particular "The Forgotten Man of the Channel" from the Sheffield Star (1961), "Man Has Flown the English Channel, But Can He Swim It?" which appeared in the Chicago Tribune (September 5, 1909), and "Other Channel Swimmers," from the New York Times (August 15, 1926). The number of times each man attempted to swim the Channel varies widely according to the source. Suffice to say that each man likely made more attempts than any other swimmer before succeeding, and Wolffe surely holds the record for the most attempts without success.

  11. Goals

  Marguerite Mooers Marshall's profile of Trudy Ederle not only appeared in the New York World Telegram and Herald-Tribune but was widely reprinted all over the country in late August and September 1922.

  12. Rivals

  Accounts of aspiring Channel swimmers and their attempts appeared regularly in American and European newspapers in years after World War I. See also Wennerberg's Wind, Waves, and Sunburn and Johnson's History of Open Water Marathon Swimming.

  13. Records

  Hardly a week passed from the fall of 1922 through 1923 without an account appearing in a newspaper somewhere of Trudy Ederle swimming, and often setting a new record.

  14. Girl in the Water

  Annette Kellerman's life and career is well documented, most notably in Emily Gibson and Barbara Firths's The Original Million Dollar Mermaid (East Melbourne, New South Wales, Australia: Allen and Unwin, 2006) and Annette Kellerman's own unpublished biography, My Story, portions of which appear on www.annette kellerman.com.

  15. Trials

  Primarily newspaper accounts, as previously cited above. See also Weissmuller's own book, Swimming the American Crawl (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1930), in which he discusses Ederle.

  16. Agony

  Trudy Ederle expressed her reaction to her performance in the Olympics in Dawson's Mermaids on Parade and also spoke of her problem with cramps due to transportation issues. Her larger Olympic experience and the experience of the women's swim team were derived primarily from the following sources:

  American Olympic Committee. Report on the VII Olympic Games, Paris, France, 1924. New York: American Olympic Committee, 1924.

  Louis de Breda Handley's report on the women's swimming team was particularly useful.

  "American Youth Vindicated at Colombe," Literary Digest (August 9, 1924).

  Costa, Margaret, interviewer. "An Olympian's Oral History: Aileen Riggin." Amateur Athletic Foundation of Los Angeles, 2000. Available at www.la84foundation.org.

  DeFrantz, Anita, interviewer. "An Olympian's Oral History: Claritta Hunsberger He-her." Amateur Athletic Foundation of Los Angeles, July 1987. Available at www.la 84foundation.org.

  Dyreson, Mark L. "Scripting the American Olympic Story-Telling Formula: The 1924 Paris Olympics and the American Media." Olympika 5 (1996): 45–80.

  Hodak, George A., interviewer. "An Olympian's Oral History: Doris O'Mara Murphy." Amateur Athletic Foundation of Los Angeles, July 1987. Available at www .la84foundation.org.

  ——. "An Olympian's Oral History: Samuel Clarence Hauser." Amateur Athletic Foundation of Los Angeles, 1988. Available at www.la84foundation.org.

  ——. "An Olympian's Oral History: William Neufeld." Amateur Athletic Foundation of Los Angeles, 1988. Available at www.la84foundation.org.

  Mitchell, Sheila. "Women's Participation in the Olympic Games 1900–1926." Journal of Sport History 4.2 (1977): 208–228.

  Strayer, Martha. "Warsaw Woman Was 1924 Olympics Star." Available at www.yester year.clunette.com/olympic.html.

  17. Comeback

  Ederle mentions in many, many different accounts the role her sister Margaret played in her Sandy Hook swim, in her decision to swim the Channel, and in her swimming career, but the most complete retelling of the scene that led her to swim the Channel appears in Dawson's Mermaids on Parade.

  18. Wolffe

  Unlike for her 1926 attempt, Trudy Ederle was not ghostwriting accounts of her swim for a syndicate in 1925. However, due to her notoriety as a swimming champion, her summer at the Channel received more press coverage than that of any previous Channel aspirant. The Associated Press provided regular accounts as did the British swimming expert Alec Rutherford in the New York Times. Many of these accounts focused on the problems between Ederle and Jabez Wolffe.

  19. Touched

  My account of Trudy's first attempt to swim the Channel is gleaned primarily from a wide variety of newspaper reports and newsreel films that document portions of her preparation and the swim itself, as well as still photographs from the same day. Trudy's story remained consistent throughout her adult life—she felt that if she had not been touched she could have continued her swim and possibly succeeded.

  20. Poison

  In an interview with the student newspaper of Harvard University, the Harvard Crimson, on October 24, 1926, Trudy Ederle told a reporter:

  I am sure that Harvard will just trample on Princeton and the other football teams after beating Dartmouth ... You know I won a bet from Helen Wainwright on the Dartmouth game. I felt that Harvard was bound to win, just because it wasn't the newspaper favorite.

  The members of the team must have felt the same way I did when I was going to swim the channel. No one thought I had a chance of getting across. The newspapers were all sympathetic, but skeptical just the same. It made me awfully determined to succeed.

  The first attempt I made, I nearly went to sleep in the water. Some one had put drugs in the beef tea I drank before starting. My trainer proved this beyond any doubt. Well, before my second attempt, all my food was prepared by my sister. I was more confident than ever of making the swim, though no one else thought I would.

  The story appeared the next day and was then picked up by the Associated Press and reprinted in newspapers throughout the country.

  Although Ederle had never publicly mentioned the poisoning incident before or after, intimations that something was amiss during the swim—by Trudy, Elsie Viets, and Charlotte Epstein—give credence to the notion, as does the WSA's attempt to muzzle Trudy on her return. By 1926, when she did speak of it, the focus was not on her failure of the year before but her recent success. The story quickly disappeared, and in subsequent years no interviewer knew eno
ugh to ask Ederle to provide more details concerning her suspicions. The "trainer" she refers to is probably Burgess.

  21. Cape Gris-Nez

  The presence of both Julia Harpman and her husband, Westbrook Pegler, on the trip across the Atlantic and during Trudy's time training in Cape Gris-Nez was extremely helpful. Harpman was a precise reporter, and Pegler's observations are acute, particularly in regard to the hotel and the cast of characters assembled there. Harpman's work, both under Trudy's byline and her own, appeared in both the Chicago Tribune and the New York Daily News. Pegler's work appeared only in the Tribune. The Meteorological Office daily weather report for southeast England on August 6, 1926, was provided by the Meteorological Office, National Meteorological Archive, the British Weather Service.