Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 20, Number 30, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 December 1898 — Remarkable Swimming Feat. [ARTICLE]

Remarkable Swimming Feat.

A remarkable feat of swimming was accomplished when James Finney, champion swimmer of the world, swam from the North Pier, Blackpool. to the St. Anne’s Pier, a distance of five miles. In pursuance of the terms of a wager of SI,OOO, Finney dived from the North Pier shortly before a quarter to two in the presence of a large body of spectators. The sea was by no means smooth, and the tide being at ebb rendered the task a somewhat difficult one. The match was a question rather of endurance than the establishment of a speed record. Finney started at a pace, but after the first fifty yards settled into a steady stroke. He was headed by a small boat carrying a white flag, and he kept a yard or two behind all the way, passing the Central Pier about three o’clock and the Victoria Pier fifty minutes later. At half-past five he arrived at St. Anne’s, but could not reach the pier, the tide being out. As the conditions of the wager required that he should approach the pier by water, a tedious wait of two hours followed, during which Finney swam about, and by frequent changes of fiositioh succeeded in keeping afloat until the tide came in, when he swam to the pier and went ashore nt five minutes to eight, having spent five hours eleven minutes in the water. —