Matthew Webb

This article is about the Channel-swimmer. For the footballer, see Matthew Webb (footballer).

Captain Matthew Webb
Webb in The Illustrated London News, 1883
Born	(1848-01-19)19 January 1848 Dawley, Shropshire, England
Died	24 July 1883(1883-07-24) (aged 35) Niagara River, Niagara Falls
Resting place	Oakwood Cemetery, Niagara Falls, New York
Known for	Swimming the English Channel

Captain Matthew Webb (19 January 1848 – 24 July 1883) was an English seaman, swimmer and stuntman. He is the first recorded person to swim the English Channel for sport without the use of artificial aids. In 1875, Webb swam from Dover to Calais in less than 22 hours. This made him a celebrity, and he performed many stunts in public. He died trying to swim the Niagara Gorge below Niagara Falls, a feat declared impossible.

Early life

Webb was born on 18 or 19 January 1848 in High Street, Dawley (now part of Telford), in Shropshire, one of fourteen children of the surgeon Dr. Matthew Webb. Dr. Matthew Webb, and his wife Sarah Cartwright Webb moved with the family to Madeley High Street in 1849, and then by 1856 to Eastfield House, Coalbrookdale. Matthew Webb was only fourteen months old when moving to Coalbrookdale, which was situated close to the River Severn, which was where he developed his strong swimming abilities.

Career as a seaman

In 1860, at the age of twelve, he joined the training ship HMS Conway as an apprentice for Rathbone Brothers of Liverpool. After two years working on the Conway, he enlisted himself for a further three years apprenticeship on their eastern cargo ships, where completed training to become a second mate.

In the summer of 1863, while at home, Webb rescued his 12-year-old brother Thomas from drowning in the Severn near Ironbridge.

From 1866 to 1875, Webb worked on seven different ships, the last of which was named the Emerald, where he served as captain.

Whilst serving as second mate on the Cunard Line ship Russia, travelling from New York to Liverpool, Webb attempted to rescue a man overboard by diving into the sea in the mid-Atlantic. The man was never found, but Webb's daring won him an award of £100 and the first Stanhope Medal, and made him a hero of the British press.

English Channel swimming record

Caricature of Webb by Ape, published in the London magazine Vanity Fair in 1875

Channel training

In 1873, Webb was serving as captain of the steamship Emerald when he read an account of the failed attempt by J. B. Johnson to swim the English Channel. He became inspired to try, and left his job to begin training, first at Lambeth Baths, then in the cold waters of the Thames, the English Channel and Hollingworth Lake. His early training was backed by Fred Beckwith who was the "Professor" at Lambeth Baths. Beckwith organised a spectacle by showing Webb swimming miles in the River Thames. Webb completed 'nearly six miles' (10 km), but the poor public interest meant that Beckwith lost money. As a result, Webb took another manager.

In preparation for his channel swim, Webb also completed a 20 mile swim between Blackwall and Gravesend along the River Thames.

Channel swim

On 12 August 1875, Webb made his first cross-Channel swimming attempt, but after seven hours, strong winds and poor sea conditions forced him to abandon the swim.

Undeterred, on the 24 August at 12:56 pm, he began a second swim by diving in from the Admiralty Pier at Dover. He was backed by a lugger boat called "Ann", and two smaller rowing boats containing his brother-in-law George Ward, and smeared in porpoise oil, he set off into the ebb tide at a steady breaststroke.

Despite stings from jellyfish and strong currents off Cap Gris Nez which prevented him from reaching the shore for five hours, finally, after approximately 21 hours and 40 minutes, at 10:41 am on August 25, he landed near Calais—the first successful cross-channel swim. His zig-zag course across the Channel was about 39 miles (66 km) long.

He was the first swimmer to complete a Channel swim without artificial aid; in June 1875, American Paul Boyton had swum across in 24 hours but was wearing an inflatable suit.

Reception

Upon taking the train to Wellington, Somerset, he was warmly received by a large crowd and a band from the 7th Shropshire Rifles. The crowd removed the horses from the front of his carriage, and drew it by hand to Ironbridge where they were met by another band of the 6th Shropshire Rifle Corps and were welcomed by the Mayor of Wenlock. Webb spent the night in Ironbridge, and was met again in the morning by a group from Dawley. They invited him to "receive the homage of the town of his birth", and then escorted him to Dawley and down the High Street, where the people of the town warmly welcomed him.

The pig on the wall postcard

Some time after Webb's death, in 1909, a postcard was produced which depicted a pig on a wall watching Webb's procession go by. It was produced by the Baldwin Bros., a photography firm in Dawley, around the same time that the Captain Webb Memorial in Dawley was unveiled.

Swimming career

After his record swim, Webb basked in national and international adulation, and followed a career as a professional swimmer. He wrote a book called The Art of Swimming and licensed his name for merchandising such as commemorative pottery. A brand of matches was named after him. He participated in exhibition swimming matches and stunts such as floating in a tank of water for 128 hours.

In May 1879, Webb won the swimming Championship of England at Lambeth Baths, by competing with champions from other cities. He covered a distance of 74 miles by swimming for fourteen hours a day over a period of six days. In September 1879, he competed for the Championship of the World against Paul Boyton. Webb won but was accused of cheating and so the prize money was withheld.

On 27 April 1880, Webb and Madeline Kate Chaddock were married at St Andrew's Church, West Kensington, and they had two children, Matthew and Helen.

Death

Webb's final stunt was to be a dangerous swim in the Niagara Gorge through the Whirlpool Rapids on the Niagara River below Niagara Falls, a feat many observers considered suicidal. Although Webb failed in an attempt at raising interest in funding the event, on 24 July 1883, he jumped into the river from a small boat located near the Niagara Falls Suspension Bridge and began his swim. Accounts of the time indicate that in all likelihood Webb successfully survived the first part of the swim, but died in the section of the river located near the entrance to the whirlpool. Webb was interred in Oakwood Cemetery, Niagara Falls, New York.

Legacy

In 1909, Webb's elder brother Thomas unveiled a memorial in Dawley. On it reads the short inscription: "Nothing great is easy." The memorial was taken away for repair after a lorry collided with it in February 2009. The landmark memorial was returned after full restoration and was hoisted back onto its plinth in High Street in October 2009. Two roads in the town (Captain Webb Drive and Webb Crescent) and the Captain Webb Primary School in Dawley are named after the swimmer.

Webb has a statue in Dover, and a memorial plaque with his portrait was also unveiled in the parish church at Coalbrookdale. Webb House of the Haberdashers' Adams Grammar School in Newport, Shropshire, is named after Webb.

A book about Webb's life was written in 1986 entitled "Nothing Great Is Easy" by author David Elderwick. It has the tagline "The Story of Captain Matthew Webb, The First Man To Swim The English Channel".

On August 25, 1981, American Charles Chapman became the first Black swimmer to cross the English channel successfully from Dover, England to Calais, France, a route similar to Webb's. The date was exactly 106 years from Webb's historic 1875 crossing.

Matthew Webb's Great Nephew, Edward Webb of Nottingham became the first man to solo paraglide across the English Channel on 12 September 1992. This was 117 years after his Great Uncle crossed the Channel. Edward was just 20 years old at the time but the feat helped to raise £2.5million pounds in fundraising for the Christian Rescue Services Young Children in Need charity.

Cultural references

Captain Webb pub, Wellington Road, Wellington

His death inspired a poem by William McGonagall in 1883. John Betjeman's poem "A Shropshire Lad" (1940) also commemorates the death of Webb, portraying his ghost swimming back along the canal to Dawley. It was set to music by Jim Parker and was recorded by folk singer John Kirkpatrick.

Webb's picture on boxes of Bryant and May matches is said to have inspired the physical appearance of the Inspector Clouseau character portrayed originally in the Pink Panther films by Peter Sellers.

An episode of Peabody's Improbable History (a segment of Rocky and Bullwinkle) misidentified him in dialogue and the episode's title as "Captain Clift". It was a sly reference to Peabody's voice being patterned after actor Clifton Webb. The character in the episode did, however, resemble Matthew Webb. The joke name also facilitated Peabody's closing pun about the "White Clifts of Dover".

A 2007 Channel 4 documentary named Swimming: A Brief History suggests that Webb's swim was hugely inspirational. Both his Channel crossing and Niagara Falls downfall are discussed and Webb is described as revered for his 'sporting achievements'. The programme also features an artist's illustration of the 1875 channel swim and describes him consuming "beef tea, beer and brandy" during the event.

In 2009 Jim Howick portrayed Webb during a humorous retelling of his death in Episode 4, Series 1 of the CBBC show Horrible Histories.

Production began in 2014 for a full-length film adaptation about Webb's Channel attempt, initially under the working title The Greatest Englishman. It was directed by Justin Hardy, written by Jemma Kennedy, and starring Warren Brown. Released in 2015 under the title Captain Webb, the movie was nominated for a British Film Award the following year, but box office success was limited.

See also

• List of members of the International Swimming Hall of Fame
• List of successful English Channel swimmers

Further reading

• Elderwick, David (1987). Captain Webb – Channel Swimmer. ISBN 0-947731-23-7.
• Sprawson, Charles (1992). Haunts of the Black Masseur – The Swimmer as Hero. ISBN 0-8166-3539-0.
• Watson, Kathy (2000). The Crossing – The Glorious Tragedy of the First Man to Swim the English Channel. ISBN 978-1-58542-109-1.
• Webb, Matthew (1999). The Art of Swimming. ISBN 0-946014-78-7.

External links

• Matthew Webb at Find a Grave
• Two images from the Niagara Falls Public Library (Ont.)
• Cemetery where Capt. Webb is interred. – Oakwood Cemetery, Niagara Falls, NY