Twenty-year old Gertrude Ederle(1906-2003)was the first woman to swim in the English Channel. She swam 35 miles in 14.5 hours and came home to a ticker-tape parade in New York City. Our picture book for today was "America's Champion Swimmer Gertrude Ederle" Special thanks to Mrs. W for letting us borrow this book!
what you don't see in this picture is the black petrolium that they had to smear all over her exposed skin so that she wouldn't get so cold that she couldn't swim. The English Channel is cold even in the summer time. They did not have skin diving suits or wet suits at that time. You may have seen pictures of those suits on surf boarders.
ReplyDelete