Gertrude looked across the channel; she remembered that day long ago…
No one thought she could do it; after all, she was a woman. Women just did not do this kind of thing. Yet Gertrude was determined. She knew the hazards. There was the tidal movement that would affect her course. There would be the jellyfish and the seaweed to contend with, not to mention the cold temperatures of the water itself.
It was on August 26, 1926 when she stepped into the cold water at Cape Gris Nez, France around 7 in the morning. She wore motorcycle goggles sealed with paraffin to protect her eyes from the salt water.
Her stroke of choice was the crawl. Moving through the water she kept telling herself, “I can do this. I can do this.” It became her mantra. And, did it she did! After 14 hours and 39 minutes, she came ashore at Kingsdown, Kent. She was the first woman to cross the English Channel and set the record for the fastest time!
Gertrude Ederle came out of her reverie as they announced her name at the unveiling of the statue, a tribute to those who have swum the English Channel!
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Thank you to Alastair Forbes for hosting Sunday Photo Fiction, and for the photo that inspired this story of Gertrude Ederle, the first woman to swim across the English Channel!
If you are a writer and enjoy writing Flash Fiction, please check out Mondays Finish the Story tomorrow! This new site is a flash fiction challenge with a twist!
Thanks for dropping by today! Have an amazing day, and be well! ^..^
I love this and i love anything that is both a fun read and educational.
Enjoyed
Ally 🙂
Thank you Ally!
A nice retelling of the story and a clever response to the prompt. I enjoyed reading this and them went to Wiki to check her out.
A little known historical character always adds to a story! Glad you enjoyed this! ^..^
I didn’t know about her. What a gal she must have been! Thanks for telling us about her in such a creative way.
One amazing lady for her time! Glad you liked the story!
A great story. In the pub round from me, there is the name of every person to have swum the channel, and hers is in red writing as opposed to everyone else in black. It has the date, time they set off, time they arrived and length of time it took. One person did a 3-way. Dover to France, France to Dover, Dover to France. He could only stand on solid ground for a maximum of ten minutes and nobody is allowed to touch them. They are fed and watered from a pole on the accompanying boats. He did it in 25 hours. The fastest swim is 5½ hours.
Wow! 5 1/2 hours when it took Gertrude so long! Thank you for the comment Al and hope that you join in on Mondays Finish the Story!
Thanks Babs. Looking forward to that. What time is it scheduled to appear?
It was set to go off at 12:01 a.m. PDT. I hope that it works well! 🙂
Gertrude was no only the first woman to make the swim, but she beat the previous fastest swimmer, Enrique Tirabocchi, from Argentina by almost two hours. The youngest swimmer was an eleven year old boy from England (Thomas Gregor) who swam it in 11:52 in 1988.
A great way to write from the prompt Babs. We need to remember people who accomplish fetes like this 🙂
Oh, and if anyone is interested in a complete list up to August 2014 go here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_successful_English_Channel_swimmers
Thank you Lyn for this additional information! We need to remember everyone who has an accomplishment such as hers!
A good, and true, story to accompany the statuary in the photo. Thanks for telling us about Gertrude, who, by the way, was from New York.
Thank you PJ!