Man Against the Sea

When Tom Blower looks at the sea, every wave seems to be flinging a challenge at him. In 1937 Tom, who is a strapping Nottingham mill hand, answered by swimming the English Channel in 13 hours 29 minutes, the fourth best time on record. That was not enough for Tom. No man had ever swum the Irish Sea; he decided to be the first.

He tried once a month ago, setting out from Donaghadee, Northern Ireland, to swim the 25 miles across the North Channel to Scotland. He covered nearly half the distance in seven hours, but then the treacherous currents and high seas forced him to give up. Last week Tom tried again. Conditions were wretched: all night there were thunderstorms with hail and wind that whipped up four-foot waves; at dawn there were thick, swirling mists so that his escorts in motor boats sometimes lost sight of him. Fifteen hours and 25 minutes after he had left Donaghadee, Tom Blower plodded up the beach in a misty little cove five miles from the Scottish village of Port Patrick. He looked back over his shoulder and said: "You bastard, I've conquered you."

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