THE IMPORTANCE OF LEARNING TO SWIM.

Evening Star, Issue 3253, 24 July 1873, Page 3

THE IMPORTANCE OF LEARNING TO SWIM.

The following letter from Mr E. H. Horne appeared in the Times of the 17th April:— “ si r ,_ Your readers must all have noticed that after the steamship Atlantic had struck upon the rocks, the third officer (Mr Brady) and two quarter-masters ‘ swam ashore with life-lines ' and that a boy also ‘ swam to the boats.’ It appears that Mr Brady, if not the quarter-masters, swam to and fro several times ; and they did this while hundreds of men were upon the deck, or clinging to the rigging. The obvious conclusions must be that nearly the whole of these hundreds of men could not swim even a few yards to save their lives. Let us think of this, and how very few efforts with the arms and legs would have sufficed, the fact being that the real danger in these circumstances to those who can swim at all is not from the sea, but the shore, if it be rooky, or lined with masses of entangled seaweed. But although they saw the landing of Mr Brady and the others effected in safety, they perished with cold, or became mad, and were drowned. How much it is to be regretted that there is n© * paternal despotism,’ that could absolutely compel every school, both private and public (and for both sexes), to provide suitable instruction in swimming. The newly projected Floating and Swimming Baths on the Thames may do something, but the ‘ paternal despotism ’ is the one great need that Mr Glad-, stone should take into consideration before the coming summer and autumn furnish the usual number (besides the shipwrecks) of those who love their lives for want of this important part of compulsory education. ”