TOO COLD

Hokitika Guardian, 4 February 1929, Page 2

TOO COLD

ATTEMPT TO SWIM COOK STKAIT. WELLINGTON, Feb. 1 The attempt ol Miss Lily Copplestone to swim Cook Strait in the early hours of this morning proved a failure. After she had been. the water for a little more than an hour, the intense cold forced her to abandon . the attempt. “The cold is killing,” she gasped as she was assisted out of .the water. In her opinion the cold will prevent anyone from accompli.tilling the swim. After the first half hour the conditions became unbearable and the swim mer’s liberal coating of oil and grease was ineffective in keeping out the cold The experience of Miss Copplestone proves that the swimming of Cook

Strait is a task harder than it might appear to many, and that tin; Strait is perhaps one of the most formidable stretches of water in the world for such a purpose. When the official launch arrived at Te Awaiti at II o’clock on Thursday night Miss Copplesone was awaiting it at the residence of Mr and Mrs \\ . Thoms. ' During the afternoon she had a swim for half an hour and then slept. She was feeling very lit and confident. Instead of proeeeding to Cape Tvoamaru, as on the former occasion the party, on the advice of Mr 'I horns went in the launch only as iar as Wellington Head at the entrance of lory Channel. The weather was calm in the Strait and the sky clear. Imt several of the party suffered sea sickness, including Miss Copplestone.

Upon the launch arriving at the head, the swimmer was given a thick coating of grease and oil. She then boarded a dinghy in company with Mr

Thoms and Mr It. S. Jthind (I’ieton), the official representative of the New. Zealand Swimming Council. Mrs Copplestone, 'the swimmer’s mother, watched from the launch with the others. Under the moon the dinghy bobbed away to the shore, its course to the rock coast made plain by a spotlight from the launch. The hour was 1‘2. 20 a.m.. and the temperature of the water 60 degrees.

.For a moment Miss Copplestone slixkl on the lop of the South Island and looked across to her objective, a point of the North Island just visible in the moonlight. Then calling "( beer io” she dived in. The swimmer adopted an overarm stroke and kept low in tin 1 water. Precceding her by a few yards with its course set lor Cape Terawhiti, was the dinghy, the launch

following as close as possible. Alter she.had been swimming for a quarter: of an hour Miss Copplestone was asked if the water was cold. “Cold is

not the word for it,” she answered. A friend of .Miss Copplesone’s then entered Use water and swam with her. After ten minutes, however, lie ceased with the. remark that the cold was too much for him. Me predicted that .Miss Copplestone could not endure much longer. The swimmer lmd been in the water forty minutes and had covered three-quarters of a mile when she asked how far she had gone. ‘‘l'm frozen stiff.” she said. Her request soon after wards for a hot drink was imiimus. wards for a hot drink was ominous, elfect. The swimmer rested in the water while collet* was prepared for her. “Can you go on r” she was asked.. “Too colil I’m pretty well done.’’ she replied. Acting on advice to go no further the swimmer at 1.18 a.m. hoarded the dinghy and abandoned her attempt to cross the Strait. On the launch her coating of grease was removed. and she was given restoratives

.soon afterwards falling asleep. TJic launch proceeded to Wellington, which was reached at 5 a.m. Commenting later Miss Copplestono said the cold had caused her iailure. The weather conditions had been perfect and she was sure she could have

covered the distance, hut the coldness ot the water had beaten her. Bhe will he a competitor to-morrow in the N.Z. Swimming Championships at Wellington.