WHEN FORTUNE LAUGHS

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 275, 10 February 1928, Page 10

WHEN FORTUNE LAUGHS

AX attempt was made last week-end by a well-known Auckland swimmer to cross the tricky strip of water which separates the Xorth from the South Island. It failed.

When the facts came to light, it was not surprising that it did fail. Apparently, the idea of trying to swim Cook Strait was mooted in the train on the way back from the swimming championships at Dunedin, where Auckland’s champion distance swimmer again secured fastest time in the harbour race. But swimming in comparatively warm and land-locked waters is a very different proposition from a prolonged endurance effort against extreme cold, treacherous tidal waters and cross-currents.

Apparently, too, very little was known of what lay in front of the swimmer. At the last minute, plans had to be changed, and it could not have done Webster any good to have to get irp in the early hours of Saturday morning, cross the Straits in a launch, and wait an hour later than was intended before setting out. If pluck and gameness could have carried the Aucklander through, one does not doubt that he would have succeeded in his ambitious undertaking. But qualities of courage and determination are of little avail unless there is proper organisation and preparation in advance. It is on occasions such as these that Fortune greets Courage with ironical laughter. Viewed from this angle, Webster’s attempt was on all fours with the ill-fated Tasman flight. Both were sporting ventures, with the odds heavily against each attempt, simply because the important details of the undertaking had not been gone thoroughly into beforehand. In marked contrast to what practically amounted to a lonehanded effort by a plucky 20-year-old New Zealander are the elaborate preparations for, and extensive organisation of many attempts to swim the English Channel in recent years. Every mile of the Channel route, and every set of the tide and current that can possibly be expected, can be.figured out in definite terms in advance. Further than that, Webster had no tugboats, pacemakers or other aids to summon to his assistance in his lone venture into unknown waters.

All credit to him for his plucky attempt; but a stage is reached where such attempts can only be regarded in their true light with the chances so heavily built against success—in blunt terms, sheer foolhardiness, and a doubtful advertisement for the Dominion.

It is very hard to lay down anything very definite in eases like this, because they are subjected to no organised control. They would lose a great deal of their charm if they were. But that is no reason why public opinion should not be enlisted to act as a safeguard against rash and ill-organised attempts, no matter how much they call for those qualities of courage, grit and endurance which appeal to the British race.