SWIM IN ARCTIC SEA

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 296, 6 March 1928, Page 13

SWIM IN ARCTIC SEA

12 MILES COVERED IN 4£ HOURS FIRST TIME IN 900 YEARS A young Icelander, Erlingur Palsson, a constable of Reykjvik, Iceland, has swum from Drangoe, in the Skagafjord, to the mainland, a distance of twelve miles, in four hours and twentyfive minutes. It is not the feat in itself which is remarkable, but the fact that it was accomplished in the Arctic Ocean, with a water temperature of 51.8 Fahrenheit. He had three bathing suits on. Two boats accompanied him, but he did not require any help, and only when he had landed did his friends assist him by giving him massage and pouring water from one of the hot springs over him. It is nine hundred years since the distance was last swum, and all Iceland to-day recalls the story. Grettir was an outlaw who fled to Drangoe, together with his friend Llugi. They managed to exist on the lonely island all summer, but in the autumn the rain extinguished their fire, and as they had no boat Grettir started to swim to the mainland. He landed safely at Reykjar, where a kind fisherman gave him fire and rowed him back. That was the legend, but nobody believed that Grettir had really made the journey, which was believed to be impossible till Constable Palsson has now accomplished it.