Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 6.djvu/58

44 1900. NOTES AND QUERIES. 19* s. vi. died in 1883, and who was editor of Land and Water — to the Museum in September, 1875, but, curiously enough, being immediately ex- hibited to the public under glass, it escaped the usual date stamp, so that the day is not known. This most unusual omission is due to a desire on the part of the late Mr. Major to satisfy public curiosity without delay. This chart has an inscription in a different handwriting (by J. Q. Chambers?) from that marking the course (by H. F. Wilkinson), which says : — "Original chart used in navigating Capt. Matthew Webb when he swam across the English Channel on 24 and 25 August, 1875. The navigation was> worked out by Henry Fazakerley Wilkinson, whc accompanied him in the attendant [lugger, and occasionally in the] open row-boat, anaruarked down Capt. Webb's hourly progress and position [in pencil when on board the lugger]." The interpolations are mine. This inscription is by a person who was not present, or he would not have put Wilkinson in the open row-boat that accom- Cied Webb. There was also a "dispatch t going back and forward throughout the day and night," Mr. Ward informs me. Mr. Wilkinson was only in the open row-boat occasionally, but after dark he, as one of the two referees, or A. G. Payne, who was the other, kept watch in the open row-boat all night (the Field 21 August 1875, p. 228). The British Museum chart of the course has never been reproduced. The other chart is also a print of No. VII.. and was made by the representative (?) — and is in the possession — of the Field, in which paper for 28 August, 1875, a reduced and altered copy was reproduced, the " represen- tative's" observations being also omitted. This copy is reproduced in Swimming,' by Sinclair and Henry, 1893, p. 163. The best reproduction of this chart is, how- ever, in Land and Water, 4 September, 1875, p. 181, occupying a whole folio page, the course being the same size. Was it lent to them by the Field, or was there another exact copy? The "course" varies slightly in the two original charts ; but the question arises. How were these newspaper correspondents able to mark it at all? As to Wilkinson I do not know, but Payne had no training for such a It is not often that men get medals struck in their honour. The ' D.N.B.' does not men- tion any. Two were struck in honour of Webb— I have seen both— in silver. The first was probably in 1875, or certainly nob later than 1876. (a) Obverse: "Capt. Webb's Channel Medal"; beneath, "W, H[olmes] Maker," with clasp, and red, white, and blue ribbon, (b) Obverse : legend, " Capt. Webb's Medal, born 19th Jan., 1848, died July 24th, 1883"; on truncation, "W. Holmes." This was probably struck in 1883. The reverse in both medals has a wreath of oak and laurel, with the centre left plain for inscription of the name, &c., of the winner, both being no doubt intended for prizes. I have en- deavoured to find Holmes's widow (he died about 1893 ?), to get the dates when these medals were struck, but without success. Holmes was only the maker, not the designer. Now I come to the illustrations. That on the cover of the subsequent issue, Webb's ' Art of Swimming,' is really childish for its incorrectness, and criminal for the care- less recklessness in misleading the public. It represents Webb swimming from the English coast, and Baker ready to spring from the open row-boat in case of need, an incident that did not occur until they were near the French coast. The artist knew so little about shipping that, though nothing but a lugger is mentioned throughout the book, the sail boat he represents has not a lug sail, and therefore is not a lugger: but it looks very much like a lubber. From Webb's book the artist would not be able to find out that it was a three-masted lugger (half-decked), so that may be some excuse for his only representing it with one mast. This is signed " D. H. F., so that the artist was innocently perpetrating this monstrosity. The three illustrations in the book of figures swimming all show incorrect positions. In ' How I Swanu the Channel' in the Boy's Oivn Paper, 1879, there is a portrait illustra- tion, by D. H. Friston, of A. G. Payne in the row-boat, holding a "bowler" or small felt hat, whereas Webb says in the text, after some words to the effect that Payne's science was not so good as sailor's experience, " but I must not laugh at my friend, though he did cross the Channel in an open boat in a chimney-pot hat." In this the lugger is given two masts instead of three. After some years Capt. Webb, in all probability, found that there was an extra- ordinary number of seamen claiming to have gone over with him—that, in fact, a small Ohannel steamer would have been required to accommodate them ; so he took the precau- tion of giving the names and addresses of the crew. As the early numbers of the Botft Own Paper have been unprocurable for many years, I will repeat the names of the crew :— 3eorge Toms, James Bowles, Henry TelL Edward Hanley, John Decent, J. Gates, and John Dodd, Besides the above there were