Letters and Journals of Lord Byron
Lord Byron to John Murray, 21 February 1821
“Ravenna, February 21st, 1821.
“In the forty-fourth page, volume first, of Turner’s Travels (which you
lately sent me), it is stated that ‘Lord Byron, when he
expressed such confidence of its practicability, seems to have forgotten that
Leander swam both ways, with and against the
tide; whereas he (Lord Byron) only performed the easiest part of
the task by swimming with it from Europe to Asia.’ I certainly could not
have forgotten, what is known to every schoolboy, that Leander crossed in the night, and returned towards the morning. My object
was, to ascertain that the Hellespont could be crossed at all by
swimming, and in this Mr. Ekenhead and myself both succeeded, the
one in an hour and ten minutes,
448 | NOTICES OF THE | A. D. 1821. |
and the other in one hour
and five minutes. The tide was not in our
favour; on the contrary, the great difficulty was to bear up against the current, which,
so far from helping us into the Asiatic side, set us down right towards the Archipelago.
Neither Mr. Ekenhead, myself, nor, I will venture
to add, any person on board the frigate, from Captain
Bathurst downwards, had any notion of a difference of the current on the
Asiatic side, of which Mr. Turner speaks. I never heard of it till this moment, or I
would have taken the other course. Lieutenant Ekenhead’s sole
motive, and mine also, for setting out from the European side was, that the little cape
above Sestos was a more prominent starting place, and the frigate, which lay below,
close under the Asiatic castle, formed a better point of view for us to swim towards;
and, in fact, we landed immediately below it.
“Mr. Turner says,
‘Whatever is thrown into the stream on this part of the European bank must arrive at the Asiatic shore.’ This is so far
from being the case, that it must arrive in the Archipelago, if
left to the current, although a strong wind in the Asiatic direction might have such an
effect occasionally.
“Mr. Turner attempted
the passage from the Asiatic side, and failed: ‘After five-and-twenty minutes,
in which he did not advance a hundred yards, he gave it up from complete
exhaustion.’ This is very possible, and might have occurred to him just as
readily on the European side. He should have set out a couple of miles higher, and could
then have come out below the European castle. I particularly stated, and Mr. Hobhouse has done so also, that we were obliged to
make the real passage of one mile extend to between three and four, owing to the force of the stream. I can assure Mr.
Turner, that his success would have given me great pleasure, as it would
have added one more instance to the proofs of the probability. It is not quite fair in
him to infer, that because he failed, Leander could not succeed. There are still four instances on record: a
Neapolitan, a young Jew, Mr. Ekenhead, and
myself; the two last done in the presence of hundreds of English
witnesses.
“With regard to the difference of the current, I perceived none; it is favourable to the swimmer on neither aide, but
may be stemmed by
A. D. 1821. | LIFE OF LORD BYRON. | 449 |
plunging into the sea, a considerable
way above the opposite point of the coast which the swimmer wishes to make, but still
bearing up against it; it is strong, but if you calculate well, you may reach land. My
own experience and that of others bids me pronounce the passage of Leander perfectly practicable. Any young man, in good and
tolerable skill in swimming, might succeed in it from either
side. I was three hours in swimming across the Tagus, which is much more hazardous,
being two hours longer than the Hellespont. Of what may be done in swimming, I will
mention one more instance. In 1818, the Chevalier
Mengaldo (a gentleman of Bassano), a good swimmer, wished to swim with my
friend Mr. Alexander Scott and myself. As he
seemed particularly anxious on the subject, we indulged him. We all three started from
the island of the Lido and swam to Venice. At the entrance of the Grand Canal,
Scott and I were a good way ahead, and we saw no more of our
foreign friend, which, however, was of no consequence, as there was a gondola to hold
his clothes and pick him up. Scott swam on till past the Rialto,
where he got out, less from fatigue than from chill, having been
four hours in the water, without rest or stay, except what is to be obtained by floating
on one’s back—this being the condition of our performance.
I continued my course on to Santa Chiara, comprising the whole of the Grand Canal
(besides the distance from the Lido), and got out where the Laguna once more opens to
Fusina. I had been in the water, by my watch, without help or rest, and never touching
ground or boat, four hours and twenty
minutes. To this match, and during the greater part of its performance,
Mr. Hoppner, the Consul-general, was witness,
and it is well known to many others. Mr. Turner
can easily verify the fact, if he thinks it worth while, by referring to Mr.
Hoppner. The distance we could not accurately
ascertain; it was of course considerable.
“I crossed the Hellespont in one hour and ten minutes only.
I am now ten years older in time, and twenty in constitution, than I was when I passed
the Dardanelles, and yet two years ago I was capable of swimming four hours and twenty
minutes; and I am sure that I could have continued two hours longer, though I had on a
pair of trowsers, an accoutrement which by no means assists the performance. My two
450 | NOTICES OF THE | A. D. 1821. |
companions were also four hours in
the water. Mengaldo might be about thirty years
of age; Scott about six-and-twenty.
“With this experience in swimming at different periods of
life, not only upon the spot, but elsewhere, of various
persons, what is there to make me doubt that Leander’s exploit was perfectly practicable? If three individuals
did more than the passage of the Hellespont, why should he have done less? But Mr. Turner failed, and, naturally seeking a plausible
reason for his failure, lays the blame on the Asiatic side of the
strait. He tried to swim directly across, instead of going higher up to take the
vantage: he might as well have tried to fly over Mount Athos.
“That a young Greek of the heroic times, in love, and with
his limbs in full vigour, might have succeeded in such an attempt is neither wonderful
nor doubtful. Whether he attempted it or not is another question, because he might have had a small boat to save him the trouble.
“I am yours very truly,
“Byron.
“P.S. Mr. Turner
says that the swimming from Europe to Asia was—‘the easiest part of the
task.’ I doubt whether Leander found
it so, as it was the return; however, he had several hours between the intervals. The
argument of Mr. Turner ‘that higher up, or lower down,
the strait widens so considerably that he would save little labour by his
starting,’ is only good for indifferent swimmers; a man of any practice
or skill will always consider the distance less than the strength of the stream. If
Ekenhead and myself had thought of crossing
at the narrowest point, instead of going up to the Cape above it, we should have been
swept down to Tenedos. The strait, however, is not so extremely wide, even where it
broadens above and below the forts. As the frigate was stationed some time in the
Dardanelles waiting for the firman, I bathed often in the strait subsequently to our
traject, and generally on the Asiatic side, without perceiving the greater strength
of the opposite stream by which the diplomatic traveller palliates his own failure.
Our amusement in the small bay which opens immediately below the Asiatic fort was to
dive for the land tortoises, which we flung in on purpose,
A. D. 1821. | LIFE OF LORD BYRON. | 451 |
as they amphibiously crawled along the bottom. This does not argue any greater violence of current than on the
European shore. With regard to the modest insinuation that we chose the European aide
as ‘easier,’ I appeal to Mr.
Hobhouse and Captain Bathurst if
it be true or no (poor Ekenhead being since dead.) Had we been
aware of any such difference of current as is asserted, we would at least have proved
it, and were not likely to have given it up in the twenty-five minutes of
Mr. Turner’s own experiment. The secret of all this is,
that Mr. Turner failed, and that we succeeded; and he is
consequently disappointed, and seems not unwilling to overshadow whatever little
merit there might be in our success. Why did he not try the European aide? If he had
succeeded there, after failing on the Asiatic, his plea would have been more graceful
and gracious. Mr. Turner may find what fault he pleases with my
poetry, or my politics; but I recommend him to leave aquatic reflections till he is
able to swim ‘five and twenty minutes’ without being ‘exhausted,’ though I believe he is the first modern Tory
who ever swam ‘against the stream’ for half the
time*.”
Walter Bathurst (1764 c.-1827)
English naval officer, skipper of the Salsette frigate during Byron's first journey to
Greece. He was killed at the battle of Navarino.
William Ekenhead (d. 1810)
A native of Belfast and naval officer; he swam the Hellespont with Byron and died of a
fall during the frigate Salsette’s return to Malta.
John Cam Hobhouse, baron Broughton (1786-1869)
Founder of the Cambridge Whig Club; traveled with Byron in the orient, radical MP for
Westminster (1820); Byron's executor; after a long career in politics published
Some Account of a Long Life (1865) later augmented as
Recollections of a Long Life, 6 vols (1909-1911).
Richard Belgrave Hoppner (1786-1872)
The son of John Hoppner, R.A. (1758-1810) and likewise a painter; he was English consul
at Venice (1814-25). He married Marie Isabella May, of Bern, in 1814.
Angelo Mengaldo (1785-1869)
Former soldier in Napoleon's army who was a Venetian friend of Byron and Alexander
Scott.
John Murray II (1778-1843)
The second John Murray began the
Quarterly Review in 1809 and
published works by Scott, Byron, Austen, Crabbe, and other literary notables.
Alexander Scott (1819 fl.)
Friend of Byron and Richard Belgrave Hoppner; he was a native of Scotland resident in
Venice.
William Turner (1792-1867)
English diplomat who journeyed to Constantinople with Robert Liston's embassy in 1811; he
was author of
Journal of a Tour in the Levant (1820).