Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 60.djvu/111

 feat of swimming across the English Channel without any artificial aid. The attempt made by J. B. Johnson to swim the straits in August 1872 had ended in a fiasco. On 28 May 1875 Captain Paul Boyton, the American life-saving expert, had, after one failure, successfully accomplished the feat of paddling across the Straits when clothed in his patent dress; but although the journey demonstrated the great value of the dress, the paddle in itself was mere child's play in comparison with the task which Webb set himself to accomplish. His first attempt on 12 Aug. was a failure, owing to the fact that he drifted upwards of nine miles out of his proper course in consequence of the strong current and the stress of weather. Twelve days later he dived from the Admiralty Pier, Dover, a few seconds before one o'clock in the afternoon (31/4 hours before high water on a 15 ft. 10 in. tide), and swimming through the night by a three-quarter moon reached Calais at 10.40 A.M. next morning (25 Aug.), having been immersed for nearly twenty-two hours, and having swum a distance of about forty miles without having touched a boat or artificial support of any kind. Great anxiety had been felt by his supporters and the special correspondents upon the lugger which accompanied him, owing to the fact that off Cape Gris Nez the wind arose, the sea became choppy, and between eight and ten in the morning scarcely any progress appeared to be made, while Webb was getting thoroughly exhausted. The successful accomplishment of such a feat gave Webb a pre-eminence among all swimmers of whom there is any record. A handsome testimonial was presented to Webb as the result of a public subscription (the amount of the wager against him being only 125l.)

At the time of his performance Webb was twenty-seven and a half years old, his chest measured 40½ in., his height was 5 ft. 8 in., and he weighed 14 stone 8lb. His body was anointed with porpoise grease, and he was sustained while treading water by doses of cod-liver oil, beef-tea, brandy, coffee, and strong old ale. He used the ‘breast stroke’ almost exclusively, averaging twenty strokes per minute. He was examined by Sir William Ferguson and other surgeons, and his exploit was pronounced by medical opinion to stand almost unrivalled as an instance of human prowess and endurance (Brit. Med. Journal, 28 Aug.; cf. Lancet; the best account of the details of the ‘leviathan swim’ is in Land and Water, 7 Aug., 28 Aug., 4 Sept., with map showing the zigzag course, and 11 Sept. 1875).

During the next few years Webb gave exhibitions of diving and swimming, but mainly of his power of endurance in the water, at various towns in the provinces, at the Westminster Aquarium, and in the United States. Despite these efforts, however, his capital dwindled, and his health seemed on the point of breaking. In the early summer of 1883 he resolved to make a further bid for public favour by attempting to swim through the rapids and whirlpool at the foot of the Niagara Falls. The design was so foolhardy as to be hardly distinguishable from suicide; but a considerable amount of capital seems to have been embarked upon the enterprise, mainly by the railway companies bearing excursionists to Niagara. The ferry-man at Niagara, after a last attempt to dissuade him from the enterprise, rowed ‘Captain Webb’ out into the middle of the river on the afternoon of Tuesday, 24 July 1883. Webb plunged from the boat about 4 P.M., and in about eight minutes had got through what looked the worst part of the rapids; but at the entrance to the whirlpool he was engulfed. He was perceived to throw up his arms with his face towards the Canadian shore, but was never seen again. He left a widow and two children.

[Times, 26 and 27 July 1883; Field, 28 July 1883, p. 147; Illustr. Lond. News, 28 July, with portrait, and 4 Aug.; Land and Water, 28 July 1883; Sinclair and Henry's Swimming (Badminton Library), 1894, pp. 161–6, with a map of his course across Channel and interesting technical details. Among the short Lives are Randall's Captain Webb (with portrait), Madeley, 1875; Webb's Art of Swimming, ed. Payne, with a coloured portrait and brief autobiographical preface, 1875; Dolphin's Channel Feats, 1875; and a chap-book by H. L. Williams, 1883.]  WEBB, PHILIP BARKER (1793–1854), botanist, was great-grandson of Philip Carteret Webb (1700–1770) [q. v.], and the eldest of three sons of Philip Smith Webb of Milford House, Surrey, and Hannah, daughter of Sir Robert Barker, bart. Webb was born at Milford House on 10 July 1793, and was educated at Harrow and at Christ Church, Oxford (he matriculated on 17 Oct. 1811), where William Buckland [q. v.] inspired him with a taste for geology. In 1812 he entered Lincoln's Inn, and in 1815 he graduated as B.A.; but, the death of his father having then put him in command of a handsome fortune, he at once began to gratify his taste for travel, for which he had equipped himself by a study of Italian and Spanish while at Oxford. 