Let’s remember when Bert Thomas swam across the Straight of Juan de Fuca, on this day in 1955 (July 8)
Area man Bert Thomas made history by being the first person to swim across the Straight of Juan de Fuca.
HistoryLink tells us this:
On Friday, July 8, 1955, Bert O. Thomas (1925–1972), age 29, is the first person to swim across the Strait of Juan de Fuca from Port Angeles, Washington to Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. He accomplishes the 18.3 mile trip in 11 hours and 10 minutes, winning $3,500 in prize money. In May 1956, Thomas will swim between West Seattle and Tacoma, a distance of 18.5 miles, bucking strong winds and the tide, in 15 hours and 23 minutes. In 1958, he will attempt to be the first person to accomplish a two-way, nonstop crossing of the English Channel, but will be thwarted by a leg cramp on the return trip. Thomas, a world-class, long-distance swimmer, will die of a heart attack at Tacoma General Hospital at age 46.
Openwaterswimming.com also has some more details of the journey:
In 1954, he heard about the local newspaper offer of $7,500 to English Channel swimmer Florence Chadwick for her attempt to cross the Strait of Juan de Fuca and $10,000 if she was successful to swim from Canada (Victoria, British Columbia) to the USA (Port Angeles, Washington). The tough ol’ Marine, who had experienced so much during war, was intrigued. And then inspired as Chadwick retired in 47ºF (8.3ºC) water after swimming 5 miles in 5 hours 11 minutes in August 1954.
But for all his experience and motivation to swim across the international boundary between Canada and the United States, failure followed him several times before success was achieved.
Thomas was confident in his unique abilities to withstand hypothermia. He explained his mindset to The Marine Digest, “The cold [water] doesn’t bother me. It was stiffening fingers and arms that helped beat Chadwick. But the cold doesn’t affect me that way. I go into the water feet first, a little at a time. That way, it’s not such a shock to the system. The blood cools gradually. Once I get warmed up, I can keep going for hours.”
But the big bucks offered to Chadwick were not there for the retired Marine and all the others who wished to succeed where Chadwick failed. The Victoria Daily Times offered $1,000 to the first person to conquer the Strait of Juan de Fuca while local businessmen threw in $700 and the Port Angeles Chamber of Commerce added another $1,800 to sweeten the pot.
There’s a lot more to this story, which you can read about here:
