Remember Captain Webb? He is credited as the first person to swim the English Channel, equipped with, as the 2015 titular movie describes, “only his mustache and doses of brandy.”
At 10:40 a.m. of August 24th, 1875, having swam nearly 40 miles, Webb stepped ashore at Calais to fame and fortune, but squandered bother in the ensuing years.
He died in 1883 swimming the whirlpool rapids of Niagara, drowned and crushed by the water. It took four days to find his body. A friend of Webb recounts a dialogue before the attempt.
“Don’t go,” I said. “From what I hear, you will never come out alive.”
“Don’t care,” was the reply, “I want money, and I must have it.”
Memoirs of Robert Patrick Watson, 1899.
Watson explains further, “Had he never swam the English Channel, he would be alive now… to admire from afar the society whose members assisted to kill the man of daring and great deeds with mistaken kindness.”
A newspaper article, which you can see here, describes his attempt at Niagara.
“Immediately below the bridge the river becomes exceedingly violent, and as the water was clear every movement of Webb could be seen. At one moment he was lifted high on the crest of a wave, and the next he sank into the awful hollow created. As the river became narrower, and still more impetuous, Webb would sometimes be struck by a wave, and for a few moments would sink out of sight. He, however, rose to the surface without apparent effort. But his speed momentarily increased, and he was hurried along at a frightful pace. At length, he was swept into the neck of the whirlpool. Rising on the crest of the highest wave, he lifted his hands once, and then was precipitated into the yawning gulf. For one moment his head appeared above the angry waters, but he was motionless, and evidently at the mercy of the waves. He was again drawn under the water, and was seen no more alive.”