Downstream

mouth open in alarm;
presumably in the process of
drowning. Then I read a
passing reference to a swim
she had done in the Thames,
with no idea what a
trailblazer she had been. Here
she was diving off a rowing
boat in 1875 when most
sailors couldn’t swim and
when 3,199 people had
drowned by accident that year
in England and Wales, 500 of
whom were women.