Downstream

Gravesend had presented
Webb with a purse containing
£75, the Assembly Rooms
were full to capacity, and the
Mayor hoped Webb’s
achievement would mean
soon ‘every waterman in the
town’ would be a swimmer,
whereas at the present only
‘one in 50’ knew how to
swim. Swimming, as
elsewhere along the Thames,
was beginning to be seen as a
key life skill.