Dear Mercedes, 

I am very pleased to inform you that the Baths Committee of Edinburgh Corporation has agreed that you make an attempt to break the British endurance record of 25 hours [held by Dr Dorothy Logan in a failed English Channel attempt] in Infirmary Street Baths, the swim to commence on Old Year night. I trust that this will be suitable to you.

Now Mercedes, you and I must get conditions settled as soon as possible so that I can get bills, etc. printed and make all arrangements for the swim. I should liked to have met with you; one can do so much more by word of mouth than by letter. Please write me by return and let me know what can be done.        

Yours sincerely, 

Thomas Bunyan.

Dear Mercedes, 

Your letter of 30th November received. I shall have the swimming pond as deep as possible, and the temperature at 75ºFahs. I have fixed up with a gramophone company – James Mass, Great Junction Street, Leith – to provide the same free of charge (an electric gramophone).

The Bills are in the printers hands, 100, the size of same are 27ins x 22 ins, and I will have them distributed all over Edinburgh, and will send some to Dysart, Dunbar, Dunfermline, etc., as soon as I get them.

I have written to the Amateur Swimming Association and asked them if they will provide Judge and Timekeepers.

I saw Mr Ferguson last night and he told me to tell you that he is sorry but he can’t put you up at his house on account of his mother, and that you would understand, but that he will be at the swim, and he promised me that he would be at the last 6 hours. I will try and get you fixed up at a private house at as low a charge for board and room as possible. I thought if I could manage it at about 30/- per week, but I will not do anything in that line until I hear from you. Let me know what to do as soon as possible. I don’t suppose you will want to stay in a very big house? That would cost a lot more.

I have been given £10 by my Committee to spend in connection with the swim. This has nothing to do with the drawing or your portion of the drawing. We take half drawing and you the other half. I was thinking of spending the money in the following way:

Attendants’ wages £4.00.00d

Your fare to Edinburgh and back to Ireland £2.00.00d

Expenses for your room £1.10.00d

Printing £1.10.00d

Milk, coffee, etc £1.00.00d

Total: £10.00.00d

I think that would cover most of the expenditure, don’t you? I will try to get seating accommodation to the Baths free.

If you were to come to my office at Infirmary Street at, say, 11 a.m. each morning I will do all I can to assist you with your preparation.

Yours sincerely, 

Thomas Bunyan

"I think this is the first time a long swim has ever been attempted in an indoor baths in Britain, although it is a common enough occurrence in America. Of course, an indoor baths does away with the necessity of grease and the other things which accompany a sea swim, but I shall use a little oil to protect my skin. I have been training for the swim at Sanda Island, off the coast of Argyll, but fresh water is not nearly as buoyant as the sea, and that will make it a big test. I am very grateful to the Edinburgh Corporation for making the attempt possible as I have been wanting this chance for a long time. Altogether, it will be rather a strange experience for me, swimming in such a confined space."

A large gramophone with wireless amplifier maintained a more or less continuous programme of music, the rhythm greatly assisting the swimmer. The music was provided by the James Marr Gramophone Saloons, 171a–173 Great Junction Street, Leith.

During the evening and through the small hours of the morning there was a steady stream of spectators, mainly women, a group of whom stayed with her throughout the swim. Many of Scotland’s foremost lady swimmers paid a visit, among them being Miss Ellen King, Miss Jean McDowall and Miss Gladys Howard. Prominent officials of the Eastern Counties Amateur Swimming Association also attended.

When midnight arrived, and the hooters and bells betokened the entry of 1930, over 100 people came to ‘first-foot’ Mercedes.

There was again a large crowd in the early part of New Year’s Day, a number of Town Councillors and prominent local sportsmen being among the visitors. Many of the visitors were amazed at her small stature. They confessed that they had come to the baths expecting to see a girl swimmer of herculean proportions who relied on her bulk to carry her through her self-imposed task.

Mercedes’s best career performance in the water so far was 20 hours recorded in Lough Neagh the previous September, and a rousing cheer was raised when, at 4 p.m., it was announced that she had beaten her own record. At this point she appeared to be tiring, but soon afterwards she revived and actually increased her strokes to 30 per minute.

Extraordinary scenes were witnessed at the Baths as Mercedes entered upon the last hour of her task. When she broke the existing record of 25 hours the cheering was so loud that the amplified gramophone music was drowned out, and cheer after cheer rang through the building as she continued in the water for one more hour.

The crowd was the largest ever seen at an aquatic promotion in the city, and a contingent of police was in control. Every inch of standing space was occupied, the crowd encroaching on the very edge of the pond. So dense was the throng inside that movement was practically impossible. The police kept a lane through the crowd surging round the inner doorway so that a current of fresh air could come up the stairway for the swimmer.

An appeal was made on behalf of the crowd outside in the street for those who had witnessed the swim for an hour or two to leave so that others could take their places, but this appeal did not meet with much success.

Five minutes from the finish the spectators started singing Auld Lang Syne, followed by For She’s a Jolly Good Fellow – the strains being carried out to the crowd in the street. At the finish women frantically applauded as she was helped out of the water.