Christchurch (43 ½ hours) – 12 to 13 March 1931
Manchester Street Tepid Baths
The Municipal and Swimming Authorities in Christchurch responded enthusiastically to Mercedes’s request to perform an endurance swim in their city, and the City Council granted her the use of the Tepid Baths in Manchester Street. Price of admission was set at one shilling from 3 a.m. on 12 March, rising to two shillings plus threepence tax from 11 a.m. on 13 March until finish of swim.
In an interview with the Christchurch Star (6 March 1931) in advance of the swim she said:
I am deeply grateful for the facilities which have been placed at my disposal. The worst part of endurance swimming is during the night when a person’s vitality drops. People have been good to me in other countries through their action in singing and playing musical instruments. Community singing and other forms of music assist a great deal, and I hope Christchurch people will help me in this manner so as to aid me through the difficult hours of the night.
The endurance swim was being supervised by the Canterbury Swimming Centre. The Centre provided officials throughout the two days, and was responsible for producing the official log. Glucose, chicken and broth were on menu, and this was prepared for Mercedes by Miss Irene Asassiz. Mr McNie, Vice President of the Auckland Swimming Association (who had helped organise both her Wellington Harbour crossing and her endurance swim there) again stepped in to help with the Christchurch endurance swim.
Extracts from swimming log: The Christchurch log is amongst those found by a third person and auctioned at Sotherby’s without the family’s knowledge. However, the Christchurch Sun (12 March 1931), in an interim report on Mercedes’s swim, reproduced a few of the entries in the log. The first three read:
Miss Mercedes Gleitze entered the water at 3 a.m. and is swimming strongly at 6 a.m. (Sam Hollander)Miss Gleitze fed at intervals soup and glucose. Averaging 31 strokes a minute, using mainly breaststroke. Still going steadily at 9 a.m. (I. Clarkson)Miss Gleitze fed at intervals on soup and chocolate. Swimming strongly, average 33 strokes a minute. Going freely at noon. (T.H. Patton)
As usual she averaged about 32 strokes per minute, and although she used mainly breaststroke, she varied this at intervals with the backstroke, sidestroke and trudgen to ease her muscles.
As usual, her most difficult period was during the early hours of the second morning when she struggled desperately against an overpowering desire to sleep. “Talk to me,” she said to the spectators who had stayed on poolside through the night. Amongst them were a dozen off-duty policemen, newspapermen who had just finished their labours, and stokers from the destructor. They all gave invaluable assistance to Mercedes in her fight to stay awake.
Further entries in the swimming log covering those hours tell their own tale:
At 3.50 a.m. Miss Gleitze, having her worst time of the swim, fighting hard to keep awake, supervisors taking turns to keep her talking. A cup of hot soup at 3.45 a.m. put new life into her. At 4.0 a.m. her husband inquired if she was all right or would she like to be taken out of the water. She replied very spiritedly, “Don’t be silly.” Great applause from the spectators for her game efforts and very plucky rally.5.0 a.m. Miss Gleitze fighting hard and very evidently desperately sleepy and tired. Doing 28 strokes to the minute. Complaining of the cold. Hot soup again at 5.15 a.m. A great exhibition of grit and will power. Movements mechanical.5.30 a.m. Swimming 26 to the minute. (S.C. Anderson)
By 6.00 a.m. with daylight filtering through the skylights, the worst was over. “Thank goodness!” she exclaimed as the electric lights were turned off. A few short spells of sleepiness followed, but by 7.30 a.m. she had recovered her vitality. “I’ll be all right now,” she said, and was back in her rhythm, swimming strongly at about 32 strokes per minute.
There was a huge interest in the swim by Christchurch people. During the last two hours there was continuous cheering and singing from the audience, and it was reported in The Star (14 March 1931) that It was doubtful whether such a crowd had ever before assembled in the Municipal Baths as was seen on the last evening of the swim. All the seating accommodation was taken by 8.30 pm and spectators occupied all the room available for standing purposes. There must have been fully 1,500 people inside the Baths and several hundred more waited outside to give the swimmer a reception when she left for her hotel.
Christchurch Sun images .
Caption reads: CONTINUOUS SWIMMING RECORD – Miss Mercedes Gleitze, swimming in the Christchurch Tepid Baths, beat her own previous record of 43 hours by half-an-hour. Towards the end of the swim, Miss Gleitze was almost overcome with sleepiness early in the day, but did not seem unduly fatigued or distressed when lifted out of the baths at the end of her long swim. On left: Reading the newspaper helped to take her mind off the swim. On right: Being lifted from the water at the end of the record swim.
The Christchurch Sun ceased publication over 50 years ago. Any forthcoming information about the photographer will be included in future reprints.
Councillor C.E. Jones (Chairman of the City Council Baths Committee) made a short speech at the point when Mercedes equalled her current record, and half an hour later Mr Sam Hollander (President of the Canterbury Swimming Centre) blew his whistle indicating that the 43 hour 30 minute swim was over, and a new record set. Mercedes was lifted out of the pool and handed over to the care of the St John Free Ambulance Association. The duty doctor pronounced her perfectly fit, and she was taken in an ambulance to the Hotel Federal for a much overdue sleep.
The concluding entries in the official log of the swim read: “At 9.00 p.m. Miss Gleitze was still swimming strongly before a packed house. She seemed quite fresh and apparently will finish the swim with ease. She has freshened considerably.” The final note in the official log was penned at 10.30 p.m. by Sam Hollander, who wrote: “Miss Gleitze has now completed her wonderful swim in a manner that enthralled the huge crowd.”
Mercedes was interviewed at 11 a.m. the following morning and had a cheery smile for the reporter. She told him she had no aches or pains, or stiffness in her muscles as they were so well trained for the task. It was just ordinary tiredness she felt after each swim.
Through the reporter she expressed her gratitude to all those who helped her throughout the swim, including the Swimming Association, the Canterbury Swimming Centre, the St John Free Ambulance Association and the Christchurch City Council who had treated her very generously.
A message for the people of Christchurch was written by Mercedes in the water during the first afternoon of the endurance swim, and was reproduced in the Christchurch Times the following day:
Message reads: “I deeply appreciate the very kind and sporting interest taken by the citizens of Christchurch in my endurance swim, and hereby express my heartfelt thanks.
Mercedes Gleitze
