In 1587, during the Tudor period, Cambridge theologian Everard Digby published "De Art Natandi," or "The Art of Swimming," as a practical guide for people who wanted to learn to swim. It's the first swimming manual written and printed in the UK and an important and practical guide for everyday use. The book's pages were even covered in wax, most likely to keep the pages dry next to water when its reader was swimming.
The first half of the book covers the theory of swimming while the last half discusses technique. It even provides over 40 illustrations of the moves printed from wood carvings. The manual not only gives very practical safety advice, including swimming with a partner and slowly easing into waters of unknown depth, but it also contains distinct and humorous descriptions for techniques still in use.
Below are some of the illustrations of Digby's work that actually taught people in the 16th century how to swim.
1. The Roach Turn
Who knew this swimming move, which can make you look as if you're floundering in water, actually had a name?
There is another kind of turning when a man is swimming upon his belly with his head one way: suddenly to turn himself, still being upon his belly, and bring about his head and all his body the other way. And for that it is to be done quickly (as oft times you may see the fishes within the water, when in the pleasant heat of summer they wantonly frisk to and fro), it is commonly called "the roach turn," and that is how it is done. If he will turn towards the right hand, he must suddenly put the water from him with his left hand, and pull that water behind towards him with his right hand, turning back his head and his body as you see in [this] figure
2. To Paddle Like a Dog
Digby gives a very ornate description of doggie paddling:
Into this kind of swimming many do at the first fall, before they perfectly learn the right stroke. And there is this difference betwixt them, that whereas in the right kind [of stroke] he stretcheth out his hands and his feet, in this he rudely beateth the water with his hands and feet, first lifting his right hand out of the water and then his right foot, and forcibly striking them into the water again.
3. To Seek Anything That Is Lost in Water
The secret to picking up toys at the bottom of 16th-century rivers and ponds:
He must swim under the water as afore but as near the bottom as he can, so that he touch it not lest he raise any mud to thicken the water, his eyes open that he may see where it lieth.
And if so be that he have any occasion to turn himself, or to seek round about as thinking himself near the thing he seeketh, if he will turn towards the left hand, he must with his right hand pull towards him the water which is on his left side, which will easily turn him about, as this picture next following showeth by example:
But thus much to him which learneth to dive: let him never swim further than he can see the bottom, for it is either very deep or else he is under some bank, or in some such danger.
4. To Swim Backward
Before swimsuits, you apparently had to cover your privates when in the water, at least in books.
That is when one, lying upon his back with his body stretched forth, and holding up his breast as much as he can that his back may lie hollow, which will keep him from sinking and lifting easily one foot after another above the water, and so drawing them forcibly toward him under the water, they will pull his body backward.
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