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Swim Across the Hellespont
- When
- 3 May 1810
- Where
- Dardanelles
Byron and Lieutenant Ekenhead swam from Europe to Asia across the Dardanelles on 3 May 1810.
The swim occurred while the ship Salsette was anchored awaiting Ottoman permission to dock. Byron, a Romantic-era poet, swam for pleasure, enjoying the activity. This event is cited as the first recorded notable example of open-water swimming.
Sources
- Lord Byron Wikipedia, revision of 2026-10-01
- Dardanelles Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-08
Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.