In 1952 Florence Chadwick attempted to swim from Catalina Island to mainland California, prior to this she had swum the English channel twice. During the swim she became very tired and her mother urged her on, but she just couldn’t do it.When she got into the boat she saw for herself that she was only 800m from the shore. She said all I could see was water, I think if I could have seen the shore I would have made it.