In 1954 Mihir Sen was a novice in the field of swimming. He was frail. He was studying for the Bar and working as a clerk. The idea of swimming the English Channel struck him and it became an obsession. How in four years and after eight attempts he managed to succeed was published in his words in the Indian government journal Yojana on January 26, 1959. On the occasion of his 84th birth anniversary (November 16), The Telegraph reproduces excerpts of Mihir Sen’s account of his historic feat with permission of his daughter Supriya Sen

In the early hours of September 27 last year, on the bleak wastes of the French shores, two wet and shivering young men held up a soggy Tricolour, sung rapturously a few lines of a rousing Anthem, ignoring the deafening roar of the English Channel and by their frenzied bewildering antics must have made the heavens smile! The song was not French, the flag was Indian and they were not mad! I happen to know because I was one of the young men!

The time was 2.48GMT. The other young man was my friend and manager, Manik Mitra. I had just conquered the English Channel!

Many people have conquered the Channel and will in future do so. But my swim will not be lost in the crowd for the simple reason that I was neither a swimmer, until very recently, nor do I intend pursuing swimming as a career.

Frankly, in 1953 when I decided to swim the English Channel, I was no better suited to tackle the job than most of the readers of this article. The risk I took upon myself was tremendous. According to the British Medical Association, an average healthy European adult, at the height of English summer, will live only up to five hours in the intense cold of the Channel, after which his circulation fails and he dies due to hypothermia (Molnar 1946). But I was far from a ‘healthy European adult’! My capacity for survival in the Channel in 1953 must have been far less than five hours and I knew it!

I was a novice in swimming, frail in physique and had absolutely no money. I used to work in our embassy in London (not as a diplomat!) as a humble £5-a-week temporary clerk and had to study for the Bar as well.

Letter to Nehru

Following the precept ‘Where there is a will there is a way’ I scribbled a hasty letter to our Prime Minister while still a temporary clerk in India House! I really did not believe it would reach even his secretary’s desk; but the miracle happened and the PM took a keen interest in my venture. I received a small financial help from the government and was able to carry on bare training. I could not afford to employ a trainer or a coach. So I read books, watched others and taught myself the first American crawl with which the Channel is usually tackled.

The first attempt

My first full-scale attempt took place on August 15, 1955. While I was only about two-and-a-half miles from the English coast, after nearly 12 hours of continuous swimming, and was certain of victory, a storm broke out and the Channel turned into a ‘raging hell’. I never made that last stretch.

Since then, strange bad luck prevailed in each of my attempts and until last year a total of five big and small assaults had ended in failure.

So far, I was trying to swim the Channel in the comparatively easier route, namely from France to England. But in 1958 I decided to change my course. I took upon myself the still more difficult task of swimming the Channel from England to France.

3 attempts in Sept.

Although two of my attempts failed on September 6 and 9, I wrested the garland from the reluctant lady, the English Channel, on September 26 and 27, 1958.

My time of 14 hours 45 minutes is the fourth-fastest and I was the only person to succeed in this direction, although 10 people swam their way to fame from France during this period. I became the 11th person to conquer the English Channel in the tougher route during the last one hundred years.

A big share of the credit for our Channel triumph belongs to my English wife Bella, who although then a foreigner, felt strongly in 1953 that an Indian must swim the English Channel. Her love and unwavering faith inspired me to attempt and achieve the impossible.