| Honorific Prefix: | Captain |
| Birth Date: | 19 January 1848 |
| Birth Place: | Dawley, Shropshire, England |
| Death Place: | Niagara River, Niagara Falls |
| Death Cause: | Paralysis from water pressure swimming in the Niagara Rapids |
| Known For: | Swimming the English Channel |
| Monuments: | Monument to Captain Webb, Captain Webb Drive, Webb Crescent, Captain Webb Primary School |
| Occupation: | Seaman, swimmer, stuntsman |
| Years Active: | 1875-1883 |
| Resting Place: | Oakwood Cemetery, Niagara Falls, New York |
| Burial Place: | Oakwood Cemetery (Niagara Falls, New York) |
| Spouse: | Madeline Kate Chaddock (married 1880-1883) |
| Children: | 2 |
| Parents: | Dr. Matthew Webb, Sarah Cartwright Webb |
| Relatives: | Edward Webb |
| Awards: | Stanhope Medal |
Captain Matthew Webb (19 January 1848 – 24 July 1883) was an English seaman, swimmer and stuntman. He is the first recorded person to swim the English Channel for sport without the use of artificial aids. In 1875, Webb swam from Dover to Calais in less than 22 hours. This made him a celebrity, and he performed many stunts in public. He died trying to swim the Niagara Gorge below Niagara Falls, a feat declared impossible.
Webb was born on 18 or 19 January 1848 in High Street, Dawley (now part of Telford), in Shropshire, one of eight sons of fourteen children of the surgeon Dr. Matthew Webb. In 1849, while Mathew Webb was only 14 months old, Dr. Matthew Webb and his wife Sarah Cartwright Webb moved with the family to Madeley High Street, and then by 1856 to Eastfield House, Coalbrookdale.[1] The Webb family's which was situated just one field from the River Severn, which was where he Webb developed his strong swimming abilities.[2] After Webb's death, Dawley Heritage determined the original Webb house to be between 57 to 63 High Street.
The Webb family were Anglicans, so Webb was familiar with the stories of the Bible. One story that Webb remembered well into adult life was Daniel in the lions' den.
Webb's first memory involved the water. After finishing his day at the local school he would go with a group of friends to play in the Severn, and by the time he was seven, he could already swim. This was uncommon for the time, as swimming was not generally considered a pleasurable activity, but rather an activity prescribed by doctors as a treatment for a wide range of ailments. By eight years old, Webb was already a strong swimmer, so when his younger brother Charles was drowning in the Severn, he and his older brother Thomas were able to save him.
Even at school, Webb was fearless and enjoyed pulling off dangerous stunts in front of his friends.
Webb enjoyed painting pictures of animals, and reading stories of the sea. He was particularly influenced by the book Old Jack by W. H. G. Kingston, which was one of his inspirations to become a seaman.
In 1860, at the age of twelve, it was decided by he and his parents that Webb should leave school and join the Merchant Service.
He joined the training ship HMS Conway.[3] In just his first few days on the ship, he felt homesick and hated the harsh living conditions, saying "I was hardly afloat before I wished myself back again to my comfortable home".
On the Conway, Webb was taught both traditional school classes (English, mathematics, history etc.), and specialized classes in nautical skills (map reading, astronomy, sailing etc.). His routine was regulated by the program and generally consisted of waking up at six, eating breakfast at eight, participating in traditional school classes during the morning, lunch at midday followed by half an hour of play time, nautical skills classes in the afternoon, and then dinner at five followed by more play time and some school prep until prayers at eight thirty, and then bed at nine. The routine on the weekend and during the half day on Wednesday was more varied, as the students were allowed off the ship to visit friends and/or participate in various fun activities.
Webb became popular on the Conway, and was given the nickname "Chummy Webb". He could also defend himself in a fight, later saying that "many of the boys were highly respectable", but also "some were highly the opposite". He excelled in swimming, rescuing a fellow crew member from overboard, and impressed fellow crew mates by his ability to stay in the water for very long periods of time.
After two years as a student on the Conway, on 1 October 1862, he enlisted himself for a three year apprenticeship on the eastern cargo ships operated by the Rathbone Brothers of Liverpool, where he traded with East India and China and completed training to become a second mate. The Rathbone Brothers provided Webb with the necessities of life (except clothes and bedding which he had to bring along for himself) and paid him £30 for his three years work, which was split into £5 for the first year, £10 for the second and £15 for the third. In return, Webb had to work for the Rathbone Brothers, was prohibited from entering taverns and alehouses, and from gambling.
Webb's first trip was from Liverpool to Calcutta aboard the Cavour. The crew was unfortunate and experienced bad weather, meaning the ship took two weeks to travel the first hundred miles. Webb recalled that experiencing his first storm was completely different to how he had imagined, and he was terrified throughout it. Despite this, Webb excelled in the harsh conditions and was not prone to seasickness like the other new recruits. Webb also got the traditional sailors tattoo of a blue anchor on his right arm.
In the summer of 1863, while at home, Webb rescued his 12-year-old brother Thomas from drowning in the Severn near Ironbridge.
The ship then sailed from Calcutta to Hong Kong, where Webb was subject to a mugging attempt. However Webb managed to fight off the assailants until a policeman caused them to flee, and was able to keep the dollar he had kept in his pocket. The ship then sailed to Singapore, then back to Calcutta, and then back home where he was finally reunited with his family after seventeen months.
His next trip was to Aden and then Bombay, where he stayed for three months. It was at this time that Webb first experienced swimming in the sea. He swam between the boats in the harbour, eating dinner at his destination and then swimming back again. He found that he liked the extra buoyancy that the saltwater provided, and the roughness of the waves. He learned that "you must not attempt to battle with waves". Rather, you should "maneuver them and they will assist you".
During this time, Webb gained a reputation for being fearless and was admired by his comrades. Upon completing his third voyage, which was once again to Singapore and Hong Kong, he passed his test to qualify as a second mate. However, he had to continue working for the Rathbone Brothers until his contract expired in 1865.
Upon finishing work for the Rathbone Brothers, Webb began work as a second mate for Saunders & Co., another shipping company based in Liverpool. He worked for them on ships to Japan, Brazil and Egypt.
Webb was very confident in his physical abilities, especially when it came to swimming. He was known for leaping off the yardarm into the sea, and earned an extra £1 per day for anchoring the boat near a wreck, and then swimming back to shore (a job which all the other sailors were too afraid to do). Webb learned to swim well in the sea from these endeavors. He even competed with a dog from Newfoundland for who could swim the longest in the rough sea. After an hour, Webb was still swimming but the dog was exhausted and was rescued from the water.
Yet another another one of Webb's stunts took place in the Suez Canal, where the propeller of their ship had intertwined with a rope, causing it to get stuck. Webb dived down for hours, slowly cutting the rope dive by dive, until it was cut and the propeller was freed. During this time, a French ship had been waiting behind them, with the crew getting impatient. One of the French officers shoved Webb, but he gripped the officer and they fell into the water together. While he was told off by the captain, the rest of the crew enjoyed the joke. Unfortunately for Webb, his employers never recognized him for this feat, and so he left for the United States.
His time in the US did not last long though, as he immediately disliked it and took a job as an ordinary seaman on the Cunard Line ship Russia to get back to the UK. The Russia was travelling from New York to Liverpool, and would be the ship on which Webb would perform his next brave feat. On 22 April 1873, Webb attempted to rescue a man overboard by diving into the sea in the mid-Atlantic. Webb jumped into the cold water while the boat was travelling at a speed of 14 and a half knots, in persuit of what he thought was the man's head, but it was actually just his hat. Webb removed his clothing so he could swim better, but doubted that the ship would come back for him. He later said that he had a flashback of his whole life. After thirty-seven minutes, Webb was finally rescued, by which point "the poor brute was nearly drowned".
The man was never found, but the passengers of the Russia banded together to give Webb a purse of gold, and upon returning home, he learned that his daring attempted rescue won him an award of £100 and the first Stanhope Medal, and made him a hero of the British press. He was also awarded another medal by the Liverpool Humane Society.
From 1865 to 1875, Webb had worked on seven different ships, the last of which was named the Emerald, where he started work in January 1875 and served as captain for six months.
In the summer of 1872, Webb had read an account of the failed attempt by J. B. Johnson to swim the English Channel, and became inspired to try. He also learned of Lord Byron and Lieutenant Ekenhead's Hellespont crossing, and was greatly interested in the story.
In 1874, Webb was looking for financial backers for his channel attempt and long swims in general. He first approached Robert Patrick Watson, the owner of the Swimming, Rowing and Athletic Record and the Swimming Notes and Record, asking for help in finding a backer for his channel swim. Watson did not believe Webb would actually swim the channel, but advised him to wait until next summer as the weather would not be good enough until then. Webb agreed with Watson, so moved to Dover for the rest of the summer to begin practicing. Despite Webb not telling anyone in Dover what he was planning, he caught the attention of locals thanks to his long swims and stunts in the water. They nicknamed him the "Red Indian" as he would often come back from long swims with a red face. Before returning to Watson's office in Fleet Street, Webb tested himself by swimming to Varne Point lighthouse and back again, a distance of thirteen miles.
Webb returned to Watson's office, and Watson was surprised by his return. While Watson could not personally work with Webb on his channel crossing, he did introduce him to Fred Beckwith, who was a coach at Lambeth Baths in south London.
During September 1874, Watson and Beckwith organised a secret trial of Webb, where they watched him swim breaststroke down the Thames from Westminster Bridge to Regent's Canal Dock. After watching for an hour and twenty minutes, they "grew tired of watching his slow, methodical but perfect breaststroke and magnificent sweep of his ponderous legs", and so concluded Webb's trial. For the rest of the 1874 swimming season, Webb trained everyday at Lambeth Baths. Sometimes he would spend all day at the baths, before drinking some ale and then returning home. Over the next year, he became very good friends with both Beckwith and Watson.
Beckwith tried to make money from Webb, issuing a statement in the Sporting Life, challenging anyone to swim further than his "unknown amateur" down the Thames, and then trying to place a bet on Webb's successfully swimming across the Channel. However, it was by then too late in the summer of 1874 for a Channel crossing to be completed that year, as the weather was becoming too harsh.
In June 1875, Webb left his job as captain of the Emerald, in order to focus on his swimming feats. It was also during this month that future American rival Paul Boyton swam a significant portion of the channel in 24 hours wearing a survival suit.[4] Despite Boyton's suit protecting him from the elements, the public saw them as rivals, which meant Webb had to live up to the very high standards of endurance that Boyton set in his suit. Webb always said that Boyton was "an obvious fraud".
A month after leaving his job on the Emerald, on the 3 July, Beckwith organised a spectacle by showing Webb setting a record by completing a 20 mile swim between Blackwall and Gravesend along the River Thames in 43-44 hours. Webb received media attention for the feat, with newspapers such as Bell's Life and Land and Water, the Daily News and the Globe all reporting on it. Some papers reported very positively, while others were more neutral. The Globe however gave little credit because of the flow of the river that heavily aided him. This record stood until 25 July 1899 when it was beaten by Montague Holbein. Unfortunately for Beckwith, the poor public interest on the rainy day meant that he lost money. As a result, Webb took another manager, Arthur Payne. Payne was the sporting editor of The Standard.
On July 17, 1875, Webb announced to the public that he would attempt to swim across the English Channel with the statement from Payne in Bell's Life and Land and Water:
"I am authorised by Captain Webb to announce his full determination to attempt the feat of swimming across the Channel... Beyond a paltry bet of £20 to £1 he has nothing to gain by success. Surely, under the circumstances, there are some lovers of sport who would gladly, in sporting language, 'put him on so much to nothing'. Should he by chance succeed, which is extremely improbable, it would be cruel that one who would undoubtedly have performed the greatest athletic feat on record should be a loser by the event."Webb organized his next training swim for 19 July from Dover to Ramsgate himself, hiring a local boatman called William Cole for the exploit, and inviting a reporter from the Dover Chronicle to join. The morning of the swim had heavy rain, but Webb still set off just before 10 in the morning with the tide but against the rain. Webb did some breaststroke, and this time also incorporated some sidestroke. He swam at a pace of twenty strokes per minute, stopping only to drink some ale. By 12:40, he was halfway, but the second half included swimming against the tide, causing him to slow down. Webb was greeted by a small group on Ramsgate Pier. Unfortunately for Webb, the national newspapers did not print his swim, with The Times printing another one of Boyton's appearances. The only newspaper that printed anything about the swim was the Dover Chronicle.
Following his long swims, Webb had a medical check in London by Dr. Henry Smith. The report was once again printed in Bell's Life and Land and Water, and was extremely detailed. An employee at Bell's Life and Land and Water called Frank Buckland gave Webb a jar of porpoise oil for insulation and recommended that he consume a diet of strong beef tea, thick soup, meat and bread, egg and sherry, Liebig's extract of meat, strong tea and a "very moderate use of brandy". Webb ignored the dietary advice, but kept the oil.
In August, Webb moved from London to stay at the Flying Horse Hotel in Dover, to begin final preparations. While in Dover Webb followed a strict routine of swimming for an hour a day, except for every tenth day where he would do a long swim up to five hours. He ate a lot of fat from meat, and drank three pints of beer per day, but did not drink any tea, coffee or spirits. He always walked in the fresh air before going to bed at 10pm.
Despite Webb having plenty of sailing experience, he was not knowledgeable about the Straits of Dover. He consulted the locals, and eventually settled on using the same strategy that Boyton had previously used. He aimed to start on the Dover east flood tide, and then catch the current as it turned to the west. He aimed to finish the swim in fourteen hours. Webb decided he would be backed by the lugger boat called "Ann", which was captained by George Toms, and a small rowing boat operated by Boy Baker. Aboard the lugger would be the captain, two of his sons, and a crew of four others. The lugger would carry a stove, bricks to warm up for heat and a thick blanket, while the rowing boat would carry a lifebelt in case of emergency. Webb decided he did not want a doctor, since he believed he knew his health best. The lugger was also packed with a large variety of food, including coffee, beef tea, roast beef, sandwiches, ale and brandy.
Webb later recalled the fear of failure he had, but did not show at the time. He "dreaded the kindness and sympathy of [his] friends, especially at home, even more than the open ridicule of comparative strangers".
He had to wait until 12 August 1875, when Webb made his first attempt, but the weather was still not great, and after seven hours he had been driven over nine miles off course and was forced to abandon the swim despite being over halfway there.[5] Webb swam until he could not swim any longer, boarding the boat only fifteen minutes before the conditions became so bad that he would not even been able to board it. Despite Webb's disappointment, he remained positive, and was assured by captain Toms that had the weather been better, he probably would have made it.
Good weather finally arrived on the 24 August with a good barometer reading, little wind and slightly overcast sky. The sea was 18°C (65°F), and the captain recommended that Webb start his swim at 1pm. Webb began preparations by eating an English breakfast with claret, and at around 12:45, set off in the Lugger Ann with the rest of the crew from the Harbour to Admiralty Pier. Captain Toms predicted the swim would take around fourteen hours, while the captain Pittock of the Castalia (who was known as an expert on the channel waters) predicted it would take around twenty.
At 12:56 pm, Webb began his second attempt by diving in from the Admiralty Pier at Dover in his red silk swim costume. Webb was smeared with the porpoise oil for insulation, and had set off into the ebb tide which carried him for the first three quarters of a mile out from Admiralty Pier. At the time of his swim, Webb weighed 14 stone and 8 pounds, his chest size was 40 and a half inches and he was 5 foot 8 inches tall.
Webb was backed by the Ann and two smaller rowing boats operated by Charles Baker (who joined Webb for parts of the swim) and John Graham Chambers.[6] Among the crew of the Ann was: Payne who was acting as a referee and reporter for Bell's Life and Land and Water and the London Standard, Henry Wilkinson (another referee from The Field and the Daily News), J.B. Jones (a reporter from the Dover Express also representing the Daily Telegraph), Mr. Warman (from the Dover Chronicle and also representing The Times), Mr. Bell (an artist from the Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News and the Illustrated London News), Webb's brother-in-law George Ward, John Dodd (the captain's friend) and five other crew members with the names Bowles, Decent, Gates, Jell and Stanley.
Webb started swimming his breaststroke at a stroke rate of about twenty-five strokes per minute, but slowed to around twenty when he found his rhythm. He ate cod-liver oil, beef tea, brandy, coffee, and ale, but did not stop long for each feed in an effort to preserve body heat. The crew was very positive with the better weather.
By 17:30, on August 24, Dover could no longer be seen, and at 18:50, a reporter was sent back with the positive information for the newspapers. At 20:35, Webb was stung by his first jellyfish, which was painful but did not stop him after he had a shot of brandy. By 23:00, the captain believed the party was about twelve and a half miles from Dover, and nine miles from Calais. During the swim, a mailboat named "The Maid of Kent" passed Webb, with the passengers cheering.
During the morning of August 25, the Sporting Life published a column with the title "Captain Webb's Channel Trip", which reported on the favourable weather conditions and changing tides which had so far carried Webb westward, eastward and then westward again.
The strong currents off Cap Gris Nez with about three miles to go prevented him from reaching the shore for five hours,[7] during which time Webb was visibly struggling, with his stroke slowing. For the last two hours, the crew was very anxious as they could see Webb's exhaustion. By 21:30, Webb's stroke had slowed to twelve strokes per minute, but the Maid of Kent returned with a rowing boat containing eight people to shield Webb from the strong wind and rain. Near the shore, the crew began singing the tune Rule, Britannia!, which Webb later recalled this moment in his diary:
"Never shall I forget when the men in the mailboat struck up the tune of Rule Britannia, which they sang, or rather shouted, in a hoarse roar. I felt a gulping sensation in my throat as the old tune, which I had heard in all parts of the world, once more struck my ears under circumstances so extra-ordinary. I felt now I should do it, and I did it."Finally, after approximately 21 hours and 40 minutes, at 10:41 am on August 25, he landed near Calais—the first successful cross-channel swim without artificial aid. His zig-zag course across the Channel was about 39 miles (66 km) long.[8] Upon completing the swim, fell into his friends' arms, and then slept in Hotel de Paris.
Webb was given hot wine and blankets and then fell into a sleep. His temperature was a high 38°C (101°F) and he had a fever. He slept for about twenty four hours, only waking to eat soup and fish and to look out the window. Upon waking fully, he had stiff legs and two long swellings on the back of his neck from holding his neck up for so long. He had a bath and a large breakfast before meeting the crowds that had gathered at the floor of the hotel. Once Webb had recovered, he and George Ward briefly escaped the crowds for a quick tour of a lace factory, where they both presented themselves as normal visitors. However, they quickly returned to the hotel, where they found out that Captain Pittock from the Channel Steamship Company had invited them to cross back to England aboard the Castalia. Webb accepted the invitation.
By 13:00, Webb was saying goodbye to everyone at the hotel, and then boarded the Castalia. The boat had been decorated with flags, and had a salon where Webb went after boarding. He couldn't relax for long though, because the passengers had heard that he was on board and came to see him. After being swarmed by people, Webb left for the deck where he was given a loud cheer.
Upon taking the train to Wellington, Shropshire, he was warmly received by a large crowd and a band from the 7th Shropshire Rifles. The crowd removed the horses from the front of his carriage, and drew it by hand to Ironbridge where they were met by another band of the 6th Shropshire Rifle Corps and were welcomed by the Mayor of Wenlock. Webb spent the night in Ironbridge, and was met again in the morning by a group from Dawley. They invited him to "receive the homage of the town of his birth", and then escorted him to Dawley and down the High Street, where the people of the town warmly welcomed him. Webb received many gifts, and the London Stock Exchange set up a testimonial fund, which raised £2424 for Webb and his family. Of this money, Webb gave £500 to his father, and invested the £1782 in the hopes that this would provide him lifelong income. Webb then moved to 21 Tavistock Crescent, Kensington, London.
Completing the crossing lifted Webb to fame. He was reported on extremely positively by the Telegraph, the Standard and the New York Times. Beckwith's Sporting Life published the headline "Captain Webb's Great Swimming Feat", which in the lead referenced the paper's previous articles on Webb when Beckwith was his manager, but lifted the main section of the article from Payne's report in The Standard. Contained in The Standard was Payne's eyewitness account of the crossing, including observations of the weather conditions, Webb's stroke, the water conditions and the marine life.
Surgeons such as Sir William Fergusson regarded Webb's feat as "almost unrivalled as an instance of human prowess and endurance", and noted that his body must have been good at vasoconstriction to prevent heat loss.[9]
It was suggested that Webb be knighted in parliament, with Mr R. H. Home MP being Webb's strongest advocate, as he had himself swam across the Menai Strait. However, Webb was never knighted.
After his record swim, Webb basked in national and international adulation, and followed a career as a professional swimmer. To make money, he licensed his name for merchandising such as commemorative pottery and matches, lectured, won prize money for winning events, patented various inventions, and was sponsored to complete other swimming related stunts.
In his lectures, Webb spoke against the common Victorian practice of forcefully dunking children in the water, saying "fear of water on his part can never be removed by force or so-called heroic treatment", and proposed the alternative methodology of letting the child experiment themselves in shallow water.
Despite all his income streams, Webb did not make much money and was exceedingly generous. He also found it hard to cope with his newfound fame, and, by 1879, had also fallen into financial trouble. To raise funds, Webb toured England competing in long endurance events and completed swimming stunts, including multiple six day races, swimming between twelve and fourteen hours per day.[10]
Webb won the "Swimming Championship of England" in May 1879 at Lambeth Baths against other swimming champions from around England. To win, he swam 74 miles over 6 days, by swimming for roughly 14 hours per day.
Unfortunately for Webb, his exhibition swims were drawing less attention as time went on, and so in 1880 he brought his feats to America for the first time. In September of that year, Webb escalated his achievement to win the "Swimming Championship of the World" against American Paul Boyton at Nantasket Beach, however he was accused of cheating and was not awarded the prize money. Overall, Webb was still unsuccessful in America, and lost money on the trip.
Back in England in 1880, Webb floated for 74 hours in the waters of Scarborough Aquarium, and for 60 hours in the Royal Aquarium in Westminster. He returned again to America in 1883, when he beat his own record by floating for one (minus a 94 minute break) in Boston Horticultural Hall. However, his financial situation still did not improve.
He wrote a book called The Art of Swimming.[11]
He at one point swam in Hollingworth Lake.[12]
In 1882, Webb announced that he would attempt to swim through the base of Niagara Falls, a body of water notorious for its rapids and whirlpools.[13]
Webb's last competitive swim was in March 1883, where he raced 20 miles at Lambeth Baths. Webb was forced to quit the race when he was spitting blood as a result of his diagnosed tuberculosis. By this point, Webb had lost so much weight that he was 42 pounds lighter than when he swam the channel. Consequently, his doctor ordered that he should he should completely quit swimming.
However, driven by his worsening financial situation and desire for fame, Webb did not take the doctors advice. Four months later, he attempted to swim across the Niagara Rapids.
In June 1883, Webb and his family travelled to America, with Webb maintaining the intention to swim in the Niagara Gorge through the Whirlpool Rapids on the Niagara River below Niagara Falls, a feat many observers considered suicidal. Webb trained for several days at Nantucket beach, then travelled to Niagara Falls. He then made an impromptu plan and called a press conference to explain it. Money was promised to Webb by the railway companies which charged visitors to come and watch the attempt, which Webb thought would be around $10,000. Webb had originally planned the swim for 21 July, but special arrangements from the railway companies caused him to delay the start until July 24. At 16:25, Webb jumped off the side of a ferryboat into the rapids.
Many people considered this swim suicidal, and some even argued that this was Webb's intention. Webb's close friend Robert Watson tried to dissuade him, and later said:
As we stood face to face I compared the fine, handsome sailor, who first spoke to me about swimming at Falcon Court, with the broken-spirited and terribly altered appearance of the man who courted death in the whirlpool rapids of Niagara ... let it be taken for granted that his object was not suicide, but money and imperishable fame.Despite this, Webb did not tell his wife Madeline that he would be attempting the stunt, but said "If I die they will do something for my wife" shortly before the swim.
Before exiting the ferry, the operator tried to dissuade him one final time, but Webb only waved, smiled and said "goodbye boy", before exiting the boat.
Everything went smoothly for the first part of the swim, but upon being lifted by a large wave, Webb shouted and lifted his arm, before being pulled underwater by the currents for a distance of about 40 meters.[14] He reappeared briefly, but at 16:35, he was sucked into the whirlpool and was never seen alive again.
Four days later, Webb and the two Indians bodies were found. Webb's body had a cut on the forehead, which caused people to assume he was knocked out on a submerged rock, and then died from drowning. However, the autopsy revealed he was paralysed from the water pressure.
Webb was temporarily interred in Oakwood Cemetery, Niagara Falls, New York, and then reburied once again in Oakwood Cemetery.[15] Above the grave was a dark granite Gothic monument inscribed "Captain Matthew Webb. Born Jan. 19, 1848. Died July 24, 1883".
On 27 April 1880, Webb and Madeline Kate Chaddock were married at St Andrew's Church, West Kensington, and they had two children, Matthew and Helen. Matthew went on to fight in France in World War I, with the South African Forces, but was killed in 1917 at the Ypres Salient. After his death, his wife remarried and moved to South Africa.
Upon completion of his swim The New York Times mentioned how much good Webb had done by inspiring the whole country to go swimming, with the London Baths overflowing with people, and many others swimming in open bodies of water. Many new books were published teaching swimming in the next twenty five years. Swimming clubs grew in quantity, and many new swimming pools were opened with the Baths and Washhouses Act allowing local authorities to build them. Shortly after Webb's death, several periodical swimming championships were started, and the Sporting Life attributed much more paper space to swimming.
Some time after Webb's death, in 1909, a postcard was produced which depicted a pig on a wall watching Webb's procession go by. It was produced by the Baldwin Bros., a photography firm in Dawley, around the same time that the Captain Webb Memorial in Dawley was unveiled.[16] [17]
On 23rd October 1909, funded by public subscriptions, Webb's elder brother Thomas unveiled a memorial at the bottom of Dawley High Street. It took the funding committee just seventeen weeks to fund, build and unveil the memorial. On it reads the short inscription: "Nothing great is easy."[18] The memorial was taken away for repair after a lorry collided with it in February 2009. The landmark memorial was returned after full restoration and was hoisted back onto its plinth in High Street in October 2009.[19]
On 8 June 1910, a second memorial was unveiled for him in Dover.[20] Another memorial plaque with his portrait was also unveiled in the parish church at Coalbrookdale.[21]
Two roads in the town (Captain Webb Drive and Webb Crescent) and the Captain Webb Primary School in Dawley are named after the swimmer.[22]
Webb House of the Haberdashers' Adams Grammar School in Newport, Shropshire, is named after Webb.[23]
A book about Webb's life was written in 1986 entitled Nothing Great is Easy by author David Elderwick. It has the tagline "The Story of Captain Matthew Webb, The First Man To Swim The English Channel".
In 1965, Webb was added to the International Swimming Hall of Fame, for being the first swimmer to cross the English Channel.[24]
Matthew Webb's great nephew, Edward Webb of Nottingham became the first man to solo para-glide across the English Channel on 12 September 1992. This was 117 years after his Great Uncle crossed the Channel. Edward was just 20 years old at the time but the feat helped to raise £2.5 million pounds in fundraising for the Christian Rescue Services Young Children in Need charity.[25] Captain Webb no longer has any living descendants, as his great great granddaughter did not have any children.
His death inspired a poem by William McGonagall in 1883.[26] John Betjeman's poem "A Shropshire Lad" (1940) also commemorates the death of Webb, portraying his ghost swimming back along the canal to Dawley. It was set to music by Jim Parker and was recorded by folk singer John Kirkpatrick.[27]
Webb's picture on boxes of Bryant and May matches is said to have inspired the physical appearance of the Inspector Clouseau character portrayed originally in the Pink Panther films by Peter Sellers.[28]
An episode of Peabody's Improbable History (a segment of Rocky and Bullwinkle) misidentified him in dialogue and the episode's title as "Captain Clift". It was a sly reference to Peabody's voice being patterned after actor Clifton Webb. The character in the episode did, however, resemble Matthew Webb. The joke name also facilitated Peabody's closing pun about the "White Clifts of Dover".
A 2007 Channel 4 documentary named Swimming: A Brief History[29] suggests that Webb's swim was hugely inspirational. Both his Channel crossing and Niagara Falls downfall are discussed and Webb is described as revered for his "sporting achievements". The programme also features an artist's illustration of the 1875 channel swim and describes him consuming "beef tea, beer and brandy" during the event.
In 2009 Jim Howick portrayed Webb during a humorous retelling of his death in Episode 4, Series 1 of the CBBC show Horrible Histories.
Production began in 2014 for a full-length film adaptation about Webb's Channel attempt, initially under the working title The Greatest Englishman. It was directed by Justin Hardy, written by Jemma Kennedy, and starring Warren Brown.[30] Released in 2015 under the title Captain Webb, the movie was nominated for a British Film Award the following year, but box office success was limited.[31]