Charlotte Moore Schoemmell
Toronto Daily Star, October 18 1926
A search for Charlotte Moore Schoemmell (known as Lotty or Lottie) turned up a number of results, including:
- Her Find a Grave entry, which indicated that she was born in 1895 and passed away in 1966. By the time of this photo, she was the mother of a seven-year-old child (after having her first child die in infancy).
- Her entry in the Openwaterpedia website, which mentions that she swam the 251 kilometres down the Hudson River over 11 days, eating lumps of sugar soaked in whiskey for energy. In 1926, she also swam around Manhattan Island.
- A page with a lot of links to stories about Ms. Schoemmell, including that she floated for 31 consecutive hours, swam for 72 consecutive hours, was sued by her sister for recovery of swimming-related expenses, and left her sister a dollar in her will. She also preferred to swim wearing a bathing cap, a whole lot of axle grease, and nothing else, which some considered scandalous.
The last link is to a page on a site that claims that distance swimmer Diana Nyad is a fraud. Her Wikipedia page doesn't contain any accusations of fraud, but does mention that she is a descendant of the inventor of Mrs. Winslow's Soothing Syrup and that she attempted several times to swim from Cuba to Florida when in her sixties.
Created September 7, 2025.