Knights, samurai, soldiers, and warriors of all types have been taught to swim – and how to fight and survive – in seas, oceans, lakes, and rivers over the last few millennia.
Shipwrecked Julius Caesar in Northern Africa
During the 1970’s, International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame inductee Joe Grossman wrote a column called ‘Professional Marathon Swimming’ in Swimming World Magazine. Grossman served during that era as the Secretary of the World Professional Marathon Swimming Federation and regularly reported on the professional marathon swimming circuit – and other interesting tidbits from open water swimming history.
He wrote in his March 1972 column, “Julius Caesar, said to have been a superb swimmer, is recorded to have been shipwrecked off Alexandria, Egypt, and jumped overboard, carrying his sword between his teeth and clutching his Commentaries in his left hand while stroking ashore with his right.”
Caesar’s Commentaries include Commentarii de Bello Gallico that describe Caesar’s campaigns in Gaul and Britain between 58–50 BC and Commentarii de Bello Civili that describes his participation in the Roman Civil War of 49–48 BC.
The Commentarii de Bello Gallico is his firsthand account of the Gallic Wars, written as a third-person narrative where he describes the battles and intrigues that took place in the nine years he spent fighting the Celtic and Germanic peoples in Gaul that opposed Roman conquest.
The Commentarii de Bello Civili describes his war against Gnaeus Pompeius and the Roman Senate from shortly before Caesar’s invasion of Italy to Pompey’s defeat at the Battle of Pharsalus and flight to Egypt. It was preceded by the much longer account of Caesar’s campaigns in Gaul and was followed by similar works covering the ensuing wars against the remnants of Pompey’s armies in Egypt, North Africa, and Spain.
Samurai Battles in Japan
In 1185, a famous battle was fought in Kanmon Straits, a narrow waterway that separates the main island of Honshu with the southern island of Kyushu in Japan.
Two major samurai clans battled fiercely across the fast-moving 700-meter strait with their warriors entering the water.
The Japanese samurai practiced suijutsu (水術 in Japanese), the ancient Japanese martial art of combative swimming, one of the 18 martial arts.
Samurai swimming was often a part of their formal training. It was natural for the Japanese warriors to develop their swimming skills because Japan is surrounded by water where combat frequently took place. Swimming and engaging an opponent in water reached a high level in among the ancient warriors.
Depending on the speed, size, and depth of the water that existed near a particular clan, different skills were developed.
It included suiei-jutsu for both swimming under water and swimming in fast-moving rapids – that were called upon during the battle in the Kanmon Straits.
The samurai utilized all forms of suiei-jutsu during the battle, ranging from being to be able to swim in the fast-moving strait while wearing armor and carrying and using weapons.
They needed to be able to use a bow and arrow and engage in hand-to-hand combat while being almost submerged and moving up and down in the tidal flows.
The samurai had to eggbeater (tread water) during the flood and ebb tides while keeping their upper body above water from shore to shore in order to fight with swords and fire arrows at their enemies.
Minato-no-Yoshitsune of the Genji samurai clan eventually emerging victorious in a final sea battle over Taira-no-Tomomori of the Heike samurai clan. This battle is considered a signal of the end of the era of classical Japan and the beginning of medieval Japan.
The two samurai leaders are commemorated with two statues on the Honshu side of the strait [see photos below].
830 years after the famed Genji versus Heike samurai battle, those cross-channel swims by the warring samurai class remain the only documented crossings of the 700-meter Kanmon Straits in western Japan.
Spartan’s Cold Water Training
Japanese samurai as well as the Roman Legions and Spartan soldiers all underwent cold water swimming as part of their military and mental preparations. They learned to swim in all kinds of different cold, warm, tranquil, and turbulent water environments and conditions.
The leaders of these hardened men of earlier millenia knew that training along the seashore, in lakes, and in rivers, especially during the winter and early spring months, would increase their tolerance to cold and various hardships, making them overall better warriors.
© 2023 Daily News of Open Water Swimming
“to educate, enthuse, and entertain all those who venture beyond the shoreline“