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2009 complete results

Peter S. Mc Nally 1897

In 1907 during the Old Home Week celebration three men attempted the swim from the Charlestown Bridge to Boston Light. The event was a ten mile race from Charlestown Bridge, east of Governor's Island, west of Long Island, west of George's Island, and finishing at Little Brewster Island where the nation's first lighthouse was built in 1716. Samuel Richards and Commodore Alfred Brown dropped out while Louis Jacot went on to win the race.

On 30 July 1908 on Boston’s Revere Beach, Annette Kellerman plunged into the ocean determined to swim to and from the Boston Light. She gave up just yards short of the thirteen-mile finish, prompting a Boston Post reporter to proclaim: ‘Annette’s wonderful swim was far from being a disgrace’. It was one year earlier that Kellerman was arrested on a Boston beach for wearing a men’s one-piece swimsuit: the publicity helped to relax laws relating to women's swimwear.

Annette Kellerman 1908	Kellerman Arrest 1908

In 1909, Austrian Alois Anderle completed the Boston Lighthouse Marathon Swim. He started out with eight others following the same rout as the 1907 event. Anderle completed the last half mile in a severe thunderstorm with a time of 5:38. He was later disqualified for walking across an exposed sandbar at Nix's Crag. The next year, 15 year old Rose Pitonof won the race with a time of 6 hours and 50 minutes. She was the first woman to compete the event. Her record stood for several years.

Rose Pitonof 1909

There were two reported swims in 1911. In the first on August 11, Samuel Richards won the race with a time of 6:15. The other competitors got lost in the fog around Long Island. Alsie Aykroyd, a 17 year old Bostonian, won the second Boston Light Swim of 1911. She started the race along with three professional male swimmers (Alois Anderle among them) and she was the only one to compete the race with a time of 7:12.

Samuel Richards wins again in 1912 with a time of 5:15.41 almost an hour better than the previous year. Three others out of 42 entrants completed the race. Several hours before the race Anne Morecroft, a young local swimmer, attempted the same course. She fainted in the waters off of Fort Strong and was taken to the hospital in serious condition.

August 17, 1913, Samuel Richards swam from the Charlestown Bridge to Boston Light and back, an estimated distance of 24 miles. This was the first time the feat had ever been accomplished. Richards was in the water for over 13 hours. Ten others attempted the swim to Boston Light with only two making the distance. Richards was the only one to even try the return swim.

No one reached Boston Light in 1914. Seventeen swimmers entered the water on September 6th, but the race was stopped due to a change in the tides. First place was awarded to Jack Hurwitz because he was in the lead when the race was called off.

In 1915, Henry Miren made a record breaking swim on an ebb tide with a time of 4:54.

1919 Stopped early due to a lightning storm

1921 Charles Toth 5:37, the only finisher

1923 John Bray at age 60 was declared the winner. He was pulled from the water exhausted after swimming 7 hours and 35 minutes, one mile short of the finish. He was the only swimmer to make it that far.

1924 Eva Morrison swam for over 7 hours and made it to within one mile of Boston Light. The other swimmers exited the race earlier saying the water was too cold. Miss Morrison ate chocolates fed to her from a row boat for energy. She finally stopped because the tide had changed.

Ava Morrison 1924

In 1925 the race course was the reverse of the modern day swim. Sixteen swimmers left from the L Street Bathhouse and finished at Boston Light. Walter Patterson, 39, of Bridgeport, Connecticut was the first of two to compete the race that year. Irene Hesenius, of Winthrop, at age 17, won the race with a time of 7:09.

Irene Hesenius 1925

August 22, 1926 Miss Mae Elwell, 17-year-old Revere swimmer, defeated Miss Eva Morrlson of I Piotou, N. S., in a race to Boston Light today by one hour and 46 minutes. Her record time was 6:45. Twelve swimmers planned to swim the race but only four entered the 57 degree water.

1927 Sixteen year old Frances Vincent of East Boston won the women’s race. She was the only one to finish with a time of 7:15. (pictures, articles and notes of Vincent’s swim were provided by Vincent’s grandson, William Portalla)

1928 No one finished the traditional course from the Charlestown bridge. The swimmer who had gone the furthest, Grace Currier, a 16 year old who swam in the nude received first prize. A second race that same year went from Boston Light in to L Street, the same course we swim today. Jimmy Cullen of Charlestown won that year.

1929 Anne Pearson, a 19 year old from Worcester, won the women’s race with a time of 7:23. Charles Gartland, a 19 year old from Ohio, was declared the winner of the men’s race even though no one reached Boston Light. He attempted the swim last year, but only made it half way. He blamed the failure on “a lack of beef”. This year he prepared by gaining 17 pounds in 13 days by consuming “two quarts of milk and a jar of cream a day, about a quarter pound of butter and all of the mashed potatoes I can get a hold of”.

1930 Richards won the professional race against six other swimmers with a time of 6:10.

1931 Bill Hanley won the amateur race from Boston Light, but was disqualified because he had swum in the earlier professional race. The award was given to John Mullen who finished 5 minutes behind Hanley.

1932 combined pro-am race pro: Joe Nunan 5:01, am: John Jarosh 5:05. Nunan went on to win the event a total of six times.

1933 Joe Nunan 5:44

1934 Charlotte Arne, a 17 year old girl from Medford, swam to Boston Light and back with a time of 13:36. She was first woman to complete this feat. The only other person to swim both ways was Richards back in 1913.

1935 ?

1936 Joe Nunan was the only finisher.

1937 John Mullen set a record from Boston Light to the L Street Bath house with a time of 3:35.

1938 Russell Doucette, a 22-year old Squantum Swimming Club member, won in 3:43 passing Mullen in the process. August 7 1939 Nunan today won the thirty-fifth annual Boston Light swim in the record time of 3 hours 22 minutes, 13 minutes from the set by John Mullen of Boston.

August 11, 1940 Joe Nolan of Boston broke the course record with a time of 2:46

The Boston Light Swim is discontinued at the onset of World War II.

September 1969 James J. Doty, 34, set a new record for the swim to Boston Light and back. His time was 9:30. He shattered the times of Arne in 1934 and Richards in 1913.

In 1978, Jim Doty incorporated the New England Marathon Swimming Association (NEMSA) as a charity to promote swimming and study water conditions. It re-started the Boston Light race on an annual basis. Jim Doty is a world renowned open-water swimmer and in 2002 he was inducted in the International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame (IMSHOF).

Modern Results of the Boston Light Swim:

* 2008 Olympic 10K open-water swim 8th place