English Channel latter part of the 19th century when Captain Matthew Webb made the first observed and unassisted swim across the Strait of Dover, swimming from England to France on 24–25 August 1875 in 21 hours 45 minutes. In 1927, at a time when fewer than ten swimmers (including the first woman, Gertrude Ederle in 1926) had managed to emulate the feat and many dubious claims were being made, the Channel Swimming Association (CSA) was founded to authenticate and ratify swimmers' claims to have swum the Channel and to verify crossing times. The CSA was dissolved in 1999 and was succeeded by
Tunnelling the English Channel plays the leader of the Salvation Army parade. King Edward was played by a wash-house attendant who closely resembled the monarch, reprising a role he had played five years before in Méliès's film "The Coronation of Edward VII". Special effects used in the film include stage machinery, pyrotechnics, substitution splices, superimpositions, and dissolves. "Tunneling the English Channel" was released by Méliès's Star Film Company and is numbered 936–950 in its catalogues, where it was advertised as a "fantaisie burlesque à grand spectacle en 30 tableaux". For many of his longer films, Georges Méliès prepared a "boniment", a spoken commentary explaining