Steedman, Charles.

Manual of swimming : including bathing, plunging, diving, floating, scientific swimming, training, drowning, and rescuing / by Charles Steedman. (Melbourne : Henry Tolman Dwight , 1867)

Charles Steedman was an English swimming champion who migrated to Melbourne during the gold-rush, arriving in July 1854. He took part in swimming competitions in the colonies and became the Australian champion. When he wrote this book he was the proprietor of the Railway Baths at Sandridge (Port Melbourne).

In his introduction he claims that this is the first book solely devoted to swimming.

Books of the last century were devoted, in a great measure, to the elucidation of one subject; but among them, and the myriads of books issuing from the press at the present time, there is not one comprehensive work in the English language on the subject treated in the following pages. Certainly, something is said about the art of Swimming in every encyclopaedia, in each work on “Manly Sports,” and in every “Boy’s own Book,” but it is said simply because such publications would not be deemed complete without it, rather than because their compilers believed they had anything both new and true to communicate. Now this latter condition the writer conceives to be his case; the fact of his having obtained the honourable position of Champion Swimmer both in England and Australia, and his having maintained that position for several years, he submits is a sufficient guarantee both of his knowledge and mastery of the subject he undertakes to teach. (p. vi-vii)

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