Enrique Tirabocchi (1887 – February 7, 1948; variously spelled as Enrico Tiraboschi) was an Argentine marathon swimmer who in August 1923 became the fourth person to successfully swim across the English Channel.
[2] Tirabocchi entered the water at Cape Gris Nez on the French side of the Channel at 8:00 on the evening of August 11, 1923, telling the assembled crowd that "I'm going to follow [Henry] Sullivan's example" and started out in an ebb tide that lasted an hour.
He was accompanied by thirty friends who followed him on his route, taking turns swimming with him in the water and lighting the way for him with an acetylene lamp at night.
The Times describe Tirabocchi's path as approximating the shape of the letter "N" while the additional tides faced by Sullivan days earlier had forced him in the track of a "W" with an extra stroke.
[3] After Tirabocchi entered Italy from Switzerland on September 11, 1923, Italian customs officials at Domodossola confiscated a trophy he had been awarded for his Channel swim, saying that he needed to pay import duty on the item.