[1] Walpurga von Isacescu attempted to swim across the English Channel on 5 September 1900, a generation before the first woman succeeded at the challenge (when Gertrude Ederle did it, in 1926).

[2] Unfavorable weather and tides[3] contributed to her failure after ten hours, and twenty miles.

[4] She swam the Danube River Race in 1902, from Melk to Vienna, in twelve hours, a record that stood until 1916.

[9] "She tows her clothes behind her in a water-tight india rubber case," one newspaper explained of her weekly swim routine.

[10] She did not inherit an independent living, but worked as an office clerk at an Austrian railway to support herself.