How to Swim in Burning Oil

> Swimming Coach Frederick Richard ("Freddie") Lanoue of Georgia Tech got to thinking about the men who must jump from torpedoed ships into burning oil. He remembered an experience he once had when diving into a tank of water through a ring of burning gasoline. The gas had escaped from the hoop that contained it, and he had to come up for air through flames. Shooting up as high as he could, he grabbed a breath and sank back feet first, unscorched. Reasoned Coach Lanoue: Why not suggest the method to the Navy?

Last week the coach put on his act for Navy officials. Two gallons of mixed gasoline and diesel oil were ignited on the surface of a swimming pool. Flames spread two feet high along the water. Freddie's perfected method looked so good that four naval officers tried it, emerged with eyebrows unsinged.

Lanoue claims that sailors could jump feet first through the flames, swim as long as they could under water (swimming for his life, a man might make 100 yards without air), then spring above the flames to breathe, taking a breast stroke to push flames away, and sink and swim again. Thus a man could navigate up to 200 yards of burning oil. Only time Freddie has been singed was when he had on a shirt and an air bubble inside it kept him too long above the surface.

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