TOURISTS: Fun on the Bosporus

TOURISTS Fun on the Bosporus

The Bosporus (meaning ox or cow ford) is a deep, narrow strait separating Europe and Asia, named in honor of an early swimmer: Io, daughter of the river god Inachos. Io, a looker, dallied with Zeus, who took the precaution—unavailable to other philandering husbands—of changing her into a heifer whenever his wife hove in sight. But Hera (Mrs. Zeus) was a shade too smart for him. One day she archly asked her husband to give her the heifer as a pet. To get out of the fix, poor Io galloped down over the plains of Illyria, across the Balkan Mountains and swam the Bosporus. She kept going over land & sea until she reached the Nile.

Last week, on a sunny afternoon, the Bosporus was conquered again. This time the swimmer was a sedate family man, U.S. Ambassador to Turkey George C. McGhee, who took along his wife, his private secretary, his children (Marcia, 12, and George, 10), and a visiting U.S. Senator, Russell B. Long of Louisiana. It was Senator Long's idea on the spur of the moment to fulfill a lifetime's ambition by swimming from Europe to Asia, and the McGhees picked it up with enthusiasm. Another Senator, Wayne Morse of Oregon, cheered the swimmers on from a motorboat. Led most of the way by the powerful Texas-born ambassador, Long took a spurt at the end and finished the half-mile first, in 27½ minutes. McGhee was a close second; Mrs. McGhee third.