The 'invaluable art' of swimming in the River Derwent and Hobart's many swimming pools, 1803-1998

In the United Kingdom during the eighteenth century, swimming was popular in the sea, rivers, lakes and streams. For women who wished to swim, modesty ruled. Their bathing gown was a loose, ankle-length full-sleeved chemise-type gown made of wool or flannel. Men swam either nude - until 1860 when it was banned- or wore their underwear, but by the 1870s it was common for men to wear 'very short red and white striped drawers'. In the early nineteenth century, at which time Hobart Town's early residents enjoyed swimming, women usually wore a gown from shoulder to knees and trousers to the ankles, while the men's suit was a rather form-fitting woollen garment with long sleeves and legs similar to long underwear.