THINK Eddie the Eagle, wearing a pair of Speedos, and his body covered in goose fat.

Okay, perhaps that’s not an image you want to conjure up.

But it is apposite to the story featured in this week’s Oran Mor play.

Channeling Jabez tells the tale of another determined, some would say slightly bonkers, British loser.

Yet, while Eddie found fame rather easily in the modern age, with television cameras following his every leap, Jabez Wolffe became an international celebrity over a century ago.

Glasgow-born Jabez, whose father was a Prussian emigrant, found fame with his attempts to swim the Channel.

All 22 of them. And each time he failed the world press wrote of his gallant attempts.

Now, Jabez’s story of daring do, determination and dastardly bad luck, is being told by his relative, Giles Croft.

“His story is slightly comic, rather Ealing-esque,” says Giles, who is a writer and Artistic Director of Nottingham Playhouse.

“Once while swimming a shark jumped out of the water and landed on his back.

“And another time he was hit with a plank of wood.”

It seems Jabez was destined to fail.

“It seems so,” says Giles. “During another attempt he was surrounded by jellyfish and there was no way past them. He had to be hauled out of the water. But he was dogged.”

Giles came across the tale when tracing his family tree. (He is a third cousin, once removed.)

“Then when I was directing a show at the Edinburgh Festival two years ago, Liz Carruthers, also a director, suggested the idea to Oran Mor.”

Jazeb Jappy Wolffe was a champion swimmer, (the holder of 10 marathon swimming records,).

But his great obsession was with becoming the second man to swim the channel, following on from Captain Webb in 1875.

“It was an obsession he could never quite crack,” says Giles.

Yet, Jabez, who grew up in Burnbank Gardens in Kelvinbridge came close during his 22 attempts, which took place between 1906 and 1914.

During one attempt he was just yards from the beach when he had to give up.

“On his very first attempt he injured his leg, a muscle pull, and he never really recovered from that,” says Giles.

These day however swimmers tackle the channel as easily as they tackle a plate of porridge.

“Yes, but back then there was little understanding of the tides and the weather conditions,” says Giles.”

The writer points out Captain Webb swam the channel in 1875, but the next person didn’t manage it until 1911.

Webb may have been lucky, in catching the tide in his favour.

“Once the tides were understood, and fitness and diet improved, it made it so much easier.”

Did the failures define Jabez’s life?

“Without question. The reports of his attempts made newspapers across the world. But then the story became about his failures.”

After his 21st attempt, in 1914, the Daily Mail wrote the headline ‘Nobody Cares.’

“If he had been the second person to swim the channel it would have been a big story. But once others managed it, far less so.”

Jabez didn’t stay away from water however. He went on to become a successful coach, teaching women to swim.

Although that wasn’t without controversy. He trained Gertrude Ederle, who would go on to swim the channel.

“But the pair fell out and she accused him of poisoning her,” says Giles, with a wry smile.

Jabez certainly had a colourful life. He had to recover from the double ignominy.

However, as a trainer and a writer of books on swimming he later became a media favourite again.

“It’s a great story,” says Giles.

It certainly is. Scots love heroic failures. But how does Giles tell his story? Does he appear on the Oran Mor stage in his Speedos and take to a giant tank of water?

“No, we talked about it, but I thought ‘Not at lunchtime’,” he says, grinning.

“But I will reveal I do get wet.”

*Channeling Jabez, Oran Mor, until Saturday.

BRIAN BEACOM