oscar speck 50000 km by kayak 2011

8/19/2019 Oscar Speck 50000 Km by Kayak 2011

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50,000 KILOMETRES BY KAYAK

OSKARSPECK

Penny Cuthbert


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UlmGermany

Saibai Island

Torres Strait


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Penny Cuthbert

Curator, sport and leisure history

Australian National Maritime Museum50,000 KILOMETRES BY KAYAK

OSKAR

SPECK


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Oskar Speck: 50,000 kilometres by kayak

© Australian National Maritime Museum

Sydney 2011

Author: Penny Cuthbert, Curator, Sport and Leisure History

Editor: Jeffrey Mellefont, ANMM

Designer: Jeremy Austen, Austen Kaupe

Printed in Australia by Pegasus Print Group

ISBN 9780977547128 (pbk.)

National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry

Author: Cuthbert, Penny 1957–.

Title: Oskar Speck : 50,000 kilometres by kayak / Penny Cuthbert;

editor, Jeffrey Mellefont.

Subjects: Speck, Oscar–Travel.

Kayakers–Biography.

Sea kayaking.

Other Authors/Contributors:

Mellefont, Jeffrey, 1951–

Australian National Maritime Museum

Dewey Number: 797.1224092

This work is copyright. Apart from any use permittedunder the Copyright Act 1968, no part may be reproduced

by any process without prior permission from the



2 Murray Street Sydney NSW 2000 Australia

telephone: +61 2 9298 3777

facsimile: +61 2 9298 3670

www.anmm.gov.au

One of the Australian National Maritime

Museum’s most spectacular exhibitions

is Watermarks Adventure, sport and play .

Occupying the 30-metre-high ANZ Tall

Gallery, it explores the way in which we

use the water for relaxation, for exercise

and competition, and in pursuit of

personal achievements.

One of this exhibition’s defining themes,

Voyagers, salutes individuals who

challenge themselves on the world’s

oceans and waterways.

It’s here that we tell the remarkable story

of German adventurer-voyager-migrantOskar Speck and his 50,000-kilometre

odyssey, paddling a kayak from Germany

to Australia in the 1930s.

cover: A pith-helmeted

Oskar Speck in Sunnschien,

photographed in Timor, 1937

or 1938. All photographs are

from the Australian National

Maritime Museum collection,

photographers unknown unless

otherwise specified.

right: Watermarks Adventure,

sport & play in the museum’s

ANZ Tall Gallery is one of

the museum’s core themed

exhibitions, where the Oskar

Speck story is told. Photographer

Andrew Frolows/ANMM


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This is the remarkable story of

a German adventurer, voyager and

emigrant named Oskar Speck.

In 1932, in a period of difficult

economic times in Germany,

he launched his folding kayak into

the River Danube – and paddled

some 50,000-kilometres to

Australia. The epic voyage would

take an unprecedented seven yearsand four months before he reached

Thursday Island in Torres Strait

in September 1939 – just after

Britain and its wider realm,

including Australia, had declared

war on Speck’s native country.

Instead of receiving a hero’s

welcome, Oskar Speck was interned

as an enemy alien. Yet after the war

he made his home in Australia,

where he spent the rest of his days.

OSKAR SPECK: 50,000 KILOMETRES BY KAYAK 4


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In 1932, while the Great Depression was still

afflicting most of the world, Speck’s business closed

and he found himself unemployed along withmillions of other Germans. This closure afforded

him the opportunity to pursue two of his interests

– geology and kayaking. Seeing no future at home

Speck sought work in the copper mines of Cyprus

(Oskar Speck in interview with Duncan Thompson,

Australasian Post , 6 December 1956).

‘The times in Germany were very catastrophic…

all I wanted was to get out of Germany for a while,’

Speck has said in an interview recorded by MargotCuthill, for Australia’s SBS TV in 1987. ‘I had no

idea that I would eventually end up in Australia…

but I took my collapsible boat, went to Ulm and

then down the Danube to the Yugoslavian border…

leaving Germany and seeing the world seemed like

a better option.’

A youthful Oskar Speck

about 1920.

The story of Oskar Speck and his incredible

seven-year voyage from Germany to Australia

in the kayak Sunnschien can be pieced togetherfrom newspaper articles, his letters, diaries,

photographs, passports and 16-mm film footage,

from rare media interviews that he gave and

through the testimony of those who knew him.

From these disparate sources emerges the picture

of a complex man whose voyage to Australia

through a colonial world epitomised an age of

wanderlust. Yet for Speck this voyage was more

than just a passing adventure. It was the beginningof a new life far from his homeland.

Oskar Speck was born in 1907 and grew

up at a time when the world was in turmoil and

transition. His childhood and adolescence

in Hamburg were shaped by the First World War

and the economic and social changes resulting

from Germany’s defeat.

As a young man Speck worked as an electrical

contractor running a factory with 21 employees.He was a keen and competitive kayaker before

1932, and was a member of a boating club.

Canoeing and kayaking were popular summer

pastimes in Europe and Weimar Germany

in the 1920s and 1930s. Collapsible kayaks (falboot)

could easily be carried on public transport,

to be reassembled for use on rivers and waterways.

Speck owned his own folding kayak which he

called Sunnschien. This outdoor spirit reflected

a Germanic passion for athleticism and physical

prowess – qualities reinforced in youth clubs

and associations.



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The kayak

Speck’s gear consisted of a spare paddle, two brass

waterproof containers for his films, cameras,

clothing, documents, coastal pilots, passports,charts and prismatic compass, and a pistol.

Fresh water was contained in five-gallon tanks

shaped to the insides of the kayak. When water

was unreliable coconuts provided a much-needed

drink, guaranteed sterile in their sealed

containers. Speck ate local fare where possible

and supplemented this with tinned meat,

fish and condensed milk. (Oskar Speck in

interview with Duncan Thompson, AustralasianPost , 6 December 1956).

Sunnschien was a double kayak – for two paddlers

– which Speck had converted for use by a single

paddler, seated in the aft position. This left roomto stow away equipment and provisions amidships.

The vessel’s lightweight, flexible wooden frame

made it safe for shooting rapids, light enough for

porterage, and allowed it to be collapsed into

a small bundle when necessary,

for transport or storage.

It was constructed from a laminated rubber and

canvas skin over the frame and was 5.49 metres

in length, capable of carrying a load of nearly300 kilograms. It was steered by a foot-controlled

rudder and propelled by a double-ended paddle.

It was equipped with a small sail with an area of 1.49

square metres, rigged to a demountable pole mast.



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was damaged in the attempt. He made repairs

in the nearby, ancient town of Veles where he spent

five months, part of it waiting for the frozen riverto melt, before continuing to the Mediterranean

coast. As he travelled, Speck was kept in touch

through letters from family and friends, some

of them telling him of political events in Germany.

‘We have had another round of elections last

Sunday. I think it was the fifth this year. The result

is nil. The Nazis lost a bit and the Communists

gained a bit… everybody is keen to follow your

‘around the world trip’… if you don’t manage to enterTurkey etc try Russia – they are looking for trades

people – only in case of emergency though.’

(Letter from Speck’s younger brother Heinrich

10 November 1932.)

left: A pith-helmeted Oskar

Speck in Sunnschien enjoysa following breeze under lug

sail. The photograph was taken

in Timor, 1937 or 1938.

right: Oskar Speck and young

boy in Sunnschien about

1930. Speck used this kayak

during the early part of his

voyage; as his kayaks wore out

replacements were supplied

by the manufacturer.

The leaving

With a small amount of money, some raised

by his family, the 25-year-old Speck set off on

a bus from Hamburg to Ulm on the Danube River.This modern-day odyssey began on 13 May 1932

as a river journey along the still waters of the

majestic Danube that took him downstream through

Central Europe, passing through the cities of

Vienna, Budapest and Belgrade. Speck, however,

was bound for the Mediterranean, not for the

Danube’s terminus in the Black Sea.

From the start Speck sought the challenges

of white water and rapids. Finding the Danube tootame he diverted to Skopje in what was then the

Kingdom of Yugoslavia, and is now the capital of

the Republic of Macedonia, to test his skills on the

rapids of the Vardar River. His five-year-old kayak



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Rivers to ocean

Speck reached the Mediterranean at the Greek port

city of Thessalonika, on the Aegean Sea. To cross

to Turkey and then to Cyprus, Speck had to mastersailing and paddling on the open sea during

voyages first on the sea coasts, then between Greek

islands. This involved greater reliance on steering

with a foot-operated rudder and use of a sail.

‘…by all sane standards I was mad… Falboots are

not built for the sea… you may sail while the

weather is kind, but you must be constantly active,

constantly steering to bring the boat’s bow to the

right position to meet every single wave’. (OskarSpeck in interview with Duncan Thompson,

Australasian Post , 6 December 1956).

While Speck described his kayak as ‘a first-class

ticket to everywhere’, the reality of travelling in

such a small craft was that he had to paddle close

to the coastline wherever possible. On shore he

slept in the kayak after removing the tanks from

the bow and stern to make more room. A makeshift

canvas canopy provided shelter from the sun.

On the open sea there was no chance to sleep.

To do so would risk capsizing or worse. Speck

described paddling a kayak on the open sea like

riding a bicycle on the land: ‘You must keep

pedalling and steering or you fall over… in a falboot

you must be constantly steering to bring the boat’s

bow to the right position to meet every single

wave.’ During the voyage Speck capsized a number

of times when surfing into shore. The fact that

he survived such a perilous voyage is all the more

remarkable given that Speck could not swim.

He strapped himself into his kayak.

above: This postal couponissued in Speck’s home town

of Altona, Hamburg, could be

exchanged for a single postage

stamp on an internationally

addressed letter.

left: Oskar Speck’s hand-

bearing compass, one of his

few pieces of navigational

equipment. Photographer

J Mellefont/ANMM



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The Near East

From the Greek island of Rhodes, Oskar Speck

followed the coast of Turkey, crossing from

Anamur to Cyprus, a distance of 45 nautical miles.(Oskar Speck in interview with Margaret Cuthill,

for Australia’s SBS TV in 1987.) Cyprus was then

under British administration. It was here that

Speck’s plans took an important turn. Although

an interest in minerals and the prospect of work

in the copper mines had led him to Cyprus, he

decided instead to continue his travels.

‘I decided that Suez offered a too well beaten

path – why not land on the Syrian coast and takethe bus to Meskene on the upper Euphrates…?’


Australasian Post , 13 December 1956.) True to his

word Speck landed at Latakia, the principal port

of Syria, after two days at sea.

Speck paddled down almost the entire length

of the Euphrates River into the Shatt al Arab,

the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers,

and reached Al Basrah at the head of the Persian

Gulf in late December 1933. From the Shatt Al Arab,

Speck skirted the northern coast of the Persian

Gulf, today’s Iran.

‘Everywhere I went I was surrounded by crowds

of people… no-one had ever seen this type of boat

before,’ Speck recalled in Margaret Cuthill’s 1987

SBS interview.

The manufacturer of his kayak, Pionier

Faltbootwerft in Bad Tolz, supplied Speck with four

other craft over the seven-year voyage, becominghis main sponsor. While waiting for his first

replacement kayak in Bandar e Abbas on the Strait

of Hormuz – where the Persian Gulf opens to the

Gulf of Oman

– Speck contracted malaria. This debilitating

tropical disease would afflict him periodically

during the voyage. (Margaret Cuthill, SBS

interview, 1987.) As he coasted along the head

of the Arabian Sea, Speck’s kayak and possessions were stolen at the border of Iran and British

Baluchistan (today’s Pakistan). He told the police

there was money in his kayak, and the following

day they directed him to it.

‘We came upon a dhow, and there across its bow

lay my kayak. Not a thing in it had been touched.’


Australasian Post , 13 December 1956). Speck bought

it back for forty pounds.



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During his stay in British Baluchistan Speck met

the Governor, Sir Norman Carter, on a beach.

He was invited to join the Governor who was beingentertained by the Maharajas of Kalat and Las

Bellas on a shooting party. It was now early in 1935.

Speck continued to follow the Indian coast and in

Bombay (Mumbai) with local support Speck was

able to give public talks to help fund his journey.

He moved swiftly down India’s Malabar Coast,

rounding its southern cape, Kanya Kumari, in April

1935, before crossing over to Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and

completely circumnavigating this lush and fabledisland – the ‘Serendib’ of Sindbad the sailor.

His passport entries show him pausing for several

months once he reaches its capital, Colombo.

Back on India’s Coromandel Coast, Speck

paddled via the French enclave of Pondicheri to

Madras, today called Chennai. Here in this major

port city of the British Raj, Speck was contacted by

the North Madras Boy Scouts Association who were

keen to entertain him. Again he waited here for

a new kayak before paddling on around the shores

of the Bay of Bengal.

Speck was being encouraged by friends to try out

for kayaking events in the Berlin Olympic Games –

the Games of the XI Olympiad, to be held in 1936.

‘Kette is about to release the Olympic racing boat

in single and double version. That is an indication

for paddling races to be run in the Berlin Olympics.

Why don’t you take part in that? You should be in

a state to win a trophy in Germany.’ (Letter to Oskar

Speck from friend in Altona, 15 April 1935.)

The following year while in Burma, which was

then administered as a province of British India,

Speck attempted to qualify for the Berlin Olympics

in the 10,000-metre kayaking event but was unable

to make the required times. (Margaret Cuthill,

SBS interview, 1987.)

India and the tropics

Speck spent much of 1936 paddling south along the

eastern shore of the Bay of Bengal and the Malacca

Straits to the Dutch East Indies. On the way hefollowed the shores of East Bengal (Bangladesh),

the Burman coast and its cities Rangoon and

Moulmein, Thailand’s Isthmus of Kra and

peninsular Malaya. He was in Phuket in July,

Penang in August, Malacca in September.

Speck collected another kayak in Singapore and

spent most of 1937 paddling and sailing his way

across the great equatorial archipelago with its

13,000 islands that is now the Republic ofIndonesia. In the large, Dutch-speaking colonial

cities of the Netherlands East Indies, such as

Batavia, Surabaya and Semarang, Speck again

supported himself giving talks to various

organisations, including a number of German clubs

established there.



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left: Oskar Speck passport

issued in 1932. Entries record

Speck’s arrival by kayak at Port Albert-Victor, India (modern

day Bherai in Gujarat).

above: Buckingham Canal,

Tamil Nadu, India.

top right: Villagers in India

(modern day Pakistan) inspect

Speck’s kayak, 1934.

right: A Javanese household in

the Dutch East Indies, 1937.



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left: Speck’s adventures ran

in the Berliner Lokal-Anzeiger

as ‘Adventure in the Sunda

Sea – tales from a kayak

voyage’. The issue of

7 September 1938 shows

a drawing of Speck being

abducted in the Moluccas,

when according to the caption

‘...the natives clung to their

captive like burrs...’

top right: Speck’s photograph

of an unidentified Melanesian

village, 1939.

right: The whale-hunting

village Lamalera on the island

of Lomblen (now Lembata)

between Bali and Timor, 1937.



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In Java he acquired a 16-mm cine-camera.

The surviving ethnographic footage taken in

1938–39 details the cultural diversity of people

Speck encountered living beyond the Java Sea

through to the New Guinea mainland and islands.

It transports the viewer into a world of coastal village life, much of which has changed

dramatically since this film was shot over seventy

years ago.

Speck had left Bali for Lombok while still

recovering from a severe bout of malaria. The

rigours of the crossing induced a relapse. He was

received and cared for by a Kepala Kampong

(village chief).

Upon reaching Lakor Island to the east of Timor,Speck was woken one night by 20 people armed

with spears, swords and machetes. He temporarily

kept them at bay by brandishing an unloaded pistol

but was soon dragged from his kayak and bound

hand and foot with buffalo hide while his kayak

was looted. Speck was slapped and kicked in the

head, resulting in a burst ear drum. After several

hours Speck managed to loosen his bindings and

slip back to his kayak, retrieving the largest tank which held his camera, films and clothing.



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Australasian waters

The stormy west monsoon season of late 1937–early

1938, as well as illness, interrupted his progress,

and it was not until late 1938 that Speck, withanother new kayak, crossed from the Kai Islands

in the Banda Sea to the Dutch New Guinea coast.

This was a distance of 200 km covered in 34 hours

(Margaret Cuthill, SBS interview, 1987). His arrival

in Dutch territory caused a dilemma for the local

administrator who was unsure whether to arrest

Speck or grant a travel permit. After a delay

a permit was issued.

Speck now took a clockwise route around thecoast of the huge island of New Guinea, spending

the first half of 1939 traversing its entire northern

coast and filming communities along the way.

He left Dutch New Guinea for the Australian

mandate territory of New Guinea, calling at

settlements such as Madang.

At Samarai Island at the eastern tip of the main

island of New Guinea he stayed with the

O’Donnells, an Australian family who operated the

local coastal radio station. In a recent oral history

interview Bill and John O’Donnell, children at the

time, remember listening to a shortwave radio

broadcast of Adolf Hitler with Speck and their

parents. The following morning the family watched

Speck depart Samarai Island from the beach near

their house. Speck also stayed with missionaries

at Orokolo (New Guinea) while he repaired

a damaged rudder.

In Daru (New Guinea) Speck learned from

fishermen that Australia was at war with Germany.

As a sporting gesture local authorities allowedSpeck to continue into the Torres Strait so he could

complete his voyage in Australian territorial waters,

before he was arrested at Thursday Island.

His arrival on Thursday Island in September 1939

was photographed by Siri Mendis, a young Sri

Lankan living there who remembers the event and

has spoken to the museum about it.

The surprising arrival of Speck with his camera

in wartime raised questions about his activities inthe region, why and for whom he was making

a film and whether he was acting as an agent for

the Germans. Police were suspicious of the contents

of Speck’s film footage and asked Mendis to view

the film in his dark room. Mendis was also present

when Speck was interrogated by police.

clockwise from top right:

Speck flanked by New Guinea

villagers, 1939.

Speck took this photograph

in New Guinea in 1939 and

captioned it ‘In Paradise’.

This postcard, depicting native

craft in Penang, pursued

Oskar Speck during his often-

unpredictable voyage. It was

addressed to him on Thursday

Island two years beforehe arrived there, and was

redirected to Surabaya and

Singapore.

Speck the canoe enthusiast

recorded this fine specimen,

from Geelvink Bay on the

northern coast of Dutch

New Guinea (today Celuk

Cenderwasih in Indonesian

Irian Jaya).



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Interned in Australia

Speck spent a month on Thursday Island before

being transferred by the RAN to Brisbane. From

Queensland he was sent to Tatura InternmentCamp in the Goulburn Valley of Victoria.

On 9 January 1943 Speck escaped from the camp.

He had made a pact with his friend and fellow

internee Frederick Embritz to escape and meet

in Sydney outside Randwick race course.

While Embritz made the rendezvous at Randwick,

Speck never arrived. He was on the run for several

weeks until stopped by police in Melbourne.

Dressed in civilian clothes and in possessionof a bicycle, Speck was recognised from

a photograph by police in Kew. He initially denied

he was an internee – but under further questioning

admitted to being Oskar Speck. Police described

him as ‘a prisoner of ingenuity’ and handed him

back to military authorities. His punishment was

28 days in solitary confinement and a transfer

to Loveday, South Australia, where he remained for

the rest of the war.

While interned at Loveday Speck revealed his

political views in a letter to the Swiss Consul

in Melbourne, Mr J A Pietzcker: ‘This camp is not

suited for the internment of Germans who are loyal

to the Reich as they have no means at all of

expressing their patriotism eg patriotic celebrations

etc. I therefore urgently request you approach the

responsible authority in order to have me

transferred into a German National Socialist Camp.’

Was Speck a Nazi? This picture is at odds with the

views of those who knew him after his release from

internment. An acquaintance later described himas a loner who was avoiding returning to Germany

as the Reich wanted to exploit his achievements

as an example of German heroism, during their

Russian campaign. In 1938 Speck’s adventure had

been serialised in a Berlin newspaper, casting him

in the role of courageous hero. Photographs show

a swastika pennant prominently displayed on the

bow of his kayak.



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left: Oskar Speck’s passport

issued in 1936. It records

Speck’s arrival at Daru Island

on 5 September 1939 enroute

to Thursday Island – the final

passport entry of his voyage.

right: Speck sent this

photograph of his ‘apartment’

(Wohnung ) in Coober Pedy

to family in Hamburg.

On the back he recorded

temperatures of 50 degrees

Celcius (122°F).



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Four days after his release from Loveday

Internment Camps, Speck – whose interest in

a mining job in Cyprus had propelled him on hisseven-year voyage – was in Lightning Ridge in

outback NSW, mining opal. He settled into postwar

Australia and established a successful opal cutting

business. He built his own home on the side of

a hill at Killcare Heights on the NSW Central coast

and retired there in the 1970s. For 30 years Speck’s

companion Nancy Steele commuted from Sydney

to Killcare each weekend to see him. She lived with

him during the last two years of his life. Speck died

in 1993 after a long illness.

Although Speck’s achievements were well

reported in Europe, few in Australia outside

canoeing groups knew his story. Speck’s double-

ended paddle was presented to rower Carl Toovey

as a jublilee trophy for winning the Cruising Canoe

Club’s Nepean 100 mile marathon in 1951 and 1952.

This was the first marathon paddling event

to be held in Australia. Toovey and Speck became

friends and paddled together around Pittwater

and Sydney Harbour.

Through a bequest from Nancy Steele’s estate,

the Australian National Maritime Museum has

become the custodian of a selection of Speck’s

personal effects. These include photographs and

16-mm film, letters and documents, and passports

filled with exotic stamps from faraway places.

The conservation of this collection, including

copying of the fragile film, has been sponsoredby the Salvation Army which was a beneficiary

of the Nancy Steele Estate.

This material is the key to piecing together

his story and tapping into memories of Speck.

Existing sources have raised questions and

challenged assumptions about this elusive man.

One newspaper story about him was headed

An Australian life

‘Seven years in a kayak made him Australian’.

But Speck’s is a complex story about life and fate,

experience and identity, which cannot easily besummed up in a sentence.

Certainly, the Oskar Speck story has attracted

an extraordinary amount of media and public

attention since it was unveiled at the opening

of Watermarks adventure sport play in December

2001. Research into the Speck saga will continue

here at the museum, as there is still much to learn

about Oskar Speck, his voyage, internment and life

in Australia.

This story first appeared in the Australian National Maritime

Museum’s quarterly journal Signals (No 58, March 2002).

The museum gratefully acknowledges interviews with Oskar

Speck by Duncan Thompson in the Australas ian Post (1956)

and Margot Cuthill, for SBS Television, on which part of this

article is based.

left: Speck (centre) with friends

on the terrace of his house

at Killcare on the central coast

of New South Wales.

right: Oskar Speck with

lorikeets, 1960s – 1970s.



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Technical specifications

Length 5.49 m

Beam hull 83.8 cm

Beam freeboard 24.8 cm

Weight 29.49 kg

Hull construction laminated rubber and canvas skin over light pliable timber frame

Propulsion double-ended paddle and sail

Steering foot-controlled rudder

Load carried 294.84 kg

Speed favouring wind and quiet sea 6½ knots

fully loaded under paddle 3 knots

Maker Pionier Falbootwerft, Bad Tolz, Germany

Date 1930s

Oskar Speck’s kayaks

This small model of Speck’s

kayak, fashioned mainly of

copper, was made by a fellow

internee during the war at the

Tatura Internment Camps

in Victoria’s Goulburn Valley.



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Oskar Speck: 50,000 kilometres by kayak

© Australian National Maritime Museum, Sydney 2011

Author: Penny Cuthbert, curator, sport and leisure history

Editor: Jeffrey Mellefont, ANMMDesigner: Jeremy Austen, Austen Kaupe

Printed in Australia by Pegasus Print Group

ISBN 9780977547128 (pbk)

National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry

Author: Cuthbert, Penny 1957–.

Title: Oskar Speck : 50,000 kilometres by kayak / Penny Cuthbert;

editor, Jeffrey Mellefont.

Subjects: Speck, Oskar–Travel. Kayakers–Biography. Sea kayaking.

Other authors/contributors: Mellefont, Jeffrey, 1951–


Dewey number: 797.1224092

This work is copyright. Apart from any use permitted under the

Copyright Act 1968, no part may be reproduced by any process without

prior permission from the Australian National Maritime Museum


2 Murray Street Sydney NSW 2000 Australia

telephone: +61 2 9298 3777

facsimile: +61 2 9298 3670

www.anmm.gov.au

Printed in Australia on CPI Paper Silk Matt 300 gsm (cover)

and 170gsm (text) using vegetable-based inks on paper

produced from environmentally responsible, socially beneficial

and economically viable forestry sources.

One of the Australian National Maritime

Museum’s most spectacular exhibitions

is Watermarks – adventure, sport and play .

Occupying the 30-metre-high ANZ Tall

Gallery, it explores the way in which we

use the water for relaxation, for exercise

and competition, and in pursuit of

personal achievements.

One of this exhibition’s defining themes,

Voyagers, salutes individuals whochallenge themselves on the world’s

oceans and waterways.

It’s here that we tell the remarkable story

of German adventurer, voyager and

emigrant Oskar Speck and his 50,000-

kilometre odyssey, paddling a kayak from

Germany to Australia in the 1930s.

cover: Oskar Speck in Sunnschien,

photographed in Timor, 1937

or 1938. All photographs are from

the Australian National Maritime

Museum Collection, photographers

unknown unless otherwise specified.

right: Watermarks – adventure, sport

& play in the museum’s ANZ TallGallery is one of the museum’s core

themed exhibitions, where the Oskar

Speck story is told. Photographer

Andrew Frolows/ANMM

Cert no. SGS-COC-006189

oscar speck 50000 km by kayak 2011

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