`32-`39 German canoe trip to Australia

[MrBern]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2002/02/03/wnaz03.xml&sSheet=/portal/2002/02/03/por_right.html

Oskar Speck, an amateur canoeist and unemployed electrician from Ulm, set out to paddle from Germany to Cyprus in May 1932, hoping to find work at a copper mine. Seven years and four months later, on September 20, 1939, he landed on a remote island in the Torres Strait, just off the coast of northern Queensland.

"Everywhere I went I was surrounded by crowds of people," he said in a rare interview. "No one had ever seen this type of boat before. But I had no idea in 1932 that I would end up in Australia."

 

[Mojito]

Penny Cuthbert, a curator at the Australian National Maritime Museum, has spent several years researching Oskar Speck, and the Museum has an excellent collection of material relating to his remarkable voyage. Some of the pieces are on display in the "Watermarks" Gallery -

https://www.anmm.gov.au/site/page.cfm?u=160&print=1&TERMID=634&FORMMODE=search&C=915

I recommend a visit to the ANMM if you're in Sydney - "Watermarks" is the recreation and sport gallery, and there's a good deal of great golden age material on subjects like beach culture. Good nods to figures like Annette Kellerman!