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From: PeterO <rebyl_kayak_at_iprimus.com.au> subject: [Paddlewise] Oskar Speck's Voyage - Long Date: Tue, 25 Dec 2001 17:17:45 +1100 · This archive was generated by hypermail 2.4.0 : Thu Aug 21 2025 - 16:33:25 PDT

G'Day,

        You may be interested in a summary of Oskar Speck’s voyage by kayak
from Germany to Australia, I’ve collated notes taken from an exhibition
being held in the Australian National Maritime Museum and from his 16mm film
of the journey. Geographical names describing his route are those used at
the time of the voyage.

Setting Out
        The 16mm film clip shows a fresh faced young man wearing a fisherman
’s cap. It was 1932 in Ulm on the Danube and Oskar Speck was 25 years old
and out of work. He owned a folding kayak called Sonnenschein (Sunshine),
was a member of a boating club and had ten years experience kayaking. He
wrote in his journal “all I wanted was to get out of Germany for a while”.
So he set off down the Danube for Cyprus to find work and adventure. After
seven years and 50,000km he wound up on Sabai Island off the coast of Papua
New Guinea in the Torres Strait. It was then 20th September 1939. During the
journey he used five kayaks supplied by the manufacturer “Pionier” who
helped to sponsor his journey. Agfa provided him with film and the
exhibition shows many snippets of life in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea.
During the seven year voyage he capsized ten times in the surf.
        Typical of the boats he used was a “Pionier Kajak Modelle 1936”.
This was a double seater, folding kayak made of laminated rubber and canvas
over wood. It looked rather like a Klepper. The spare seat was removed to
allow for storage and the boat could carry a third of a ton. It weighed
65lb, was 18 feet long, 30 inch beam and with a freeboard of 9 inches. It
was capable of being paddled at 3.5 knots fully loaded and could reach 6.5
knots, in calm water, using an 18 square foot gaff sail.
        His supply list included a prismatic compass, charts, water,
condensed milk, chocolate and cheese. A pair of binoculars was not included
and his journal suggests that at one stage he was so down and out he had to
sell them.

The Journey
        Oskar’s voyage took him down the Danube through Austria to Budapest
and Belgrade, then through Bulgaria into the Black Sea and via Turkey to
Veles, Thessalonika, Andros Island, Rhodes island, and Lemesos. By 1934 he
had arrived at his originally intended destination Cyprus. A film clip at
this time shows him lightly bearded with a mature, rather serious demeanour.
The thirst for adventure must have captivated him for he didn’t stop as
planned but diverted to Aleppo in Syria and travelled down the Euphrates
through Bagdad on to Al Basrah, and along the Persian coast to Bander e
Abbas, Ormar and Karachi. Then down the entire west coast of India during
which time he was arrested and held captive for a year by a local village.
        By 1936 he had visited Ceylon, paddled up the east coast of India
and arrived at Chittagong from where he journied along the coast of Burma to
Bassein, Rangoon, Phuket and via the Straits of Malacca to Singapore. By
1938 he had crossed to Sumatra and travelled down the Dutch East Indies
visiting Batavia, Sourabaya and Bali. Here he filmed his boat being carried
ashore by the locals. The film shows how dugouts with outriggers were
manufactured and paddled (dugouts were introduced to the Yanuwa people in
Australia by the Indonesians where they replaced the bark canoes over a
period of 300 years and saved many lives, but that’s another story).
Snippets of film show the delighted winner of a cockfighting contest dancing
with his victorious bird, elegant grass thatched temples and houses, rope
being scorched in an open fire, presumably to remove excess strands of fibre
or perhaps to increase its strength. Baskets are woven from palm leaves,
people carry enormous inverted pyramid loads of fruits on their heads, and
highly formalised sword fighting contests are filmed. Everywhere there is
dancing both ceremonial and informal.
        Oskar left for Papua New Guinea in 1939. His films now show turtles
mating and being captured for food. Young boys fish with spears, bows and
arrows. A sticky fondue like communal soup is made from small
fish/shellfish. And there are pictures of dancing, canoe races with many
capsizes and boys surfing on short planks of wood – is this where surfing
was first developed?

Internment
        Oskar left Papua New Guinea and arrived at the island of Sabai, 18
miles from Thursday Island, in 1939, on the 20th September. It was two weeks
after the start of World War II and he was arrested by three local
policemen, then taken by boat to Australia and interned for six years. A
note in the register of prohibited articles, lists a collapsible rubber
boat, a parcel containing private papers, and a compass. Prominently
displayed at the exhibition is a pennant swastika. Maybe it was in his
luggage? If so it probably didn’t help! He was held first at Tatura camp,
Victoria, from which he eventually made an escape and attempted to cycle to
Sydney. But he was arrested again in Melbourne and transferred to an
internment camp in Loveday, South Australia. The exhibition shows an elegant
model of his kayak made during this internment. It is fashioned out of
copper and mounted on black painted wood.

After the War
        Four days after being released Oskar had started work as an opal
miner at Lightning Ridge. He followed a successful career as an opal cutter
eventually retiring to a house at Kilcare on the Central Coast of New South
Wales. He seems to have continued paddling after the war. There are three
references on the web. One was an account of an incident with a boat
borrowed from Oskar by Carl Toovey, a kayaking marathon champion.
http://members.ozemail.com.au/~rivers97/PaddlingPeople.htm. The other is a
brief reference in a German folding kayak company’s web page
http://www2.utsidan.se/faltkajak/expeditioner.htm.
        Oskar Speck died in 1995 and notebooks and equipment from his
expedition are shown in a display at the Australian National Maritime Museum
http://www.anmm.gov.au/anrep99a.htm . As far as I know a detailed account of
his voyage has never been published. I wish it had!

All the best, PeterO
“It’s a dangerous business going out of your door, you step into a road and
if you don’t keep your feet there’s no knowing where you might be swept off
to.” (B.Baggins)

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