Oskar Speck's 1932 Kayak Journey from Germany to Australia
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Oskar Speck's 1932 Kayak Journey from Germany to Australia
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Re: Oskar Speck's 1932 Kayak Journey from Germany to Australia
#2Well worth the read. Absolutely fascinating.
Re: Oskar Speck's 1932 Kayak Journey from Germany to Australia
#3Amazing read!
Re: Oskar Speck's 1932 Kayak Journey from Germany to Australia
#4One of his boats (he used four): https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/56/St...
His route: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/67/Speck-ma...
Photograph of him at the Timor coast: https://cdn.mopo.de/uploads/sites/4/2024/04/farbe-oskar-spec...
This seems to be a photograph taken after his arrest: https://lovedaylives.com/app/uploads/2021/03/SPECK-2.jpg
According to the German Wikipedia, he had a small electrical company which went bankrupt during the Great Depression. His original plan was to "only" paddle to Cyprus to work in a copper mine.
Re: Oskar Speck's 1932 Kayak Journey from Germany to Australia
#5[deleted]
Re: Oskar Speck's 1932 Kayak Journey from Germany to Australia
#6No one told him about the war on route?
Re: Oskar Speck's 1932 Kayak Journey from Germany to Australia
#7Sounds like daily Russian roulette.
Re: Oskar Speck's 1932 Kayak Journey from Germany to Australia
#8No one told him about the war on route?
He landed in Australian territory in September 1939. The war had just started on the 1st of that month. Even if he had met someone during those days/weeks, chances are they hadn't heard of Hitler's invasion of Poland either, or were simply not concerned about it.
Re: Oskar Speck's 1932 Kayak Journey from Germany to Australia
#9No one told him about the war on route?
He landed in Australian territory in September 1939. The war had just started on the 1st of that month. Even if he had met someone during those days/weeks, chances are they hadn't heard of Hitler's invasion of Poland either, or were simply not concerned about it.
Also his route linked above shows he actually went all along the northern and eastern coast of New Guinea before arriving in Australia, at that time news was probably hard to get in that part of the world!
Re: Oskar Speck's 1932 Kayak Journey from Germany to Australia
#10No one told him about the war on route?
He landed in Australian territory in September 1939. The war had just started on the 1st of that month. Even if he had met someone during those days/weeks, chances are they hadn't heard of Hitler's invasion of Poland either, or were simply not concerned about it.
I remember reading that prior to Indonesia's declaration of independence in Mid-August 1945, in Jakarta (the capital of the Japanese-occupied country), there were rumours that something happened in Japan... 2 atomic bombs, and only rumours!