5 minute read
A Speck in the ocean
An unlikely journey by folding boat
Ninety years ago, an intrepid young man left his home in Germany for a dangerous adventure. Seven years and 50,000 kilometres later, he arrived in Australia – right at the start of World War II. Curator of Post-war Immigration Dr Roland Leikauf traces Oskar Speck’s remarkable trip. Travelling with a folding boat through the high seas had its difficulties
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01 Oskar Speck and his kayak with its sail set, looking tiny in the waters close to Dili, Portuguese Timor (now Timor-Leste). Australian Maritime Collection ANMS1249[010] 02 The route of Speck’s voyage from Germany to Australia. Image Jo Kaupe
Ulm Germany
Saibai Island Torres Strait
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WHEN THE GERMAN OSKAR SPECK decided to leave his home country in 1932, he would not have believed that his journey would take him seven years to complete. Germany was ravaged by a strong economic downturn, and Speck was out of work. He decided to solve his problems by doing what he loved most: kayaking. At 25, Speck was already an accomplished kayaker. His folding kayak (in German, Faltboot) named Sunnschien (literally, ‘the sun shone’) had served him well so far. The journey he was now attempting, however, was unlike anything he had done before: his aim was to reach the island of Cyprus and find work in the lucrative mining industry. Sunnschien looked tiny and fragile. Not even six metres long, it had a hull made of laminated rubber and a canvas skin stretched over a light, pliable timber frame. Speck had to trust his kayak completely. It served him well, but did not survive his voyage. Four times it was damaged or lost, and each time the folding-boat builders at the Pionier Faltbootwerft in Bad Tolz, Germany, sponsored him by replacing it. Speck’s journey started in the German city of Ulm. The Danube carried him through Austria and into Hungary. The second river Speck braved was the Varda, which was challenging, and hard on his kayak. He followed it until he finally reached the Mediterranean coast. Here, Speck had to relearn how to use a kayak in the open sea, where using the foot-operated rudder in unison with the sail was more important than strong paddling. He passed the Greek islands and followed the coast of Turkey towards Cyprus. Speck, who also had a background in geology, had to decide whether to follow his original plan and seek work in the Cypriot mining industry, or continue his journey and expand his adventure. In the end, he set his sights on a new destination that must have sounded implausible to those who followed his travels: Australia. The easy route was denied him, as he could not take his kayak through the Suez Canal. Now his Faltboot showed its true value. He disassembled it and travelled by bus until he reached the Syrian city of Maskanah. From there, the Euphrates River carried him into the Arabian Gulf. Beyond the gulf, the open ocean beckoned. Speck faced many challenges. The malaria he contracted in Iran returned again and again, forcing him to pause his travels for days or weeks, and his kayak was damaged, stolen or destroyed several times. In one incident, he was robbed and beaten so severely that he spent months in a hospital. More often than not, however, the locals greeted him kindly and supported him, even giving him ‘during our goodbye palm leaves filled with rice, which are of great value as food for a traveller’.1 Many times he was provided with food, shelter and help.
01 A group of people surrounds Oskar Speck’s kayak Sunnschien, possibly in the city of Tepa on the Babar Islands. Australian Maritime Collection ANMS0545[286] 02 A young Oskar Speck wearing the traditional Schiffermütze (sailor’s cap) of northern Germany. Speck grew up in the port city of Hamburg-Altona. Australian Maritime Collection ANMS1249[006]
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Travelling in a folding boat through the high seas had its difficulties. Speck likened the experience to riding a bicycle – it was necessary to keep moving to prevent it from capsizing. The transition to and from the shore was especially perilous, and he had to retrieve his capsized boat many times. After surviving hunger, attacks and the unfriendly sea, Speck experienced a challenge that he could not overcome. When he reached Thursday Island (in the western Torres Strait, off Cape York Peninsula) in September 1939, he was arrested by the Australian authorities. Australia and Germany were at war, and this strange German in his easy-to-hide boat, and armed with a notepad and a camera, seemed more than suspect to the Australian officials. After an escape attempt, Speck spent the rest of the war in an internment camp in South Australia. Was Speck loyal to Nazi Germany? His kayak sported a small German flag (a Wimpel) with the swastika, and he ended letters to the German consulate with ‘Heil Hitler’. His friends, however, described him as apolitical, and current research by the Australian National Maritime Museum has found no evidence that Speck joined the NSDAP (National Socialist Party) or any other Nazi organisation. The Papua news correspondent of the Cairns Post told his readers after Speck arrived that the German actually ‘carried the Australian flag forward and the Swastika aft’.2 After his release from Loveday Internment Camp, Speck decided to use his knowledge of geology in a lucrative way. He started opal mining in the New South Wales outback and developed a successful opal-cutting business. Although he became an honorary member of the New South Wales Canoe Club, his exploits remained relatively unknown in Australia. Wartime censorship and postwar disinterest meant that Speck’s impossible journey was almost forgotten. The Australian National Maritime Museum has become the custodian of many of Speck’s belongings. Thanks to a donation by the Nancy Steele estate, the museum’s collection contains photographs, 16-millimetre film, letters, documents and other objects connected to his journey. With these treasures, the museum was able to honour Speck’s achievements in its former Watermarks gallery, and some of them will soon be shown in the Pearl Trail temporary exhibition. Speck began his voyage as a poor German out of work and finished it as a successful Australian businessman. He challenged himself by braving rivers and conquering oceans, and only stopped his travels after he found a new home in Australia. Oskar Speck died in his beloved Killcare home, on the New South Wales Central Coast, in 1993.
1 Berliner Lokal-Anzeiger, „Abenteuer in der Sunda-See”, 4. Fortsetzung. 2 Cairns Post, 1 August 1939, page 11.
The Oskar Speck objects in the museum’s Pearl Trail will be on display later this year – please check our website for updates.
Further reading Penny Cuthbert, Oskar Speck: 50,000 kilometres by kayak, Sydney, 2011. Available from the Vaughan Evans Library: call number 623.829 SPE
