ROWING BOAT ADVENTURE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 3514, 22 July 1926, Page 4

ROWING BOAT ADVENTURE.

START FROM LONDON FOR INDIA. London, May 28. A pound of apples was all Captain Niels Ventegodt had on board in the shape of victuals when he and Engineer Evald Tietzel left Putney yesterday afternoon in their 25ft. rowing-boat for the great pull to Calcutta. The two Danish oarsmen, members of the Long-Distance Rowing Club of Denmark, who will be joined at a latter stage of the voyage by Lieut. Knud Jorgensen, came out of the London Rowing Club house carrying their little boat, Their big frames, with leg muscles like whipcord, were thinly clothed in white rowing costumue, with the badge of their club—a Viking ship in full sail —on the breast. They looked as if they were just going for an afternoon spin on the water, instead of setting out on a 12,000mile row to India.

“A pound of apples is about all we need for the first day’s run to Gravesend,” iC'apt. Ventegodt eVplained. “We are setting out on the ebb tide, rowing right through London. The food problem will not become serious till we reach the west coast of France and Spain, when we will have to take enough on board to last us to the next port of call.” The Viking, is a boat with a history. She is seven years old, and Captain Ventegodt has already pulled her 7,000 miles. She is of the Norwegian sea racer type, and has come safely through many a stiff breeze in the North Sea and

English Channel. Although she looks like a river skiff, she is eminently seaworthy.

Her cargo consists of: Biscuit tins full of clothes, tent and cooking stotfe, roll of charts and maps, spirit compass, boat paddle and hook, anchor and spare rudder, oil-skin jackets, two handgrips containing accessories, pound of apples. The old club boatman who helped the Danes to embark wished them “God-speed” on their great voyage, and a big crowd of Putney promenaders cheered them downstream and watched them disappear under the arch of Putney Bridge.