CHANNEL CROSSED IN RUBBER CANOE

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 171, 10 October 1927, Page 12

CHANNEL CROSSED IN RUBBER CANOE

ADVENTUROUS GERMANS A frail rubber canoe tossed about by angry waves attracted the attention of visitors to St. Margaret’s Bay, near Dover, about 5 o’clock on a recent afternoon. Yard by yard it struggled on, and as it neared the shore interest grew, and a crowd collected to watch it run on to the beach. It was only a few feet from the shore when an extra large wave turned it completely over, and two very -wet young men scrambled ashore. They were a young German student named Werner Schroder and a German doctor named Johannes Wiele, and they explained that they had come across from Calais, having left the port about 10 a.m. “Our boat was what is called a ‘slipper boat.,’ made of wood and rubber. It is 15ft. in length, and in it we came down the Rhine to Rotterdam, and then along the coast to Ostend. “From Calais we crossed the Channel to Dover in the face of very rough seas, and had to meet the full force of a south-westerly gale. Sometimes the waves were more than 25ft. high, and we seemed to be in danger of sinking. “After a rest here we intend to coast up to the mouth of the Thames, and we hope to get up to the Tower Bridge about 5 o’clock on Sunday evening. “We have no particular object in coming over; it has just been a pleasure trip, although, as it has happened, it has not been all pleasure by any means.”