A SWEDISH JOURNALIST'S CANOE FEAT.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 3079, 9 April 1892, Page 1 (Supplement)

A SWEDISH JOURNALIST'S CANOE FEAT.

SI. Uddgren, the young Swedish journalist, has arrived at Dunkirk, from Gothenburg, having undertaken to row all the way to London, and has been interviewed by the correspondent of the Standard. M. Uddgren's boat is a kind of sculling canoe, contructed at Chicago, and named the Guy. She measures 18ft. by 3ft. Oin. SI. Uddgren said -—"I left Gothenburg on July 4, duly supplied with tins of preserved meat and two or three bottles of claret. I worked my way across the Kattegat, and, hugging the coast, rowed to Copenhagen. Hard work, I can tell you. At Copenhagen I had to put myself on the sick list, and to get rid of a tooth which had been making itself a perfect nuisance. Rain ? Yes, and plenty of it. Wind, too. I pulled along the German coast without much

difficulty until I got to Touring, in time to avoid a south-south-west gale, winch kept mo in port five days. It was just as much as I could do to make good haadway against the heavy west wind aud the strong current. One night I was literally soaked through, and had a fourhours' pull before jig. Fortunately, I had a bottle of rum in my locker. In thoße four hours 1 emptied it. At last I pulled up to the Dutch coast. I had to stop a week at Amsterdam to have the boat dried and paintod." " I suppose you had easier work off Holland f" "No," replied M. Uddgren. "In the Zuyder Zee I was at my oars on one occasion for about 33 hours, with slight respite I pulled through it, though, as you see. From Holland I started by canal for Belgium, crossing: that country by Ghent and Bruges. At Ostend I stood cut to sea and made for Nieuport, where I had a narrow escape from capsizing. As the tide was too strong against me I pulled up the canal from Nieuport to Dunkirk. Of course I had to rough it sometimes with tinned meats aud claret. I could not always manage to make a port, and sometimes had to beach my b.jat and sleep on board as best I could." As he was speaking SI. Uddgren was donning his working dross, which consists of a couple of thick woolen jerseys, short punts of the same material, and cap to match. " And what did you do it for? Not for a bot ?" "Oh, no," ho replied ; " I am uroiug to rest a couple I of months iu London, aud write a book | about my long pull." M. Uddgren, who is a contributor to the SwedUh pross, has been an oarsman since ho was a boy of six years old.