On behalf of Peter Janssen:
Date : Tuesday 25th April 2017
Start: Windsor Reserve, Devonport
Finish: Balmain Reserve, Cheltenham
Distance: approximately 2.5km
Swim start :8 am
Carpool: 7.45am Balmain Reserve. If you plan to walk either way , then it takes about 25 mins.
Caps: Red caps if you have them.
Entry fee: none, but bring some change for a collection for donation to the RSA
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High tide is around 6am so we will have the full force of an outgoing tide behind us. We will make a 'landing' at the Torpedo Bay Wharf.
Bring something to share for a picnic breakfast afterwards (weather permitting). There may not be anything open at that time so coffee addicts will need to come prepared.
Traditionally Anzac Day was observed at dawn and the afternoon was
given over to sport. Right from 1916, soldiers did not want the whole
day as a period of mourning with gloomy church services and endless
speech making. The women and men who died were young and full of life so the
afternoon was for sports, games and a celebration of living . As time has
gone on the dawn service has moved in most places to later in the
morning, so our swim in the morning fits in with a long ANZAC DAY
tradition of enjoying being alive.
We are especially remembering that great swimming hero Bernard Freyberg, better known as Tiny (he was well over six foot tall).An exceptional swimmer, Freyberg was the New Zealand 100 yards champion in 1906 and 1910 and in 1912 he swam 35 miles from Te Aroha down the Waihou River and then up the Ohinemuri River to Paeroa. However, his swim at Gallipoli especially endears him to our swimmer's hearts.
"At Bulair", one man, Lieutenant Freyberg, swam ashore from a destroyer towing a light raft of flares. Near the shore he lit two of these flares, then, wading on to the land, he lit others at Intervals along the coast; then he wandered inland, naked, on a personal reconnaissance, and soon found a large Turkish army strongly entrenched. Modesty forbade further intrusion. He went back to the beach and swam off to his destroyer; could not find her in the dark, and swam for several miles, was exhausted and cramped, and was at last picked up, nearly dead. This magnificent act of courage and endurance, done by one unarmed man, kept a large Turkish army at Bulair during the critical hours of the landing. The flares deceived the Turks even more completely than had been hoped".
The
attached picture is of Freyberg in 1910 at the age of 19 at a fancy dress party dressed up as
'Gretchen, the Dutch Lassie' (he is in the middle of the photo).
Date : Tuesday 25th April 2017
Start: Windsor Reserve, Devonport
Finish: Balmain Reserve, Cheltenham
Distance: approximately 2.5km
Swim start :8 am
Carpool: 7.45am Balmain Reserve. If you plan to walk either way , then it takes about 25 mins.
Caps: Red caps if you have them.
Entry fee: none, but bring some change for a collection for donation to the RSA
***********************************************************************
High tide is around 6am so we will have the full force of an outgoing tide behind us. We will make a 'landing' at the Torpedo Bay Wharf.
Bring something to share for a picnic breakfast afterwards (weather permitting). There may not be anything open at that time so coffee addicts will need to come prepared.
What are we commemorating?
We are especially remembering that great swimming hero Bernard Freyberg, better known as Tiny (he was well over six foot tall).An exceptional swimmer, Freyberg was the New Zealand 100 yards champion in 1906 and 1910 and in 1912 he swam 35 miles from Te Aroha down the Waihou River and then up the Ohinemuri River to Paeroa. However, his swim at Gallipoli especially endears him to our swimmer's hearts.
"At Bulair", one man, Lieutenant Freyberg, swam ashore from a destroyer towing a light raft of flares. Near the shore he lit two of these flares, then, wading on to the land, he lit others at Intervals along the coast; then he wandered inland, naked, on a personal reconnaissance, and soon found a large Turkish army strongly entrenched. Modesty forbade further intrusion. He went back to the beach and swam off to his destroyer; could not find her in the dark, and swam for several miles, was exhausted and cramped, and was at last picked up, nearly dead. This magnificent act of courage and endurance, done by one unarmed man, kept a large Turkish army at Bulair during the critical hours of the landing. The flares deceived the Turks even more completely than had been hoped".
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