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Mar 20th, 2023
Whether by plane, train or automobile, travel comes in different forms. Here’s a question, though: would you stick a stamp on your head, stowaway in a box and post yourself around the world?
If you’re a piece of pharmaceutical media, seeking transit in a bioprocess container makes sense. Fill up the box and away you go. Be that as it may, would we recommend shipping an actual person inside a container? The answer is no, no, no.
Besides, unless you’re a magician’s assistant, people don’t belong in boxes.
Five decades past and one man had a different idea. Australian athlete Reg Spiers decided to travel via crate – yes, via crate – from London to Australia. Anybody who has made that flight knows what a long haul it actually is. Do it via crate and long haul quickly turns to long appall.
Yet his motivations were not devoid of merit. Stranded in London without a penny to his name, Spiers was desperate to return to his homeland in time for his daughter’s birthday.
As he explained to the BBC half a century later: “I’ve come up with this mad scheme to get back to Australia in a box. Who can say it won’t work? Let’s give it a shot.”
“I worked in the export cargo section, so I knew about cash-on-delivery with freight. I’d seen animals come through all the time and I thought, ‘If they can do it I can do it.’”
As Noah readied his arc, Spiers set about modifying his wooden chariot. The design features would allow him to sit up straight-legged, lie on his back with his knees bent and climb out for a quick breather when the opportunity struck.
And, to deter prying eyes, the crate was labelled as a load of paint and addressed to a fictitious Australian shoe company. With customisations complete, Spiers dropped his person into the crate like a cornflake in a box.
Leaving on a jet plane
After three hard days of travel inside the box, Spiers would now need to escape from the airport in his homeland. “There were some tools in there so I just cut a hole in the wall and got out,” he recalls.
“There was no security. I put on a suit out of my bag so I looked cool, jumped through the window, walked out on to the street and thumbed a ride into town. Simple as that.”
In 2015, secretly boarding a plane in a wooden crate would never happen – at least, that’s what air industry experts say. Pressurised holds, freezing temperatures and cargo screening techniques do indeed make a repeat of Spiers’ story most unlikely.
The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step. But just make sure that first step isn’t into a wooden crate.
