GREECE: BRITISH DOCTOR SWIMS BETWEEN AEGEAN ISLANDS AS PART OF CAMPAIGN TO RETURN ELGIN MARBLES TO GREECE.

Record ID: 211253

  • Title: GREECE: BRITISH DOCTOR SWIMS BETWEEN AEGEAN ISLANDS AS PART OF CAMPAIGN TO RETURN ELGIN MARBLES TO GREECE.
  • Date: 4th July 2000
  • Summary: DELOS ISLANDS (JULY 1, 2000) (REUTERS) 1. LV: DELOS ISLAND, ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITES ON ISLAND (2 SHOTS) 0.10 2. GV/MV: CHRISTOPHER STOCKDALE ARRIVING ON ISLAND (2 SHOTS) 0.21 3. MV: STOCKDALE TAKES OFF T-SHIRT 0.26 4. CU: (SOUNDBITE) (English) STOCKDALE SAYING: "I felt very moved by the whole issue, the plight of the Parthenon sculptures was brought to my attention two years ago and I studied in some depth the arguments surrounding their return to Athens and decided that from my point of view the arguments were very sound that the Parthenon sculptures should return. And there is an opportunity for the British government to extent the hand of cultural friendship to Greece and make sure the sculptures are returned". 0.58 5. GV: STOCKDALE PLUNGING INTO THE WATER (2 SHOTS) 1.22 6. GV/MV/PAN: STOCKDALE SWIMMING IN SEA (2 SHOTS) 1.44 7. GV: FISHING BOAT FOLLOWING HIM 1.50 8. MV/GV: SWIMMER (2 SHOTS) 2.09 9. GV/CU: STOCKDALE'S WIFE ON FISHING BOAT WATCHING HIM/ STOCKDALE SWIMMING (2 SHOTS) 2.20 10. LV/GV: CHOPPY SEAS, BOAT BOBBING (2 SHOTS) 2.35 PAROS ISLAND, GREECE (JULY 1, 2000) ( REUTERS) 11. GV: PAROS ISLAND PORT (2 SHOTS) 2.46 12. GV: CHOPPY SEAS, BOATS BOBBING, WAVES SPLASHING (2 SHOTS) 2.56 13. GV: STOCKDALE ON FISHING BOAT COMING UP TO PIER WHILE OTHER BOATS FOLLOW HIM IN - HONKING HORNS 3.01 14. MCU: STOCKDALE PUTS ON ROBE AND COMES OUT OF BOAT 3.10 15. SCU: JULES DASSEN HUGS AND KISSES STOCKDALE AS HE COMES OUT (2 SHOTS) 3.22 16. MV: PEOPLE WATCHING 3.27 17. MCU: MINISTER OF AEGEAN PUTS WREATH ON STOCKDALE'S HEAD 3.34 18. MV: PEOPLE CLAPPING AND CHEERING 3.40 19. MCU: (SOUNDBITE) (English) STOCKDALE SAYING "It's just the weather. It's so bad out there, it's really awful. I am just so disappointed , but if I wanted to achieve, to highlight the problem with the marbles, so if I have done that I have done everything. But it was very hard out there, I am very tired". 3.59 20. MV/PAN: STOCKDALE GETS INTO CAR 4.12 21. CU: (SOUNDBITE) (English) FRENCH FILM DIRECTOR JULES DASSEN SAYING "To make such an effort is very touching and very beautiful, that he is doing it, as an Englishman, taking a stand for something he feels, we all feel is so just, the return of the marbles, which we must own is just half of a frieze, one half there one half here, and we are trying to make the British government understand it". 4.42 FILE, ATHENS (JUNE, 2000) (REUTERS) 22. GV: VIEW OF THE PARTHENON 4.48 FILE, LONDON (JUNE 17, 1998) (REUTERS) 23. MV: VARIOUS OF ELGIN MARBLES IN BRITISH MUSEUM IN LONDON (3 SHOTS) 5.03 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 19th July 2000 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: PAROS AND DELOS ISLANDS, GREECE
  • Country: Greece
  • Reuters ID: LVA2FAZS4BZ3A9WVUGWASP6I1UI
  • Story Text: A British doctor has battled the Aegean sea, swimming
    20 nautical miles in rough waves and currents from the Greek
    islands of Delos to Paros in a campaign to bring the Elgin
    marbles back to Greece.



    Fifty-six year old Christopher Stockdale, a general
    practitioner, set out from the Greek island of Delos, an
    ancient archaeological site, early Saturday morning.

    He said he was moved by the cause and supported the
    sculptures return before he jumped into the water wearing a
    blue skin swimming suit.

    Throughout his swim a fishing boat with two doctors, a
    cardiologist and a pathologist, as well as his wife Margaret,
    followed him through the choppy seas.

    Near the end of his journey battling high beaufort winds
    and unsettling waves, doctors on the boat said strong currents
    began to pull him backwards, and although he fought against
    the waves he was not moving forward. His wife convinced him to
    board the fishing boat outside Paros harbour. He had completed
    20 of the 23 nautical miles to the cement boat pier in Paros
    in ten hours and thirty minutes.

    Small ships from Paros went out to meet Stockdale and
    accompanied his boat into the port, honking their horns.

    On the pier a crowd of hundreds of locals and British
    tourists waited for him, cheering and clapping and shouting
    their congratulations.

    Exhausted Stockdale stepped on the pier, decorated in a
    British and Greek flag, where Greek Minister of the Aegean
    Nikos Sifounakis placed an olive wreath on his head.

    French film director Jules Dassen, with tears in his eyes
    and emotional, embraced Stockdale and thanked him for his
    effort. Dassen is husband of the late Greek actress Melina
    Mercouri, who began the campaign to bring back the Elgin
    marbles to Greece and fought hard for the cause until her
    death. Her husband has carried on her effort as part of the
    Melina Mercouri Foundation in Athens.

    Stockdale was approached by the Friends of the British
    Committee for the Restitution of the Parthenon Marbles, the
    Greek branch of the London based committee, to undertake the
    swim.The Melina Mercouri foundation sponsored the swim, and
    Stockdale began training for it six months before.

    Stockdale said the weather conditions were very bad, and
    the swim was difficult but if he succeeded in bringing
    attention to the cause then he had done what he came for.

    The British doctor from Birmingham has completed at least
    15 swimming marathons around the world since 1977 to raise
    money for hospitals and other charities.

    He has swum from England to France three times to raise
    money for medicine, and his longest time in the water was in
    1989 when he swam Lake Garda in Italy, which took 31 hours and
    ten minutes.

    Stockdale said he is not a member of any professional
    swimming team but started swimming as a hobby. He joked that
    when he was 13 he went to swimming lessons and his trainer
    told him he would never be a swimmer.

    For years Greeks have been campaigning to bring back the
    marbles, friezes from the Parthenon which are now placed in
    the British Museum in London. Their cause has drawn support
    from members of British parliament and the public, but the
    government and museum officials have so far declined the
    request.

    The marbles were removed from the Parthenon by Thomas
    Bruce, the Earl of Elgin, who in the early 19th century was
    British ambassador to the Ottoman Sultan ruling Greece. Elgin
    removed the pieces and shipped them back to England, later to
    be donated to the British Museum.


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