Paperwork enthusiast seeking new frontiers of paperwork. Former submariner, former Peace Corps Volunteer. Opinions, thoughts, and comments reflect no actual persons, living or in the Navy.
After I had run through my three boxes of archives it was time to rendezvous with my super amazing wife, who had entertained herself rather than watch me go through boxes of old records. Lunch under our belt we detoured to things more squarely in her realm of interests, in this case tea and Shakespeare. After a brief stop at Twinings tea where she took advantage of their 3-for-2 deal, we head for the first time across the Thames to south London to make the pilgrimage to Shakespeare’s Globe.
This is aesthetically the better header photo but didn’t really make sense because Twinings is only an aside in this post.
This was not actually my first visit to the Globe. Back in middle school my family did a house exchange in Scotland, except dad figured out that it was cheaper to book a package deal with a week in London than to just book the airline tickets by themselves, so this whole trip was over my old stomping grounds. I don’t think having viewed these places as a preteen and then as a 30-something provides any particular insights. My biggest surprise upon revisiting the Globe was that although I knew it was a recreation (albeit on a somewhat smaller scale), I didn’t realize it had been built only in 1997, so when I visited it last it was like, new. Though my biggest memory was that they did not have any lapel pins in the gift shop back then, so I had to go with a pin-back button, the kind of move I would mostly refuse to make these days, because the other difference between me as a 30-something and me as a preteen is that now I have standards by golly.
This is somehow the only picture in/of the Globe I took. I like what they’re saying here.
On this visit to the Globe we took the guided walking tour, which was very good. It started off in their little museum there in the basement. It is pretty good and especially with the guide it gives you a good grounding in why the theater was where it was and what sorts of entertainments they were putting on and how. The big competition around there for eyeballs was bear-baiting which is just like, those poor bears and those poor dogs. But after the museum we went out into South London to let the guide paint for us the Elizabethan world on the backdrop of the modern world. Besides pointing out where all the bear-baiting was happening (one of the spots is like a nice-looking seafood place now, history is wild), you also got to learn about ferrymen, and the local brewspots that were there were breweries for centuries and centuries. They also showed you the original spot where the Globe was, except they can’t do much archeology on it because a large chunk of the spot is covered with a newer building, but not a “new” building because that building is also historical and they can’t modify it or take it down at all to take a look at the Globe. Man must be wild to be a country with so many layers of the sort of history that leaves brick walls, specifically.
One of the remaining bits of the Old London Bridge.Oh we also walked around the Tower of London but didn’t have time to go inside.
The tour ended at the gift shop, where I was distressed to learn that although they now have lapel pins, none of them said “Globe Theater” (I try to ensure my lapel pins say the name of the place I got them from), so I had to go with a cat holding a skull instead. You all will have to remind me where it is from. But with that bit of Elizabethan atmosphere absorbed, we head back across the river. There we took in some of our last sights of London, including fun things like Roman wharf timber and remaining bits of the Old London Bridge (conveniently both are in the same spot). It was important to absorb these things because the next morning we were off to the next big city of our vacation. So we tubed back to the hotel, had a good night’s sleep, woke up early, schlepped our too big suitcases through a couple of Tube stations not designed for too-big-suitcase-schlepping, and eventually arriving at Paddington. I had time to grab a sausage roll before we caught our train, which was a very nice ride. I was stunned to see we were going at over 110 miles per hour, but I suppose that sort of thing was just normal around there. But all the better because we were excited to finally arrive in the city of Jane Austen’s dreams: Bath.
After tumbling out of the V&A the next 24 hours or so of our trip was very me-centric, though we approached it gradually. We swung by Buckingham Palace to see if Chuck was home but we decided not to bother them and then went on down by Westminster Abbey where I was hoping to see Livingstone’s grave but we didn’t get there in time. We wandered on past Elizabeth Tower (I schooled my super amazing wife that Big Ben is actually the bell, man I am so knowledgeable about England) to the riverfront, which marked the first time in our several days in London that we actually saw the Thames, and eventually had some wine in a cave.
But this was all prelude to the main event of the evening, we were finally getting some culture, that is right we were going to see Back to the Future: The Musical! When I first saw that this was a thing it was like, of course we have to go, we are patrons of the arts around here. Plus my super amazing wife likes theater (before we started dating I did a series of elaborate maneuvers one time to get us seated next to each other at a play) so it was something I could drag her along to. I mean I didn’t drag her, she enjoyed it, I promise. Being in the theater was a lot of fun, they have really decked it out with all sorts of stuff. It was dazzling, you can see in the below photo that I look really dazed:
Seriously what is that face?
The musical itself was very good. Beforehand I got the t-shirt (I am wearing it right now), I got the deluxe cast recording, I got the lapel pin which unfortunately is “just” a DeLorean and doesn’t say like “musical” on it or anything, but whatever. There was less Huey Lewis than I was expecting but my absolute favorite part was whenever Doc sang because he got backup dancers “that just appear whenever I start singing” which is great. They swapped out some plot points to make the whole thing easier to stage (my only quibble there is the unrealistic portrayal of radiation poisoning, we can’t mislead the public like that in a musical about time travel) but it was really great. The effects were cool and it has to be one of the best musicals I have ever seen (I haven’t seen many but still).
Just one page from the archives.
Then we went back to the hotel and went to bed. But the next day was the single event I was most excited for, which was visiting the SOAS Archives in London! I have alreadyrevealed someof what I saw but I have been wanting to visit these archives for ages, specifically the archives of the London Missionary Society. They have all the letters and records of the Central Africa Mission and I wanted to see the original papers of these various people I have been obsessed about. In advance you have to request boxes and apply for a library card if you want to do the same, but it is free and when I went everything went perfectly smooth. I hiked on over to the SOAS Library as soon as it opened and checked in with the front desk, who issued my card and gave me directions to the special collections room. They had the boxes I requested (the maximum of three you can request at any one time), and handed me my first one.
It is just wild to be able to handle these documents. In a way it feels voyeuristic. Because of looking into Mama Meli, John and Elizabeth May are two of the people I have tried to find out the most about. In the archives is their private diaries and those happened to be in the box I was handed first. In my limited time I couldn’t go through everything page by page necessarily, so to narrow it down I went off of the dates I knew from the Chronicle, which is unfortunately births and deaths. Flipping right to the dates of tragedy feels weird but I suppose this is why they wanted their diaries preserved, so as to be known in some future time. I did start to feel like I knew these people better, as I quickly knew who wrote what based on their handwriting alone. And telling, maybe, that John and Elizabeth’s handwriting was so similar at first I couldn’t tell them apart. Even in a small chunk of archives I learned a lot of new things, like that Elizabeth actually went by “Rose,” her middle name.
A page from E. Rose May’s personal diaries.
To try to get through everything eventually I was reduced to just skimming through and taking pictures that I could transcribe later, but the overwhelming feeling was just wow, this stuff is just sitting in boxes. There was what was labelled as one of the original manuscripts of one of Stanley’s books, which just like, how is that just sitting in a box here. But this is the beauty of libraries and academic research and museums, that these things are saved and we can learn people’s stories. Even skimming I saw hints of fights and foibles and stiff upper lips, hints of people trying to smooth over arguments or defending themselves from accusations and just the mundane work of getting on with it when your husband or yet another close friend dies. I have so much more work to do on these archives but I think even this little chunk will keep me busy for a while.
Of the various museums we were going to go to on this trip, the one we were perhaps both the most excited for was the Victoria & Albert Museum, or the V&A for those who are into abbreviations. It’s an art and design museum, you see, and art and design are some of our most favorite things. Having decided you can’t have too much of a good thing we went once again to Café Tropea for breakfast and then had our first tube adventure. This was fun and easy and we just used our credit cards which is a technology our American minds could not comprehend and we took a straight shot on the Piccadilly Line and I was pleasantly surprised to find out that we didn’t even need to go above ground to access the V&A, we could just take a tunnel and pop out into the basement. Fun!
Tell you what man we were excited for the V&A and it lived up to the hype. My super amazing wife had done her reading more than I had and so was aware of the Cast Courts. These are wild. So the theory was that it is hard to go see say Michelangelo’s David in person and so what they did was bring David to you (provided you are in London) in the form of a plaster cast. They went into a lot of effort to do a good job on these casts and also used other reproduction methods, and a chunk of the exhibition was just about different reproduction techniques. The Cast Courts themselves were built around the dimensions needed for the largest casts, those of Trajan’s Column, which lemme tell ya, are HUGE. Since my super amazing wife was familiar with the Cast Courts we went there first, and since I am such a hound for showing up to museums early we were there before nearly anyone else, so here we were in these cavernous rooms just chock-a-block of the world’s finest sculptural works squeezed together for an admiring public which consisted of just us. It was revival architecture but for interior decorating. My kind of style really, but I nearly lost my super amazing wife somewhere between the Portico de la Gloria and the Tomb of St Peter Martyr. We were off to a great start at the museum.
Cast of Trajan’s Column. Man they are so big, they picture does not convey this.
Look from here I will simply have to recreate the experience of going through the rest of the V&A, which was just absorbing like body blows of beautiful object after beautiful object by telling you about them one after another, relentlessly, making you jealous, like I was, that there is so much beauty in the world and yet we have only a limited time in order to perceive it. In the guts of the museum itself our first stop after the Cast Courts was the extensive jewelry collection. We had wanted to see some particular pieces, and we did, but why limit yourself to one when they have thousands of pieces spanning millennia. After that we just stumbled upon a hall full of tapestries, and like, we like textile arts, we have to go see the tapestries. We are here to see the tapestries! I couldn’t stop saying that in my head. But here are these works of art, gigantic, 500 years old, how did they do that, what luxury to decorate your house with such things just to keep out the drafts. From there we just blast through the theater and arts section, catching glimpses of Dua Lipa’s Mugler bodysuit alongside Stormtrooper armor alongside the biggest celebrity they have to have had, the costume worn by Manuel in Fawlty Towers, yes, Manuel! Manuel from Fawlty Towers, one of the greatest British TV shows of all time (though I can’t even watch The IT Crowd it is too funny), they had that sucker just on display in a corner, now we are going through a whole section from William Morris of the Arts and Craft Movement, which is another highlight that my super amazing wife really wanted to see, but on the way there you have to stop by the particularly famous bed, and now we are very nearly lost and also hungry, but we manage to find the café, itself just a gorgeous environment, surrounded by Victorian-era tile which in itself is a delight to the senses but also we were eating some rather good salmon, alright back at it, gotta view the fashion special exhibit, I liked it all, it was all super great, up and at ‘em through another hallway, what is that chair, it has to be modern, it is so chic and sleek and minimalist, but no, it is Victorian, how did they even know to do that back then, you have to explain it to me, wait there is no time, now we are in an entire hallway, an entire hallway! of ironwork, wrought and cast and bent and shaped which we admire because my dad is a blacksmith and we want to find things he would like, and there are so many things, it is too much, my heart can’t take it anymore, we gotta get out of here and we stumble out into the sun instead of going back through the tunnel to the tube because by then we needed the cleansing rays of daylight to let it all wash over us. It is a really fantastic museum, you should definitely go.
Memorial Rings, c. 1800-1900, with 7) generic maritime symbols, 8) for Admiral Nelson, and 9) Captain James Newman Newman, all very hooyah, I want ’em.Peony brooch designed by Cindy Chao, 2018, you wouldn’t believe how it sparkles!Pastoral scene, c. 1500, Southern Netherlands, wool and silk.Costume worn by Andrew Sachs as Manuel in Fawlty Towers, Que?The Great Bed of Ware! It was pretty nice.The ceiling of the tea room, how are you supposed to eat with your neck craned up the whole time?Beach trouser suit, Arnson, 1935-37, worn by Lady Vera Swettenham.Chair designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh in 1897, how did he know how to do this???Fireplace from the Willow Tea Rooms c. 1904, or 2204???Artist’s copy of a memorial tablet to commemorate his friend Laura Lyttleton, 1886.Ironwork!!!
How Did the Great Bear Originate?, Translated by Damdinsurengyn Altangerel, andedited by Professor Choi. Luvsanjav and Dr. Robert Travers
Our first full day in London dawned bright and early and to start it off right we got a full English, almost. For breakfast we had landed at the very cute Caffè Tropea, which has a trademarked (so they claim) breakfast called “The Anglo-Italian Job” which was really good, and just a full English breakfast but with Italian-sounding meats. Fortified, we got the next full English experience: The British Museum.
Because of other bits of our schedule this was a flying visit to the museum so we were really only there for the highlights. They keep the highlights conveniently close to the door though which is thoughtful. A quick left brought us to the Rosetta Stone where we oohed and aahed. The crowds weren’t quite what I hear they are for the Mona Lisa but I felt like the vibe was similar. The Rosetta Stone is larger than the Mona Lisa though and you can also see the back. Passing around the crown brings you almost directly to the Parthenon Marbles, where I showed off some podcast-acquired knowledge to my super amazing wife.
The back of the Rosetta Stone.An Assyrian lion hunt.
The main advantage of seeing the Parthenon Marbles though is that in the short corridor between the Rosetta Stone and the Marbles is the entrance to the Assyrian section which neither of us expected. I was at least passingly familiar with Assyrian works from reading Gods, Graves and Scholars, but the real treat was introducing it all to my super amazing wife who wasn’t familiar at all with what these cool cats did. And by cool cats I mean the various lions depicted in all the carvings of lion hunts with details so intricate and lively that we were both extremely taken with them. Much like the British, who took them. This is a zing that will serve to cover everything about the British Museum, but man it is such a privilege to be able to see this stuff, a privilege that the whole world should have without having to suffer through Heathrow losing your luggage.
The major major major highlight for me was of course the Africa section, which I was somewhat distressed to learn was in the basement. On the way we passed Hoa Hakananai’a. I had thought the museum would have their samples of Rongorongo on display, but I was disappointed. I had to console myself with the phenomenal (and morally acquired) artwork they had on display. My super amazing wife was impressed by Tree of Life, a sculpture made out of pieces of rifles from Mozambique. Meanwhile I spent a large chunk of time admiring two Moko Jumbie figures commissioned by the museum from Zak Ové. I was really drawn in by the otherworldliness created by their wings before noticing how the use of new materials (like sneakers) manages to create an old-world object. And then finally in the commissioned artwork genre is “Knowledge is Sweeter than Honey” by Susan Hefuna, a really beautiful way to inscribe additional meaning onto the gorgeous carved screens the likes of which we saw in Andalusia and Morocco.
“Knowledge is Sweeter than Honey,” Susan Hefuna, 2007.Moko Jumbie figures, Zak Ové, 2015.
Of the non-commissioned art, there was so much packed into a relatively small gallery. Their textiles display was thorough, with all sorts of different types on display. Of interest were also carved wooden printing blocks, used for printing on fabrics. My super amazing wife, in addition to the textiles, was drawn to the towering display of pots, while I was checking out all the different products of blacksmithing. This included a set of traditional bellows and about as many different ceremonial knives as I could possibly imagine being all in one place. And a hand plow, which I hadn’t seen before.
They really pack it in there man. Sadly though like I said this was a flying visit so soon after this we were off, only taking time to marvel at possibly the world’s greatest kava bowl (from Hawaii).
Although the rest of our day would largely bore you we did at one point drop on into The National Gallery (I was going to make a joke about the realNational Gallery but I don’t appear to have ever written about visiting, maybe I am just not checking thoroughly enough, I’ve definitely been) where I was wowed by how impressively restored some of the artworks were, with color and vitality despite being 600 years old, but I didn’t take any pictures or write down what those works were so you’ll just have to take my word for it. But the best part of that whole experience was of course seeing Trafalgar Square, because who doesn’t love Nelson (I mean maybe the French and Spanish?) but here is me trying to be him, though with more arms:
Loyal readers, my super amazing wife and I have been on another vacation so as I am sure you are all overjoyed to hear that means you all get another set of lengthy writeups about our various adventures on said vacation. This one should be good though; it was a lot of fun for us and therefore I am sure it will be a lot of fun for you to read about.
Our destination this time was the UK, more specifically London and Bath and then swaths of Scotland before ending up in Shetland for Shetland Wool Week. But first we had to get to the UK, which went largely pretty smooth except that the airline misplaced my super amazing wife’s suitcase for a while. This meant she was wearing my socks and sweatpants the first day, but I do that every day so it must not be so bad. They eventually delivered the bag to our hotel a day later, which like, I think the traffic can get bad in London but it’s not that bad.
Anyway we had arrived in the morning after an overnight flight, which meant that we were dazed, confused, and not necessarily in our own clothes as we set out into the bright London afternoon (the weather was stunningly good the whole time we were in the UK, though almost everywhere we went people were telling us how bad it had been just a week before, so we had good timing). After fortifying ourselves with lunch (Chinese food, very culturally appropriate for the UK I know) we arrived at our very first destination: Novelty Automation.
Pet!
For those poor souls not in the know, Novelty Automation is the project of the engineer and artist Tim Hunkin. I learned of the esteemed Mr. Hunkin via his YouTube channel, where he has a series of videos sharing his practical engineering knowledge, which he applies to (among other things) making the arcade machines which populate his arcade. I tried to explain this all to my super amazing wife to justify dragging her to an obscure street in London (conveniently close to the hotel though which is why we went there first), but she didn’t get it until we walked in the door.
But once we got in there I think she was sold. It is a cramped, tiny little alcove of a shop but tons of fun. It was crowded when we got there (like eight or ten people inside) but I got us some tokens and we started playing games. Since I had seen the videos it was like meeting celebrities in real life. Right inside the door was the game that my super amazing wife was most enamored with. She is, as discussed many many times here, a big fan of sheep, so she had to have a go at Pet or Meat. We got pet! In retrospect I’m not sure which one she would have preferred. Meanwhile I played The Fulfilment Center and won a zero-hours contract, and My Nuke, where my extensive nuclear training did not come in handy and I dropped several fuel pellets and as a reward got some nuclear waste. Overall the arcade was super fun and I would totally host a birthday party there, which they note is one of the services they provide.
A happy customer but very unsafe and unreliable nuclear operator.
Our time at Novelty Automation concluded our only real big destination on the first day. A big part of the reason we were in the UK and London was honestly to shop and so we spent the rest of the afternoon zooming around to the different sorts of shops we wanted to go to. But not like high end luxury shops mind you, no no, our tastes were niche. I mean not that niche, it was tea and books, two notably popular things. But we were looking at special teas and special books. Destinations included Mariage Frères, which I thought was fine, and Postcard Teas, which I now note bills itself as London’s Finest Tea Store and might just be. It is small but they were very knowledgeable and passionate; while we were there the man behind the counter asked a Chinese lady where she was from and then they talked extensively of the various tea regions around there off the top of his head. We also wandered into TWG Tea at some point because we thought it was Twinings (which we went to another day) but you can give TWG a pass.
As for books our first destination was Cecil Court. My dream in London was that I was going to go to an antiquarian bookstore and then just find all sorts of London Missionary Society books and ephemera for (relatively) cheap because London is where the Missionary Society is from and various people from previous generations would have had their libraries liquidated and people just wouldn’t know what they had but with my extensive knowledge I could pick it all up at cut-rate prices and have the world’s finest LMS library but this did not happen. I was a bit disappointed with the antiquarian book selection overall (this could be my fault I admit) and Cecil Court didn’t seem to have that many bookstores frankly. Though I did pick up a book from Tenderbooks, they were a great little shop. To be completionist we also went to the big Waterstones which was you know a bookstore and then also Hatchards which was pretty nice.
By this point it was late in the day and our feet was killing us so we went on back to the hotel, detouring only slightly to see one final celebrity:
It was very crowded and my super amazing wife was very tired and didn’t understand why we were here but how could I not get a picture?
My grandma died in August. She was 98 ½. 98 ½! A phenomenal run. She outlived Castro, but not Jimmy Carter.
She was my last grandparent. My mom’s parents died when I was a kid, and my dad’s dad died over a decade ago. That left grandma, but she had a lot left in her. At one point I hadn’t been home for Christmas for a few years due to Navy obligations. I wouldn’t have gone home that year either, but grandma was getting up there in age and I put my foot down with the captain so I could make sure I made it home at least one more time. I guess this would have been when grandma was 89, on the very cusp of 90. I arrived to find her running around the kitchen, doing the important parts of making Christmas eve dinner. That dinner was always spaghetti with anchovies, and for me that’s grandma’s dish. I made it, here, a few days after she died.
Grandma didn’t really start to fade until about three years back. My wife and I were staying with her for about a month. During that time a tumor was growing on her leg. Benign, but large and prone to bleeding. The family pushed her to get it removed and that was what did it. They put her under to take it out and she didn’t leave the hospital for another two weeks and never totally recovered.
My parents had already rearranged their lives to be able to take care of her. My great uncle, who was my grandpa’s brother and who had married my grandma’s sister, moved himself into a nursing home toward the end, selling the house where we had most often celebrated Christmas. I think he figured it would be easier for everyone. But grandma never wanted to leave her house. She had bought it with my grandpa at least 30 years back, in Florida a block away from the beach. Until the condos across the street stopped trimming their trees you could watch the sunset over the ocean from her balcony. It was decorated with the grandpa’s art and the souvenirs they had picked up on their many world travels.
She lived on the second floor, and the stairs eventually became the obstacle that kept her in her house. Her son-in-law (my uncle) had rebuilt those stairs for her when the old ones were getting rickety. Several years ago we had rigged up a pully system to let her bring groceries up more easily, but eventually grandma was no longer doing her own shopping. She still wouldn’t let anyone get rid of her car, in case she needed it again. A year ago dad installed a chairlift to save them carrying grandma up and down when it was time for doctors’ appointments.
She wasn’t always so old of course. Her and grandpa had quite the life, living abroad for many years and visiting as many countries as they could. In the States they had a big blue van they would travel around in with a mattress in the back, before that sort of thing was cool. We’d visit almost every summer and Christmas. One summer in middle school I visited on my own, staying with them for a month and a half. Grandma could be very much the typical grandma. On that visit I think I had coleslaw for the first time and I discovered I liked it. So she then had some for me with every meal until I didn’t like it anymore. I also discovered in Florida that I liked Tang and so she made sure I had such a steady supply I am pretty sure it gave me stomach problems. Then she could be not so typical. One time (years later of course) I had described a bad experience with tequila and she scolded me for drinking it wrong, explaining the appropriate lime & salt procedure. I couldn’t believe a grandma was allowed to know such things.
Tequila would be old hat though for someone so adventuresome. I think the last international trip she took was all the way to Petra. That must have been right before COVID hit. I remember showing the photos to my friends, who were worried about their own trips. You can’t exactly scooter to Petra either, not that she would ever have. She also came to Zambia when I was there in the Peace Corps. A 92-year-old woman, going on a hiking safari where she could have been attacked by a lion or trampled by a zebra! I liked taking pictures of her sitting in land cruisers; when she didn’t feel like making a particular trek she would just perch herself in the front passenger seat. Though she did manage to hike herself down a long flight of stairs to the viewpoint for Kalambo falls. Indomitable, that one.
Her very final trip though was for me, to see the marriage celebration of my super amazing wife and I. It wasn’t exactly a wedding, but a weekend up in Massachusetts with both our families. This was after the surgery on her leg; at one point she asked my mom what she was doing there, noting “whoever this is for they better really appreciate it.” And I really did. She got to meet my wife’s family, and my father-in-law asked about her every time we spoke, impressed as everyone was by how sprightly she was even then. A much longer time ago, back when I was at the Academy, I took grandpa by car up in Connecticut (grandma was visiting Japan with my sister at the time, so he didn’t have much to do). As we were driving along grandpa told me that we were at the very spot where he had proposed to grandma. Back when they were both so young. And now she finally got to see me married.
My grandma was an amazing person. In writing this I am embarrassed all my memories of her were her as old, though that’s not my fault. What is my fault is that this is the same format of blog post I used for our cat. It’s such an inadequate way to encapsulate a whole life. Grandma saw countries rise and fall, taught generations of students, raised kids, travelled the world and made her home all over. She was mom and wife and friend and auntie and her own unparalleled person. And she was my grandma. I love you, grandma.
The Travels of Ibn Battutah, abridged, annotated, and with a forward by Tim Mackintosh-Smith
Sierra Leonean Heroes
A little bit ago I once again found myself in Kinshasa, and this time the big adventure was going to Lola ya Bonobo! It was a lot of fun. Lola ya Bonobo is a sanctuary for orphaned bonobos. The name in Lingala means “Paradise for Bonobos” which seems fairly accurate. It’s on the outskirts of Kinshasa, which as the crow flies is not so far, but we are not crows, we are people, and we have to drive, and that means traffic, and so it is quite the journey out there. But pretty! The city center turns into suburbs over hills and valleys with pretty little gardens along the way and eventually becomes forest and you find yourself on the side of a small river in a copse of bamboo being offered drinks while you wait for the next tour time.
Lola ya Bonobo is the only sanctuary in the world for orphaned bonobos. I think this is because there aren’t really a lot of other great spots to put an orphaned bonobo sanctuary, what with the range of bonobos being relatively small and circumscribed by the Congo river and its tributaries, as our very nice tour guide explained via a diagram he drew. I think this is what he was explaining anyway; the tour was in French, which I really need to get around to learning. The bonobos wind up orphaned both through habitat destruction and their parents being hunted for meat. The babies are often sold on the black market, and it is from there that Lola ya Bonobo rescues them and helps to raise them. After all of this was explained to us, we set off on the tour. The whole place is extremely gorgeous, as it is set within the forest, so you have paths set within the trees and facilities where they take care of the bonobos.
At least raising these kids comes with a paycheck.
The first enclosure was the cutest because the first enclosure was for the baby bonobos. It was insanely cute. The babies are taken care of by “surrogate mothers,” i.e. some Congolese women who are looking after them. So we approach this enclosure which had a zoo-like glass front and there are just three women in there with baby bonobos clinging to them and then running around and playing and stuff. I imagine these women spend all day taking care of toddler bonobos and then go home and take care of toddler humans and man that must make for a full day. The babies had playground equipment including a trampoline and a swing but the best toy of course was the leaves on the side of the paths which the babies would push onto the paths and then the women would grab a broom and sweep them up. It was just like absolutely the cutest.
Wrasslin’
From there we went down to a series of different enclosures with mostly older bonobos, though I didn’t really understand the difference between the enclosures. The first enclosure had several families it seems and we watched them rub their rather pronounced butts together. The tour guide tossed them some bananas to give us a better look and being no bonobo expert I am sure this is okay. The bonobos were kind enough to show off for us.
Posing for a banana.
The next enclosure bordered a small dammed lake which made the whole setting extra pretty on top of the regular gorgeousness of the other bits. We watched a couple sanctuary employees row across the dam in a boat and then toss a family of bonobos a bunch of papayas, and wow that’s a dream job.
The sanctuary had a few different signs with illustrative bonobo drawings.
The final enclosure we visited seemed to be for the rowdier bonobos. They were tricky these bonobos. One mom in this enclosure had a super cute baby she would use to bait people who wanted to take pictures, and then when you approached would toss sand at you. One bonobo had a water bottle he had gotten from somewhere and the tour guide warned that if you get too close to the enclosure they’ll tear at your shirt or rip your purse off, so that’s fun. Can’t blame ‘em, frankly, the bonobos here are in the right. Still pretty neat!
Finally from there we exited via the gift shop. I got a pretty sweet “Amis des Bonobos” t-shirt and a carved wooden spoon with a little bonobo on top. Always happy to support a good cause, and these people do seem pretty great. They do some great education and are helping out an animal unique to the DRC. If you ever find yourself in Kinshasa, it is well worth the trip.
Travels in West Africa by Mary Kingsley (abridged Folio Society edition)
In the last post, we discussed how I transcribed some documents from the SOAS LMS archives relating to the SS Good News, my favorite steamship. These included the original purchase contract and then a letter from Mr. Roxburgh celebrating the launch of the boat. But now we get to the good stuff: drama.
These are three letters, two from Edward C. Hore and one from A.J. Swann. I should have put the first letter in the last post, timeline-wise, but only in writing this post did I realize it was dated 1881; I had originally thought it was from 1887 which is silly. This is a good place to note that I found it hard to read Hore’s handwriting. When I couldn’t read a word I put down whatever letters I thought were close and annotated it with a [?]. How much of history will be lost when nobody learns cursive anymore?
Anyway in this first letter, Hore is advocating to I think the LMS board for his preferred sort of ship, a sailboat with auxiliary steam power. By this point Hore, on behalf of the LMS, had used several different sail-powered vessels on the lake and now was looking for something with more oomph.
Islington
9 Dec 81
Dear Sir,
In regard to the Marine Depart. of the Tanganyika Mission I understand that the question of sail versus steam is still to be considered – As I wrote long since from Ujiji, I should be very pleased to work a sailing boat on the Lake, in fact the vessel I have proposed (see former letters on this subject) would perhaps more frequently be sailed – it is my hope to do so, & reserve the steam for occasions when it would mean economy of time & safety. The recommendation of steam by the District Committee (see resolutions Cent. Af. Dist. Com. Oct 80) is of course simply the notion of the Missionaries, & subject anthief [?] (as I would be the first to admit) to the consideration & decision of the Directors & the bearing upon it of their experience in these Missions & perhaps some of those Missionaries in recommending steam, simply intend to recommend “the most efficient & speedy means of water communication.”
But for myself – as well as joining in the above recommendation as a Missionary the steam is included in my professional opinion given to the Directors, or the best means of conducting the ferries [?] they require to be carried out.
Perhaps some misapprehension has arisen from calling the vessel a steamer – the vessel I propose is in fact a fast & safe sailing vessel, which I hope to sail under favorable circumstances up to 10 or 11 knots – with auxiliary steam to give a speed of 8 knots.
As a sailor I am prejudiced against steam but I have proposed what I have not from my idea as a Missionary, which would be a mere suggestion to the Directors, but as my most carefully considered professional opinion of the vessel necessary to carry out what I suppose to the Directors intentions on Lake Tanganyika.
1) The prevailing winds on the Lake are S, S.E., & S.W. so that one can almost always sail N – to get South one must either be able to beat against a strong breeze or make use of the light land breeze close in shore at night or lose of thenna [?] – according to circumstances – but the nights are frequently quite salone [?], so that with steam or other mechanical means of progression a passage could be made or shortened.
Every bend & headland, as the sailor gets acquainted has its peculiarities of wind-currents or smooth water, which the auxiliary steam would enable me to utilize to best effect, both as regards speed & wear & tear of vessel.
To theorize on seamanship we need steady winds & straight & uplaw [?] coast liner – I append a diagram to illustrate the navigation on one small portion of the Lake.
2/ On the Lake generally there are frequent calms (or nearly so) of a week or more for which, undoubtedly, some means of mechanical propulsion should be provided, & to be reduced to oars, would, considering the size of the vessel be most expensive & unsatisfactory & would leave us often as badly off as before – a doctors visit or other urgent service ought never again to be delayed for want of wind – & I take it that the success of the whole mission is very much dependent on the efficiency of the Marine Deps. I hope never to have to say either there is no wind or the weather is too bad – the sails & the good sea boat always for rough weather, either fair or foul – & the auxiliary steam for the perhaps more difficult calms.
3/ The Lake is still (for purposes of navigation) comparatively unexplored, charts, sailing directions, pilot books, steam trap [?], are now so much reformed [?] on in ordinary navigation that we need constantly to remind ourselves, that we have no such assistance on our Lake & in threading narrow waters & going in & out of harbors etc. etc. the steam or other mechanical means of propulsion would be an immense saving of time & expense – With our new vessel we cannot “shove her thro’” or “push her over anyhow” as one would handle an old log canoe.
4/ Although steam would be desirable the Directors would not like to (& there is no reason why they should) have to employ both a nautical man & an Engineer on the Lake by an Engineer of course I mean a superior man, capable of taking sole care & responsibility of the Engine etc. etc. but a steamer properly so called would not be done pisther [?] to without both such men.
The vessel I propose is specially designed to meet this difficulty & to be managed without such an Engineer – I think I have already told the Directors that I am ready myself to undertake the care of the auxiliary machinery I propose – It is also designed specially to meet the requirements of the Locality & service.
In asking for steam power to guarantee 8 knots I would make that the maximum – it is for use chiefly in calms & very light head winds & I saw 8 knots in the hope that I could then be quite certain of 4 or 5 under those circumstances & should keep it for such use – neither wearing the machinery nor incurring the time labor & expense of providing fuel during available winds.
In case of my being disabled my mate could still sail the ship & at the worst could but let the Engine rust – but I hope we may procure a man who would be able to take the whole work when necessary – as to keeping the parts clean & clear of corrosion I will back our intelligent sailor against any engine driver or like assistant. A personal inspection of the steam machinery of any launch or yacht with the power I require would I think convince the Directors of the feasibility of my managing the same – they need no permission to have such machinery in any case of the simplest form & best material & workmanship.
I have referred more than once to “other mechanical power” – I have no Engineer’s prejudice & would be glad to hear of any other method of mechanical propulsion for calms.
5/ The vessel should be able to two rafts of timber & canoes loaded with building materials for which service calm weather must be chosen.
I think I have already laid before you the two plans either of which would I think meet the requirements of the case.
1st the sailing vessel with auxiliary steam machinery (of 8 knots guaranteed)
2nd the sailing vessel solely such which might be then of slightly different lines & smaller dimensions and a small steam launch in sections capable of being secured together in a day or two for immediate use.
Plan 1 has the advantage of compactness [?] & completeness & having both means always at command, but all our force risked on one bottom.
Plan 2 has the advantage of a more roomy sailing vessel – a means of much more rapid service for simple communication & light urgent work without moving a ponderous vessel for every light service & the distribution of our forces & of the risk in two vessels – a tow boat without always using the larger vessel & a means of at once starting work on the Lake without the possible delay in waiting for the transport & construction of the larger vessel at the South end of the Lake, by taking the small launch along the old route – but in using the larger vessel itself we still are dependent on sail & oar.
In such an important matter I should think it necessary for the Directors to be assisted by a professional nautical opinion quite as much as by that of an Engineer – & as to detail of construction & fittings I should much like to be assisted officially with a competent marine surveyor or architect.
I place the glad [?] to enter into detailed planning for caravans etc. as soon as it is known how much is to be undertaken by the trading Co.
I remain dear sir, Yours sincerely
Edw’d C. Hore
It gets more dramatic in the second letter. It starts off as an update on the Good News and then becomes a letter about who, exactly, is in charge of the boat. There seems to have been a lot of personnel drama in the Central Africa mission, and it started early. Here, Hore is complaining that Alexander Carson had come out with the notion that he (Carson) was in charge of the construction of the Good News. Hore, as head of the Marine Department, figured he would be in charge, and if that was to change no one had told him. It’s written from Kavala Island, where Hore had set up the base of the Marine Department. The Good News was built at the south end of Lake Tanganyika, but then after launching brought up to Kavala for fitting-out.
Kavala Island
Tanganyika 22 Oct 86
Dear Mr. Goodwin,
I have received your letter (written by Mr. Moore) of 14 Feb. I am glad to hear from you all again for Mr. Moore both as your representative and on his own account conveys to me your very inclusive regards & good wishes. Certainly pleasing recollections of you all are immediately connected with much that has to do with the Good News – I sincerely hope that some day I may see you again & this time to talk over what has been done instead of what has to be done.
Mr. Carson arrived here on 4th July last, reaching Kavala Island aerors [?] the deck of the Good News which was as you suppose pretty well complete except boiler & machinery – in fact so far as I could go awaiting chains plates & certain other fittings to complete which [?] parts of linings [?] must be left – At that late hour [?] masts were in & rigging aloft with awnings [?] opened fore & aft, wheel & bowsprit shipping etc. etc.
The machinery of course I had left as soon as assured that an Engineer was coming – except that in order to make sure my list of missing parts I connected the Engine & teething [?] gear together putting in carefully made models of wood of the sliding guide blocks & the awadement [?] block. The whole worked smoothly together along with the machinery connection to cockpit & was in face perfect & complete except a small displacement which the Engineer will surely [?] make in the Goodwin [?] chocks to bring the coupling of shafts fair. The funnel, casing etc. etc. got to me in a bad state, but the boiler plates were all right having been packed [?] by Roxburgh in hansil [?], the others were all scraped [?] clused [?] – painted [?] here & the leed [?] & workshop laid out all ready with tools & materials for Mr. Carson’s arrival. “Wonderful & perfect preparation” in my opinion but I daresay a “very rough & makeshift” in the eyes of any one just coming from home – nevertheless it was the result of years of hard work.
It is no doubt astounding [?] to some people how I could have taken such a long time over such a small job. It is perhaps impossible for some who have always lived at home to understand it. The actual amount the work of erection of the vessel has been but a small part of the whole & the largest part the formation of dwellings, working places & conditions on a jungle covered hillside in Central Africa in the intervals of many boat voyages of over 200 miles to fetch provisions & materials.
Mr. A.J. Swann my mate has done all the minelting [?] of cornfrip [?] etc. etc – having paid that attention to the business while Roxburgh was with us & acquired considerable proficiency – he also worked with Mr. Carson at the riveting of the boiler lids [?] was finished all but the last ring [?] before Swann left for home.
The dock tho’ causing much trouble & disappointment (Miro [?] want of density of soil panelling [?] water to percolate thro’ the bottom) was a perfect success for the work required – the dry season has now left it behind on the shore – but the Lake will rise again with the rains.
Here is a copy of the dockings from my official log.
Draft of water 2.9 aft & 1.6 forward – having on board Engine – full 2/3rd of linings & journey – bowsprit – 30 fathoms calle [?] & 140 lbs [?] stone ballast under wooden cabin bulkhead – no masts, stove, anchors, or other heavy weights.
June
7. Draft as stone [?] hauled into dry dock
9. shoud [?] up & baled [?] out – scrubbed bottom, but dock gate leaked at 3 p.m. & stopped work – repaired gate.
10. 1st coat of paint on
11. 2nd coat of paint
12. dock gate leaked & filled – repaired & baled out
14. 3rd coat paint
16. noon let water in & floated vessel
July
6. Good News hauled into dry dock to inspect & adjust propeller & shaft
7. Completed work of adjustment of propeller shaft & examination of sea cocks
8. Hauled out of dock.
On this last occasion masts & all rigging in place but Engine had been taken out [?] also the cable – all else the same – & draft was 2 ft 8 in aft x 1 ft 7 forward. In the dock the foremost block had 1 ft 6 in water over it & the after block under (stern post) 2 ft 4 in – she was hauled up into position by 35 men without purchase (that it took tackle to haul her off again).
I have laid a lot of shels [?] to form a grating on top of the floors – to be filled up to wider cabin sole [?] with clean quartz stones – but New [?] will only store about 1 ½ tons – she is very buoyant & I must determined [?] traiss [?] exclusively by cautious experiment.
The “passengers cabin” will probably for some time be devoted to ballast & fuel.
I am convinced more than ever if possible on the necessity of our being an auxiliary steamer – certain voyages will always be sailed with perhaps an hour or two’s steam to enter port quicker the time for steam and fueling – She wants an iron or steel mizenmast & chains halyards for mizzen. I do not think I shall ask for it I am afraid to be thought so greedy. – the wooden mast & ordinary rigging will soon be destroyed by the fire & smoke.
Both Mr. Carson & Rev. G.H. Lea who arrived 3 weeks ago keep good healthy, they came up quickly without having to escort large caravans & came at once to this place which is undoubtedly healthy – Mr. Carson has been at work all the time & as regards the actual day when steam will first be got up we shall soon be waiting again – of course actually we can always find plenty to do – the boiler is nearly ready & all going on nicely but I do not like to say anything about it – Mr. Carson has absolute charge of boiler & machinery & will doubtless give full report thereon – instead I feel conferred [?] in writing about any of the work that is going on now the position is so peculiar, & at home & away from Missionary surroundings would certainly resulted [?] in horrible [?] & would possible have [?] done to now not for the personal regard I have for Carson whom I like very much – the fact is he arrived here believing that he had charge of the whole work of Good News & that Swann & I would assist under his directions. While on the other hand I understand that my appointment as “superintendent of the construction of Good News” remained un-annulled & that the Engineer was sent out to relieve me of certain details of that work.
I met Carson on his arrival before I knew his ideas or saw his instructions (with the assurance that he should have it all his own way un-interfered [?] with, with the boilers & engine, but felt rather small when he showed me the same in writing & also indicated his ideas with regard to the other part of the work – My private opinion is that we are both deserving of great credit, that the Good News work is proceeding well without at present any pitch [?] or trouble.
As for myself personally I hardly hear [?] whether I am standing on my head or my heels – I have supposed myself (for years) to the holding [?] an appointment which now suddenly I see announced in print as having been held by Mr. Roxburgh – I have risked the health & life of myself & child over & over again in a way I would have considered quite uncalled for & unnecessary but supposing that I hold unique positions.
When I try to get the evidence of my friends as to whether I am palpable [?], one suggests a clerical error, another says it cannot be that I cower [?], had the appointment because I am “incompetent” another that a “sailor” cannot construct vessels etc. etc.
I begin to wonder whether I have built a vessel at all, but have been building a castle in the air all the time & make to find myself a sort of boatkeeper with the best years of my life gone.
Meantime the jungle fades from view & the settlement grows – boys & girls attend the daily schools & Sunday services – and the “savages” become more & more amenable [?] to friendly intercourse & work. Our chief by death of two of his seniors is offered [?], promotions [?] on the mainland but declined to leave his good island & us – so some of the people he was to have governed are coming here to live instead – the Good news meantime is slowly & surely approaching completion & missionaries having a healthy station & houses to come to at once are surviving instead of dying off. The fact nothing stops us but want of men and proper men – with the necessary power funds & men I would settle & colonize the whole Lake shore – A Missionary Society of course is confined to certain lines & methods & within these & the means (in shape of men & money) that have been available, I think I have had remarkable success & if I can only only [sic] see the Good News efficiently running before I leave I think I shall feel restful afterwards.
I shall be grateful [?] for any hints [?] you can give me about ballast & trim of Good News – At present I can only experiment to get 1st sufficient stability and 2nd sufficient immersion for propeller.
You know our boiler will get very irregular work – & sometimes cold water remaining in for along time. I do not think deposit will trouble us at all with proper attention to use of clean water. If you think under these circumstances that simple rust might be prevented by painting inside of boiler I wish you would advise it but do not let it be known that I have anything to do with the suggestion.
With Christian regards & best wishes to you & yours, I remain dear sir, Yours sincerely
Edw. C. Hore
I assume that all was eventually resolved.
The Good News did not have a particularly long service life, even though she was really kinda sorta the impetus of the mission. Mr. Arthington donated money to start a Central Africa mission as long as the London Missionary Society put a steamer on Lake Tanganyika. The theory was that they could do shipborne evangelization, cruising up and down the lake proselytizing to the lacustrine peoples. This never really worked out; the LMS found the best way to get converts was to settle in a particular spot and let a village grow up around them. The Good News was handy for a bit as a transport ship between LMS bases at Ujiji, Kavala, and Niamkolo, but eventually all the missions shifted to the south end of Lake Tanganyika which was most easily supplied via southern routes instead of overland between Zanzibar and Ujiji. The Good News was eventually sold to the African Lakes Company and by WWI was a hulk on Kituta bay. The below letter from A.J. Swann explains some of her faults.
Kavala Island
July 1889
Dear Mr. Goodwin,
I have been going to write you for some time past but the very troublesome times out here has made me postpone it from time to time & even now I see no chance of it clearing up too commence in hopes of this reaching you some day.
First let me say I have written you before I hope you received it & that [?] incient [?] doing so again.
Now a letter about the Good News. You will probably have met Capt Hore ere this & had a long yarn on this subject, since arriving here we have made several voyages. Carson & self & lately there [?] had her ale [?] long [?] reef [?] being Master Mate & Engine overlooker at the same time & now for my opinions of the wee craft.
I have repeatedly tested her speed over known distances & find with 60 lbs of steam & smooth water she goes 7 ½ miles an hour, this is I think good, she has maintained that rate for 12 hours & is her best, but in order to do it, we must have splendid wood & no cargo. Her average speed is about 6 miles an hour in fine weather with about 50 lbs steam. Under sail I think her best will be about 5 miles an hour & then the wind must be free.
Against ahead wind she is no good at all & will scarcely maintain steerage way, the short seas take it all out of her, as a smooth water vessel she is everything to be desired, otherwise a failure, her sail power is too much for her probably & yet insufficient for propulsion; in fact, Hore in trying to get both sail & steam, has in both obtained neither. In overreaching for cabin accommodation he entirely ignored ballast space & fuel storage & to speak honestly has bungled the whole affair, instead of her being so he so persistently termed her an “auxiliary steam vessel” she is to all intents & purposes just the opposite & if he had taken your advice to lower his canvas in the lockers & given her more power behind, we should have had a vessel fit to navigate Tanganyika in any weather whereas she is not able to steam against the South East monsoon or beat against it under sail. This is my report after a fair trail & I simply send it that you may know the fact & it only proves once more, that the fads [?] of amateurs are scarcely ever worth serious consideration in such matters.
You know it must cost me something to write in this strain about a vessel in which I have taken to much interest & in the construction of which I was privileged to take part, I admire her now unisonlon [?] & feel proud to have charge of such a treasure & I know with care she will do the work of this mission for years, yet she is what I have described a failure in many points & in the hands of an amateur sailor will be a source of much anxiety [?] & great risk. I know you won’t take any thing I have written as in the slightest manners reflecting unfavorably on yourself, for from it we shall ever be indebted to you for such a gift as the G. News, the only regret on my part is that you did not have your own way, but was hampered with the good intentions (but mistaken nevertheless) of other people.
Suffice it to say she is the admired of all admirers [?] & it moving under to the natives world [?], A source of pleasure comfort & service to the mission generally & A.I. [?] in my estimation when I look back at the mode of transport up here a few years back & if ever you take it into your head to travel this way, be sure of a Saloon passage & a hearty welcome. Now about ourselves, Mrs. Swann has had very good health indeed since finishing the journey & getting over the loss of our wee babe, which loss was felt very keenly as you may imagine.
At present we are all “tip top” Hellie [?] the worse for our somewhat isolated life. The road to Zanzibar has been shut for some months & supplies are stopped. The road S.E. via Nyassa is also shut & so we are young Emin Pascha on a smaller scale & may come very near competing with Robinson Crusoe for first honors if the game continues many years.
The Arabs have twice planned to assist us off this Planet “nolens volens” but an old friend of mine (an Arab) has nailed his colors to ours & said “come on” if you like, but if you do I could [?] guarantee your safe release to your villages & up to the present they have not “come on.” How long this Arab will be able to shield us is impossible [?] to say & I don’t know it serves any purpose to calculate.
Poor Brooks was foully murdered 2 days from the coast some months ago, but he has gone to his reward where all who are sincere & faithful will congregate someday. May God forgive his murderers is all I can say as I grieve over a lost companion in this great struggle for Africa & if they serve us the same, repeat the prayer. Over us they can have no power unless given them from above & thus we rest & work on believing the time is soon coming for the “day to dawn & the shadow to flee away.” We would live to see this if his Will, if not, it is our to obey.
Mrs. Swann joins me in kindest regards to Mrs & Miss[?] Goodwin & we are so sorry to say your Photographs together with my “Robert Burns” was lost on the voyage out & the case destroyed by someone so that we have not your faces. Please remember me very kindly to Mr. A. Hamilton who I trust has not given up the slave question. Also to Rev. Rogers & others who may remember me & now accept yourself our best wishes for your welfare & happiness & permit me to remain,
Alright! From my last post you are aware that I was able to visit the London Missionary Society archives kept at SOAS in London and it was super cool. The box with the photos is a box of a few different sorts of things, so it also had a chunk of incoming letters about the SS Good News, my favorite missionary steamship. Since I didn’t have a whole lot of time to peruse each letter I just took photos of the ones that seemed like they would be interesting and now after long last I have transcribed them to the best of my ability (“best of my ability” because man I cannot read some of their handwriting). So in two parts I will show you what I found.
The first neat thing is the original contract for the SS Good News, signed by LMS Foreign Secretary R. Wardlaw Thompson and Forrestt and Son boatbuilders (photos at the top):
Memorandum of Agreement entered into this Fifteenth day of April one thousand eight hundred and eighty two between Messr. Forrestt and Son of Britannia Yard Millwall Shipbuilders hereinafter called the builders of the one part and R. Wardlaw Thompson of 15 Blomfield St. London Wall acting for and in behalf of the London Missionary Society hereinafter called the owners of the other part.
The said builders hereby agree to build for the said owners a steam launch in accordance with the terms of the specifications and drawings hereto attached and to deliver the said launch in parcels for shipment free alongside steamer in the river Thames for the sum of £1,600 (one thousand six hundred pounds).
It is further agreed by and between the said builders and the said owners that if the launch be so far completed as to be tried under steam on the river Thames a further sum of £150 (one hundred and fifty pounds) shall be paid for the additional labor and expense incurred thereby.
It is also further agreed by and between the said builders and the said owner that the purchase money for the launch does not include any of the following items of the outfit viz:-
One complete set of spars
One complete set of sails
One complete set of blocks
One large anchor
One compass
And the said owner hereby agrees to pay the said builder the before mentioned purchase money in these equal instalments viz:-
One third when the launch is in frame
One third when the launch is plated and the deck laid
And the remaining third when the launch is finished and delivered to the said owner.
As witness our hands this fifteenth day of April one thousand eight hundred and eighty two
R. Wardlaw Thompson – Foreign Secy London Missionary Soc
J. Messtt Frm [?]
Witness to both signatures (Clerks to the London Missionary Society 14 Blomfield Street E.C.
William Ford Brown
Mm Ley Lerk [?]
After the contract the next neat thing is a letter from James Roxburgh to G.S. Goodwin, Esq. Mr. James Roxburgh was an engineer that went to Lake Tanganyika on behalf of the London Missionary Society to build the Good News. Looking back I should have written a biography of him in my Chronicle transcription. I didn’t because he’s not on the LMS list of missionaries because he wasn’t sent out as a missionary, but as a “practical engineer in the employment of the Society,” as the LMS put it (though they also referred to him at least once as “our missionary engineer”). I have a blog post on Building the SS Good News with excerpts from books by E.C. Hore and A.J. Swann, but it was Roxburgh that was the main man in charge of actually building the boat.
This letter came to the LMS archives when it was sent to them by Andrew Hamilton of A. Goodwin-Hamilton & Adamson Ltd, apparently a firm of naval architects (as I learned from their letterhead), some 40-odd years after it was originally sent to G.S. Goodwin, Esq. It is not clear to me from the letters or some subsequent googling why Mr. Roxburgh was writing to Mr. Goodwin. My guess is that Mr. Goodwin was the boss of a firm of engineers from whence Roxburgh was hired by the LMS. It’s a pretty chatty letter, starting with the story of launching the Good News and talking about parts still missing, but then at the end gets into the state of Roxburgh’s health. Unfortunately this is foreshadowing; James Roxburgh would die on Kavala Island on May 18, 1885, about three months after writing the below letter on the same day he launched the Good News.
The cover letter from A Goodwin-Hamilton & Adamson Ltd.:
I came across the enclosed letter written by Mr. Jas. Roxburgh, dated 3rd March 1885 from Lake Tanganyika at the time of the launch of the “Good News”.
This will I think be of interest and may deserve a place in the Society’s Museum & or History of the Tanganyika Mission.
With Kind Regards.
Yours truly,
Andrew Hamilton
And now the letter from Mr. Roxburgh:
Liendwe Central Africa
3rd March 1885
To G.S. Goodwin Esq.,
Alexandra Buildings,
James Street,
Liverpool.
Dear Mr. Goodwin,
This has perhaps been the greatest day that Central Africa has yet seen, and the Natives here have been privileged to see a work accomplished that has been a very great puzzle to them for a long time past. As they could not conceive how it would be possible for us to carry such a big heavy boat as the “Good News” into the water. I am glad to inform you that the “Good News” was successfully launched today at 10/30 a.m., everything went well. We had not a hitch of any kind.
She now lies at Anchor opposite our camp here on the Lofu river and I am sure if you were here to have a look at her as she is on the river at present I think you would say she is a good clean tidy job and a credit to all who have had an important part of her to do, especially to the designer of her. I got on board as soon as possible after the launch and made a complete examination of her all along and I am glad to say I did not find a single leak. I do not think there will be much work for the bilge pump in our little steamer as no part of her is depending on putty nor paint.
Our Motto here has been, that whatever is worth doing at all is worth doing well. I may say I laid the ways for Launching on the same principle as is carried out at home, but it was a very big job getting and making the ways out here with very poor tools, etc. We had to go to the forest and cut down no less than 42 trees, giving us a total length of 380 feet, as the boat was built a long way back from the river on account of the great floods that often come sweeping down here in great force during the rainy season. She had a clear fun of 105 ft on her ways before the stern touched the water, that length of a run as you know is much longer than usual.
However that part of it is all over now and I am very thankful it is a very great load off my mind to know she is safely afloat on the water.
Though the boat is launched there is still a great amount of work to do at her yet, but I cannot give you any opinion in regard to the time she will be finished, as I don’t know how long it may be yet before I get the fittings. I still want all the cabin combing plates yet, also 2 bulkhead plates and boiler seat plate, then I have got nothing of the boiler here yet but the smoke box and 2 pieces of the funnel.
I have written to the African Lakes Co. about the boiler and engine time after time but as yet my writing has had very little effect. However I have just received a note from one of the Company’s Agents informing me that he was about to try and form a very large Caravan to bring up our boiler fittings etc. from the North end of Lake Nyassa, if he succeeds in getting the men he says he expects to be at Tanganyika by the later end of April or early in May, that itself is very good news, but we shall be at a complete stand long before that time. My patience has been very much tried on account of these long weary waits from time to time. I can enjoy a good week’s holiday at home, but it is not so here with me, for as soon as I am idle for a few days here I get laid down with fever. I think the very best medicine a white man can have for the good of his health in Central Africa is a moderate amount of work to do every day, this has at least been my experience since I came here.
I hope you received my last letter dated January 1885, with the list of boiler fittings I want replaced and sent out as soon as possible, I believe there are more boiler fittings awanting yet but I cannot find out what they are till the boxes arrive here. I know for certain that there is a box lost that contained 60 boiler tubes, but as there is a complete spare set I have never re-ordered them yet.
Now for fear my last letter to you of January 1885 may not have arrived your length, I shall here below repeat the list of lost fittings that I want replaced and sent out here as soon as possible.
2 test cocks.
1 5/8 water gauge cock for the bottom end of glass.
1 ½ steam jet and
12 fire or flue box screws or stays
1 spring for safety valve
I hope nothing else belonging to the boiler may be amissing, so that if the boiler plates etc. arrive here in April, I may be able to get it finished right off and put under steam.
I may here say that Capt Hore has not up till the present time seen much of the “Good News” yet, as he left here just 9 months ago to go and meet his Wife and child at Qillimani [Quelimane] and it happened rather unfortunately for him that the late native war down on the lower Shire river was going on and the river was blocked up for all traffic. However after some delay he got to Quillimane to meet his wife there, but on account of the native war he decided not to come via Nyassa with his Wife so he took steamer for Zanzibar and came up the Old Route, they arrived at Tanganyika on the 7th of January but he has never got this length yet, as I believe he is busy building a house at the other end of the Lake for his Wife and family, as it is a much healthier place than this is. After he gets this finished he informs me he is coming down to see the “Good News”. At the time he left here she was only in frame and she is now lying at anchor out in the Lufo River.
I am sorry to inform you that I have not been in very good health for a long time and if it does not improve very soon I am afraid I must come home. However I sincerely trust that I may soon get stronger again if it is the Lord’s Will, for it will be very grievous to me if I have to part with the “Good News” before she is under steam and has had run round the Lake.
I have been down for over 4 weeks with a severe attack of jaundice and although I seemed to get over it all right, so far I don’t seem to have regained my usual strength since I have been up and moving about for nearly 3 weeks now, but I am so weakly yet that I can only work two or three hours per day, after which I have to turn in to my bed again, in other words, I have to lay in my bed the best half of the day, nearly every day. However I feel pretty well about the body and my appetite is fairly good. My weakness is all in my legs. I send with this Mail a letter to our Secretary in London.
Hoping this may find you and your family all in good health, and may God Bless and Guide you in all you do.
This fall I got to visit the London Missionary Society archives kept at SOAS in London! It was super cool. I had wanted to visit them for a long, long while, and if I was rich I would pay to have them all digitized, transcribed, and hosted online. I only was able to spend a morning in the archives but I thoroughly enjoyed it. The process of accessing the archives was super simple and everyone was really friendly, but since it was only a morning worth of looking I could only look at so much. I will write more about my visit to London (don’t you worry about that) and what else I could find in the archive, but one priority was pictures. I’ve seen a variety of LMS-related pictures in lots of places but I figured the archives would have a pretty good selection. Below is what I found, all photographed hastily on my phone camera as I tried to look through as many scraps of the archive as possible.
Good News
The first chunk of photographs I looked at were of the S.S. Good News, which of course you know is my particular obsession.
The above photograph is of the Good News in drydock following some damage, with the Morning Star alongside it. This was not a new photo for me but neat to see it in the flesh.
The above photo and the next two were new to me, and it seems like they might have been from the same photo session. If they are, then the above photo must have been taken by Alexander Carson, because the caption on the back says that is A.J. Swann in the photo. I think this is corroborated by the hat.
Here’s what I mean by the hat; the caption on this photo identifies that as A.J. Swann on the deck of the Good News; his mate is unnamed.
And then above is Alexander Carson, which is why I think the first of these three photos was taken by him. At first I had actually thought this was another picture of Swann given the similar outfits and beards. I guess this is why they had different hats.
These two photos, one of the hull of the Good news and the other of a young man, were pasted onto a piece of paper. The only context was given by a short letter, originally typed on a different piece of paper but cut out and pasted onto the same paper as the photos. I’ve seen this exact photo of the Good News before, as in someone else took a photo of this same document out of the archives (I can tell from the larger crop of that photo). The letter reads:
Dear Mr. Chamberlain,
Yours of yesterday to hand. Considering the fact that the photo was taken at Kituta, and that the only steamer there was the “Good News” you will be safe I think to conclude it is the hull of that vessel. The “Morning Star” & the “Good News” were both damaged by the Huns but the latter was not completely destroyed. It is the properly of the A.L.C. [African Lakes Corporation].
If Rev Wright took the photo, that dates it to between 1915 (when he left the Mission) and the start of WWI (when the Germans shelled any other potentially workable steamer on Lake Tanganyika to ensure their naval superiority). However, it doesn’t give a lot of clues to the identity of the man.
Portraits
The next section is portraits. The first two are particularly cool because I’ve seen them before, but as engravings instead of as pictures.
The caption for the above photo, from the January 1884 edition of the Chronicle (where it was included as an engraving) was: “The group of figures in the above engraving from a photograph will be recognized by many of the Society’s friends. From left to right the names are as follow: – Rev. D.P. Jones, behind him Captain Hore, Mr. A. Brooks, the late Rev. J.H. Dineen, the late Rev. J. Penry, and Mr. A.J. Swann. The trucks in the background contain the larger sections of the life-boat.” That life-boat was the Morning Star.
There were a few different copies of this photo in the archives, of James Dunn, A.J. Swann, and Arthur Brooks. It was taken in 1882 before they set out, apparently at the studios of Brown, Barnes & Bell. They’re posing with the tools of their trade(s), as they all were artisan missionaries. Dunn (with a saw) and Brooks (with a pickaxe) were slated to form an industrial station at the south end of Lake Tanganyika, and Swann (holding a sextant) of course joined the marine department. This copy of the photo has been updated with their eventual fates, with Dunn having died of fever in 1884 and Brooks killed as he was returning to the coast on his way home to England in 1889.
I can’t quite make out the names listed on the back of this photo; they were written in pencil and were a bit faded and I took a poor picture. The couple in the middle are Mr. and Mrs. James Hemans (also here).
This one is also a bit mysterious, I think the caption identifies the seated missionary as Rev. W.C. Willoughby, and it doesn’t name the missionary in the back (Swann maybe?), nor does it name any of the people with them (except as “natives”).
Now this is pretty neat because this is Mirambo. You can find this photo in a few different spots already on the internet (like his German Wikipedia page) or the cover of the book on Mirambo by Dr. Bennett, but hey here is a slightly wider shot even if I could have done a better job reducing glare. Someday I’ll go back to the archive and digitize these things with more skill.
Lifestyle
And then finally we have two photos that just show some of the lifestyle in and around the mission stations at the turn of the century. The above photo is just labelled “Swann’s tent.”
And then our final photo is only really notable to me because a nearly identical version is online in the USC archives, they must have been taken one right after the other. It was taken at Kambole, and according to the USC page it was more specifically taken by Rev. James Ross circa 1925, featuring a tip cart made at Kambole in front of a wheat field.
So pretty neat. The trip to the archives was fun and I will milk it for several more posts as I figure out all I was able to take a look at; I took a bunch of pictures of documents without having a chance to really read them in the moment but I will work my way through them. I’ve already learned a few significant details and will have to update my transcription of the Chronicle with more photos and biographic details when I get the chance.
Pat in the World 
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