German East Africa

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Battles, Books and Bogart

July 28, 2022

At the end of 1915 up to July of 1916 there were several naval battles between the British and German navies on the waters of Lake Tanganyika. One rather eccentric British naval officer took two small gun boats from South Africa and carried them overland and through the jungle to reassemble them on Lake Tanganykia. The series of battles served as the basis of a book written by CS Forester

Forester wrote a number of novels about naval battles that later became movies. Several featured his most well known character, Horatio Hornblower. One of his lesser well known books, The Good Sheppard, became the movie Greyhound starring Tom Hanks.

But the subject of today’s entry was his novel, The African Queen.

The basis of the movie. First published in 1935.

In 1951, director John Houston decided to turn the book into a movie and film it on location. While scouting locations he came across the Steam Launch (S/L) Livingstone. He renamed it The African Queen and it was one of two boats used in the film. S/L Livingstone was built in 1912 and served with the British East Africa Railway. It was still active until the late 1960s. It eventually found its way to the US and remains afloat as a tourist attraction in Florida. You can read more about her here:

http://africanqueenflkeys.com/history.html