Mimi and Toutou go forth: the bizarre battle of Lake Tanganyika by Giles Foden

Author:Giles Foden
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Europe, World War I, Military History, European history, General, Battles & campaigns, 1914-1918, History: World, First World War, World history: First World War, Military, World War, Central Africa, History
ISBN: 9780141009841
Publisher: Penguin
Published: 2005-07-26T01:33:41.528000+00:00

TWELVE

Mimi and Toutou’s great journey was over. Now they had to prepare for battle. Spicer had his Vice-Admiral’s flag—white with a red circle in the corner—run up a pole in the centre of the camp. He ordered the men to smarten themselves up and parade, reminding them that they still had the most important part of their mission ahead of them—the sinking of the Hedwig von Wissmann—and they could not afford to let standards slip, as they had on their long journey here. He added that Mimi and Toutou would be kept hidden in the bushes back at the railway siding until a suitable safe harbour could be constructed for them. ‘This will be your next job,’ he said in conclusion, his eye wandering to Eastwood’s chimpanzee, which had hooked an arm round the ankle of one of the men in the front rank.

Finding and making a safe harbour proved to be Spicer’s first flashpoint with the Belgian senior army officer, Commandant Stinghlamber. This stiff-shirted individual had given Spicer what Byron Farwell describes as ‘a correct but unenthusiastic welcome’. There was an immediate tension over who was higher in rank. Strictly speaking, Spicer was a grade higher than Stinghlamber, as a Belgian army commandant is equivalent to a British army major, whereas a British navy commander is equivalent to a colonel. But the Belgians can be forgiven their confusion: quite apart from the folie de grandeur of the Vice-Admiral’s flag that now flew outside Spicer’s hut, the Englishman’s epaulettes had been wrongly sewn by Spicer’s African valet, Tom. As Shankland explains: ‘They were perhaps confused by the fact that Tom, unaware of the important difference between a pip and a crown, on transferring them to Spicer’s clean shirt had made him a Lieutenant on one shoulder and a double Major on the other.’

Stinghlamber had begun building a harbour in the mouth of the Lukuga next to the camp, but Spicer thought there was a better place a little further south. The Lukuga mouth, he maintained, was an unreliable place to float boats. As Stanley had discovered, the river could become blocked, stopping and starting as the rains prevailed. This hydrographer’s argument cut no ice with Stinghlamber. Spicer retaliated by saying that unless the Belgian concurred, he would take Mimi and Toutou to the British port of Kituta in Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia), 200 miles to the south. In the end, Stinghlamber capitulated, not wanting to lose the ‘two little cruisers automobile’ as he called them.

Despite this difference of opinion, within a week of their arrival Commandant Stinghlamber hosted a dinner for Spicer and Dr Hanschell at the Belgian mess hut. Joining Stinghlamber as host was Commandant Goor, an extremely tall, thin man in charge of the Belgian fleet on the lake, such as it was.

Flying ants flitted about the hurricane lamps hanging from the rafters as Spicer and the doctor were introduced to the other guests. Apart from officers of the Belgian army and navy, they included Monsieur Jadot, the

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