TOPIC:

Thanks in advance for any help. I am trying to visualize the following experience of an Imperial Yeoman. He writes "We were swung off the Kronprinz in baskets on to a lighter in Durban harbour .... and landed at the Customs House...

Here's a start...

Thank you very much for that. It helps a lot.

The reference to the Kronprinz is odd, as, for obvious reasons, no German ships were involved in the transportation of British troops to South Africa. The German East Africa Line ship did, however, sail to Durban, and was there in August 1900, on her way to Lourenço Marques where she embarked a number of Boers to take them to Europe.

Tpr Richard de Rupe Roche, 50th IY (NAM 2004-12-10) contracted dysentery in July 1900 while in Marandellas and then made his way to Beira. He writes in August that he and other invalids from the 50th and other units were going to sail on the "Crown Prince." After a 24 hour stop in Delagoa Bay, they headed to Durban. His succeeding letters refer to the Kronprinz rather than the Crown Prince.

22.8.00
"... We are being treated on board exactly as second class passengers, the whole of the second class accommodation being reserved for us. As this is one of the newest and best ships on a most luxurious line of steamers you can imagine that we are enjoying ourselves pretty well. There is a library on board with eighteen English books in it of which I have managed to secure “Three Men on the Bummel”* by Jerome H. Jerome and a novel by John Strange Winter. I have also read a book which I think would interest you very much namely “Adventures in Mashonaland by Two Hospital Nurses” by Rose Blennerhassett and Lucy Sleeman and is published by Macmillan and Co in a series called “Macmillan’s Colonial Library”. ...

The meals we get on board are served partly in the German style. Wine is placed on the table at every meal including breakfast and tea and coffee is never brought until everything else is taken away. We can try sour cabbages and black bread and all sorts of sausages but also get plenty of most excellent English porridge roast beef, vegetables, and puddings. We are always given our meat which seems strange at first. We are not allowed to land at Lourenzo Marques but I do not think we miss much."

George Witton's book, found on this site, also refers to sailing on the Kronprinz out of Beira for Durban when he got sick near Umtati. Both men next sailed on thePersia for Cape Town.

*A sequel to the better known Three Men on a Boat.

Fascinating.

The use of the Kronprinz must have been unofficial as the Admiralty Return of 1903, listing all Transports and Freight Ships employed during the ABW makes no mention of the German ship. It is particularly noteworthy in that only a week after carrying British troops to Durban, the Kronprinz called in at Lourenço Marques to pick up a group of Boers (including members of the Volksraad) to help them flee to Europe. A display of true neutrality (though German sentiment was anything but neutral).

Neville