National Geographic: The Jungle Navy Page #3

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As for water,

Hanschell and a team of Africans

find the nearest water source.

Much of the water is for the steam

tractors.

The rest is filtered, boiled,

then filtered twice more and

used for tea, cooking

and the next day's water rations.

The steam engines are insatiable

consumers of water and firewood

- advance parties prepare

storage caches of lumber.

"The journey through the Bush was

divided up into three 50-mile stages,

and at the end of each stage was

built a depot

to keep the sun off the provisions

and ammunition."

The Englishmen, many of them

new to Africa,

fear lions and crocodiles,

but Doctor Hanschell's duty is

keeping the men healthy

in a region plagued by unseen

killers.

"One very valuable thing was the

paymaster.

He began to get some boils on his

shoulders,

and out of the boils popped worms,

big maggots rather.

The men all saw this, I showed it,

and I said, "Now see, here you are

going through a country

where the danger's from insects,

not from wild animals but insects.

You see what they can do."

From the spies, crude telegraph

lines convey fragments of news

to Kapitan Zimmer

- he believes that Spicer has

come to help the Belgians

build new warships at Lake

Tanganyika...

"Around Lukuga and south of

there by Kalemie

there seemed to be only

defensive building going on."

But, about Mimi and Toutou

, Zimmer knows nothing.

While the confident Germans wait,

the English plod on... one

agonizing mile at a time.

"Three and a quarter miles a day

was the average for the boats.

Occasionally we did rather more,

and on one occasion we covered

but there were many days

when we were lucky if we did a

mile and a half.

One day, we did only three-quarters of a mile."

By late August, Spicer knows he needs help

if he is to outrun the rains.

At a village called Mwenda Makosi,

the British commandeer 42 oxen

to help

drag the boats up the Mitumba Range.

When the rains begin,

they will turn the plains into a

quagmire

too shallow for ships, too muddy

for wheels.

Until then, heat is the deadliest

enemy

- the thirst for water is

unquenchable

- water for the engines... water

for the oxen...

a few cupfuls a day for the

men.

Then, in early September... a

sudden storm of fire.

Spicer has his men create a fire

break.

He then orders that the precious

mahogany boats

must be protected from flying embers.

For Doctor Hanshell, it is a day of

sheer terror.

"...we nearly lost the whole thing

by fire...

Here was this war train bearing

down on us at a terrific rate.

We'd burnt off, we set fire to it,

only just in time, just in time,

we moved the guns, the wagons

and everything onto the burnt place,

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