Geoffrey Basil Spicer Simson

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Geoffrey Basil Spicer Simson

Geoffrey Basil Spicer Simson DSO (born January 15, 1876 in Hobart , Tasmania , † January 29, 1947 in Courtenay (British Columbia) , Canada ) was a member of the Royal Navy .

Before the Tanganyika mission

Geoffrey Basil Spicer Simson was one of several children of Frederick Simson and Dora, nee Spicer. Frederick Simson had served in the Navy, then lived as a trader in India and met his wife in Le Havre . In 1874 the Spicer Simsons moved to Tasmania to farm sheep. Five years later they returned to France. The children attended schools in England. The eldest son, Theodore , became an artist, the youngest, Noel, embarked on a military career.

Geoffrey Basil Spicer Simson began his naval career at the age of fourteen: in 1890 he began his service on the training ship HMS Britannia . He later served on ships in the Mediterranean and the Pacific . In 1901 he was a member of the North Borneo Boundary Commission, between 1905 and 1908 he was involved in the first hydrographic survey of the Yangtze and from 1911 to 1914 he was engaged in exploring the Gambia River . However, his boastful manner and the habit of showing off his body tattooed with snakes and butterflies made little friends. He also made serious mistakes at times. In 1905 he almost sank a submarine, another time he put his ship aground. A person died in a ship collision caused by Spicer Simson. So there was only hesitant progress in his career. On February 19, 1896, he was confirmed in his rank as sub-lieutenant in the royal fleet.

In 1912 he married Amy Elizabeth Baynes-Reed, who came from British Columbia and accompanied him to Gambia. In 1914, when the First World War broke out, he was stationed in Ramsgate . The HMS Niger , a ship for which he was jointly responsible as flotilla commander, was sunk by a German submarine before his eyes. At the time of the torpedo, Spicer Simson was in a hotel with women. After the sinking of the Niger , he was kept busy with office work.

The Kingani on Lake Tanganyika

But in 1915 the tide turned. With effect from December 26, 1915, he was promoted from Lieutenant-Commander to Commander. This was probably due to the battle of Lukuga , in which the German customs cruiser Kingani was captured. Spicer Simson had created the prerequisites for this: at the age of 38, he was the longest serving lieutenant in the Royal Navy when he received an unusual assignment. The German ships on Lake Tanganyika should be fought. On April 21, 1915, a man named John Lee had reported to the Commander in Chief of the Fleet, Sir Henry Jackson , and suggested that Lake Tanganyika be brought under British rule. At this time, German East Africa was defended against Great Britain and Belgium by German protection forces and Askaris under Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck . At the end of 1914 they had repulsed a British advance at Tanga .

The German fleet on Lake Tanganyika at that time consisted of the customs cruiser Kingani and the former mail steamer Hedwig von Wissmann . There were also a few smaller boats, such as the Peter , which had previously belonged to the Society for the Control of Sleeping Sickness . Lee's plan was to put these German ships out of action, giving the British and Belgian troops the opportunity to push the Germans back. To do this, British boats had to be brought to Lake Tanganyika. Geoffrey Basil Spicer Simson received this order.

Spicer Samson's mission to Africa in the First World War

Approximate route of transportation from Mimi and Toutou to Lake Tanganyika (July – October 1915).

The steamer Hedwig von Wissmann was transported from the German Empire to Africa in a disassembled state and assembled at its intended location. Spicer Simson, who had been traveling mainly on the Gambia River in Africa, was supposed to imitate this unusual method of transporting ships and bring two speedboats by land over the Mitumba chain to Lake Tanganyika. The two boats, about 12 or 13 meters long, named Mimi and Toutou - the English names Dog and Cat had been rejected - were equipped in the United Kingdom, then shipped to Cape Town at Llanstephan Castle and transported on to Elisabethville by train and boats . From there, Spicer Simson was to take them by land to Albertville , about 160 miles away . He had porters, oxen and two steam-powered tractors at his disposal. He reported on the adverse conditions of the company in 1917 in the London Gazette and described it as sheer madness to have the boats transported in this way. Nevertheless, the company was successful: At the end of June 1915, the two boats arrived in Cape Town. This was followed by a 3700 kilometer train ride to Elisabethville, then about 240 kilometers on a road prepared by John Lee with a difference in altitude of 1,200 meters, another train ride , a transport on the Lualaba and finally a trip to the port of Lukuga, which is in Belgian Hand was. On December 23, the boats were put into use on Lake Tanganyika and three days later they were involved in the raising of the Kingani .

The Kingani was the first German ship to be captured by the British in World War I. She was attacked and shot at by the Mimi , killing the captain and two gunners. The sinking ship was towed into port by the British, repaired and put back into service as Fifi . The British also took over the German mascot, a goat disguised as a supply of provisions, and dressed it in an English uniform. A little later, in February 1916, Hedwig von Wissmann was shot at and sunk.

The former Goetzen

Soon afterwards, the British were confronted with a much larger German ship, the Goetzen , which had also reached Africa in a dismantled state. John Lee probably knew about this German shipbuilding and transport operation, but kept it quiet during his visit to London. The Goetzen was superior to Spicer Samson's two speedboats. But on July 26, 1916, the Germans sank this ship so as not to let it fall into the hands of the enemy, who had meanwhile advanced on land. Later the Goetzen was lifted by the Belgians, sank again in 1920, was lifted again and made operational again. It is still used today as a Liemba on Lake Tanganyika.

Spicer Simson had refused an attack on the Goetzen because he believed that he could not do anything against this ship with Mimi , Toutou and Fifi . He could not have known that its largest gun on board had already been dismantled and replaced by a dummy made of palm wood by the time the British sighted it. After the sinking of Hedwig von Wissmann , Spicer Simson fell into lethargy , perhaps, as Giles Foden speculates, because he had received news of the death of his younger brother Noel, who had fallen in France in September 1915.

The Mimi and the Toutou had to be made afloat again after the fight against the Hedwig von Wissmann . Then they were to be used together with the Fifi on June 5, 1916 in the storming of Bismarckburg . But Spicer Simson only had two shots fired at this fortress and then led his ships out of the fighting area to Kituta , which later led to a violent clash with Colonel Murray, who felt abandoned by Spicer Simson. A little later, he refused to help the Belgian troops with his ships. On August 23, 1916, his expedition doctor Hother McCormack Hanschell certified him incapacitated due to mental disorder and Spicer Simson returned to London. There he claimed to have suffered from malaria , dysentery and other illnesses and resumed his old desk post. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Order, but also received a reprimand for his behavior towards the Belgian troops. Nevertheless, he was also recognized by Belgium. He received the war cross and was commander of the Order of the Crown .

After the First World War

Geoffrey Basil Spicer Simson was immortalized by natives on Lake Tanganyika in stone and clay statues. Because he liked to appear in Africa in the skirt that his wife had sewn for him, he was called the belly-cloth god. After the First World War, he worked as a translator at the Versailles peace negotiations in 1919 , in 1922 he was involved in a report for National Geographic about Mimi and Toutou , and later he dealt with hydrographic work. Although he had returned from Africa sick with the tropics, he reached old age. He spent his twilight years in British Columbia.

An album with pictures and notes from the Gambia expeditions in 1911 and 1912 has been preserved and is in the possession of the Library of the University of Cambridge . A fetish figure that appears to be Geoffrey Basil Spicer Simson is in the National Museum of Dar es Salaam . She wears a skirt, is apparently tattooed and equipped with binoculars. The speedboats Mimi and Toutou are thought to be lost, the Fifi was sunk after the First World War.

The sinking of the Kingani inspired CS Forester to write his novel The African Queen in 1935 , which was made into a film by John Huston as the African Queen in 1951 . Giles Foden wrote The True Story of the African Queen in 2004 , correcting inaccuracies in the Hollywood version. Another factual novel about sea battles on Lake Tanganyika is by Alex Capus and is entitled A Question of Time .

literature

  • Frank J. Magee: Transporting a navy through the jungles of Africa in war time , in: The National Geographic Magazine 1922, p. 331 (Magee participated in the transport of the two ships. All other reports in the English-language area are based on his report.)
  • Giles Foden: The true story of the African Queen (Original title: Mimi and Toutou go Forth. The Bizarre Battle for Lake Tanganyika, Joseph, London 2004, ISBN 978-0-718-14555-2 , translated by Karin Dufner), Fischer-TB 16837, Frankfurt am Main, 2006, ISBN 978-3-596-16837-8 .
  • Alex Capus: A question of time , Knaus, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-8135-0272-5 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documentsonline/details-result.asp?Edoc_Id=7892069
  2. ↑ http://www.warfare.it/documenti/spicer.html
  3. ↑ London Gazette . No. 26816, HMSO, London, January 20, 1897, p. 411 ( PDF , accessed January 19, 2011, English).
  4. ↑ London Gazette . No. 29427, HMSO, London, December 26, 1915, p. 181 ( PDF , accessed October 1, 2013, English).
  5. ↑ http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/10/books/chapters/0410-1st-foden.html?pagewanted=print
  6. ^ RK Lochner: Battle in the Rufiji Delta. Wilhelm Heyne Verlag, Munich 1987, p. 324.
  7. ^ London Gazette  (Supplement). No. 30182, HMSO, London, July 13, 1917, p. 7070 ( PDF , accessed October 1, 2013, English).
  8. ^ A delicate mission on Lake Tanganyika. In: sueddeutsche.de. November 2, 2010, accessed July 25, 2018 .
  9. ^ Giles Foden, The true story of the African Queen , Frankfurt am Main 2006, ISBN 978-3-596-16837-8 , pp. 249-257 and p. 292
  10. ↑ http://janus.lib.cam.ac.uk/db/node.xsp?id=EAD%2FGBR%2F0115%2FY30447D
  11. ↑ Clemens Höges: TANZANIA: The ship Africa . In: Der Spiegel . No. 16 , 2010, p. 126-130 ( online ).
personal data
SURNAME Spicer Simson, Geoffrey Basil
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Spicer-Simson, Geoffrey Basil
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British seaman and Africa explorer, hydrograph
DATE OF BIRTH January 15, 1876
PLACE OF BIRTH Hobart
DATE OF DEATH January 29, 1947
Place of death Courtenay (British Columbia) , Canada