Beschreibung:

The Ron Penhall Collection The Great War D.S.M. group of four awarded to Chief Petty Officer W. Waterhouse, Royal Navy, a mainstay of that remarkable team of “Jack Tars” who transported two gunboats through 100 miles of African jungle to successfully challenge German superiority on Lake Taganyika in 1915-16 - and inspire C. S. Forester’s “The African Queen” Distinguished Service Medal, G.V.R. (180131 W. Waterhouse, Act. C.P.O., Taganyika Nl. Expn.); 1914-15 Star (180131 W. Waterhouse, P.O., R.N.); British War and Victory Medals (180131 W. Waterhouse, C.P.O., R.N.), good very fine and better (4) £8,000-10,000 Footnote D.S.M. London Gazette 11 April 1916: ‘For services in connection with the Taganyika Naval Expedition.’ In the summer of 1915, the key to success in Central Africa lay in the overwhelming German supremacy on Lake Tanganyika. Just how this was challenged by a force of two gunboats - the Mimi and Toutou - commanded by an eccentric Naval Officer with a talent for public relations is one of the most extraordinary stories of the whole War - indeed no single achievement during that conflict was distinguished by more bizarre features than the successfully executed undertaking of 28 daring men who transported a ‘ready-made’ Navy overland through the wilds of Africa to destroy this enemy flotilla in control of Lake Tanganyika. William Waterhouse was among the first chosen to join this famous expedition and, as an Acting Chief Petty Officer, commanded the ratings similarly employed. He was, in fact, involved in the early trials of the boats on the River Thames, the whole under the direction of Commander G. Spicer-Simson, R.N. - the man with the talent for public relations. The Phantom Flotiila takes up the story: ‘It was arranged that the main party should sail for Cape Town on 15 June in the Llanstephen Castle, and that the boats should proceed to Tilbury to be shipped on the 9th or 10th latest. But first Spicer-Simson, with some difficulty, obtained permission for H.M.S. Mimi to fire one round into Messrs. Thorneycroft’s old dock at Chiswick on the Thames. He sent for his Chief Gunlayer, Chief Petty Officer James Waterhouse to discuss the test. Waterhouse was an ideal C.P.O. - efficient, dignified, imperturbable. He never divulged, even by the flicker of an eyelid, what he thought of the outfit he found himself in. He was sworn to secrecy in Spicer-Simson’s office at the Admiralty, and then told the object and destination of the expedition. He wasn’t at all surprised because the retired Petty Officer doorman had asked him on his way in if he was one of the Taganyika Party for Africa. The test took place on 8 June. C.P.O. Waterhouse, aware that it was a test of his skill as well as of the gun and of Mimi’s stability, took careful aim and fired while the two boats were going at full speed up the river. The shell sped true to its mark, and at the same instant both gun and gunlayer shot overboard in the opposite direction because the brass locking ring had not been properly secured. Fortunately both were fished out again unharmed. The test was evidently considered a success, for on the following day the boats were taken down to Tilbury ... ’ To cover the three thousand miles or so that lay between Cape Town and the Lake, the boats had to be hauled by steam traction engines and ox trains over more than 100 miles of extremely wild and difficult country, where there were no roads or communications of any kind. The whole journey, by barely navigable rivers and narrow-guage railways, through country where sleep-sickness and other horrible diseases were rife, is one of the strangest passages in the history of the Royal Navy. By 23 December 1915, however, the Mimi and Toutou had been successfully launched on the Lake, and three days later they went into action. It was on Boxing Day, which also happened to be a Sunday, and during the usual church service Spicer-Simson received a message of the impending arrival of the German ship Kin