DON’T MOVE ME Crossing fences requires safe gun-handling
Shotgun etiquette and African exploration
WANTING to relax before a very important meeting the following day at Bath, two cousins set out on the afternoon of the 15th of September 1864 for a bit of partridge shooting at Neston Park in Wiltshire, England. A gamekeeper, Daniel Davis, was with them, marking birds and picking up for them. They were walking about sixty metres apart, when one of the shooters placed his gun against a two foot high stone wall and proceeded to climb over. What happened then is rather sketchy; official reports are vague and at most unreliable. A shot went off that entered the man’s chest just below the armpit, shattered his lungs and severed the arteries around his heart. He was still lucid when his two companions reached him. “Don’t move me,” were his last words. Within 15 minutes he was dead.
The man was 37-year-old John Hanning Speke, the famous explorer – the first white man ever to set eyes on Lake Victoria and who claimed to be the discoverer of the source of the Nile.
The middle of the 19th century was an epoch-making era as far as the exploration of Africa was concerned. The Dark Continent with its riches and wonders fascinated England and Europe. Before his death, the missionary-explorer David Livingstone, exposed the horrors of the slave trade, still widespread during his travels, and called for the investment of Commerce, Christianity and Civilisation in Africa to redeem the conscience of the civilised world.
Stanley, Burton, Speke, Grant, Baker and many others followed in an explorative explosion unequalled in the history of the continent. This heroic period of exploration was followed by what is now known as the ‘Scramble for Africa’. Unfortunately a fourth ‘C’ took over from Livingstone’s philanthropic ideas; a Conquest to grab as much land as possible became the driving force. By 1902, five European powers had grabbed almost the whole continent.
In 1854 the Royal Geographical Society despatched an expedition to ascertain the truth about the greatest debates
of the time; the existence and exact whereabouts of the great lakes of Africa, and the source of the Nile. Western civilization of that time did not recognise the world as knowing about something unless it had been ‘discovered’ by a European. Indigenous African tribes and Arab slave traders knew about the lakes but that was not good enough, knowledge had to become public through western society.
In those days the Royal Geographic Society was the British spill around which exploration revolved. Richard Burton, a colonel in the English Army was selected for the job. He was a scholar and linguistic genius capable of speaking some forty languages. Born in 1821 he was 33 years old when he was called on to lead the expedition. With the physical demands of tropical exploration it was of paramount importance that explorers should be strong and healthy, in both body and mind. If he had one drawback it was perhaps that he was not always prudent and had a habit of speaking his mind.
Burton chose John Hanning Speke, a lieutenant in the East Indian Company, as his companion and second in command for the trip. A quiet and inconspicuous man, Speke had a will of his own and was said to be difficult to manage.
In 1857 the party finally set off from Zanzibar and Mombasa, moving west, and found Lake Tanganyika – known by the Africans as the Sea of Ujiji. On their way back, Burton was very sick and needed to rest so the men parted ways at the settlement of Kaze. Speke moved north and ‘discovered’ Lake Ukerewe on the 30th of July 1858. He named it Lake Victoria, after Queen Victoria, then the reigning queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
As Speke had only speculated that the source of the Nile was Lake Victoria and the issue was therefore not yet settled, he launched a second expedition in 1860 with Lieutenant-colonel James Grant as his companion. (Grant’s gazelle was later named after him.) The party finally reached the Nile on the 19th of July 1962, and promptly proceed up its left bank towards Lake Victoria. Nine days later, on the 28th of July they reached a set of rapids emanating from the lake below the Napoleon Channel. They named it Ripon Falls, after George Robinson, 1st Marquess of Ripon and President of the Royal Geographical Society. (Interestingly, as far as I can ascertain, he was also the father of the famous Lord Ripon, 2nd Marquess of Ripon, and arguably the best shot the world has ever known.)
From Ripon Falls they set off northwards along the Nile to complete their journey and gather all proof that they were actually on the Nile. By then they were so long absent from civilisation that several relief expeditions were on their way to find and rescue them.
On the 15th of February 1863, they spotted the masts of Nile boats at Gondokoro, which was then the last outpost of civilization on the Nile. Their journey was complete. Or was it? They set out to find the source of the Nile and claimed it to be from the northern end of Lake Victoria. It was the Nile yes, but is it technically the source? It is remarkable that still this debate continues. Lake Victoria has to get its water from somewhere and is largely surrounded by mountains with run-off water spilling into it from all around. The largest or longest tributary of the lake is the Kagera River. The Kagera and its tributary the Ruvubu with its headwaters in Burundi is therefore now generally considered the true source of the Nile.
Being outdone by Speke was a bitter pill for Burton to swallow and he was not asked to command an expedition again. He never forgave Speke and openly disagreed with his claimed discovery of the source of the Nile.
Based on these adventures I cannot believe that Speke was an inexperienced or incompetent gun handler. Walking halfway across Africa you must rely on guns for your survival, for self-protection against animals or hostile tribes, and to obtain food for the expedition. Those parties often consisted of hundreds of porters who all needed to be fed.
The Times reported the incident as follows: “Speke was seen to climb onto a stone wall about two feet high, for the moment he was without his gun. A few seconds later there was a report and when George Fuller (his cousin and shooting companion) rushed up Speke’s gun was found behind the wall in the field into which Speke had jumped. The right barrel was at half cock: only the left barrel was discharged. Speke who was bleeding seriously, was sensible for a few minutes and feebly said “Don’t move me.” George Fuller went for assistance leaving Davis to attend him; but Speke survived for only about 15 minutes, and when the surgeon of Box arrived he was already dead. There was a single wound in his left side such as would be made by a cartridge if the muzzle of the gun – a Lancaster breachloader without a safety guard – was close to the body; the charge had passed upward through the lungs dividing all the large blood vessels over the heart, though missing the heart itself.”
There are many and varied reports of what actually happened. For one, the 11th edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica reports that, “In getting over a low stone wall he laid his gun at half cock. Drawing the weapon towards him by the muzzle, one barrel exploded and entered his chest.”
Ihave several questions about these reports. A gun without a ‘safety guard’ is the first one. I think the reporter got his facts wrong (like so many reporters still do today). Without doubt, Charles Lancaster made some of the finest guns, most of them ‘best’ guns, built in London’s gun quarter of Mayfair and Park Lane. They are still being used in the field today and all of them have trigger guards. Perhaps the reporter wanted to protect their national hero-explorer
Speke’s reputation by blaming the accident on a faulty gun?
Secondly, why would a person of Speke’s experience draw his gun towards himself by the muzzle? Perhaps he had too much faith in the half cock safety principle of hammer guns? Nobody actually saw him pulling the gun by the muzzle. It is probably just another reporter’s imagination.
Be that as it may, it should serve as a great warning to us about the dangers of climbing through or over fences. I have personally been involved in a similar near mishap, fortunately without lethal consequences. It’s blood curdling. When climbing over or through a fence it is advocated to open and unload the gun and place it safely on the ground. If in company you can break and unload the gun before passing it to your mate for holding before you climb through and take it from the other side. It may sound like a schlep, but in fact takes merely a few seconds and you soon get used to the practice.
We were shooting Cape Francolin and had with us a young and inexperienced shooter hand-ling a borrowed old hammer gun. None of us had thought to give him a talk about how to climb over a fence. It was near the end of the shoot when the accident happened. Four of us were standing together when the youngster proceed to climb over a fence, gun closed and fully loaded. The top strand of barbed wire gave way and he fell over, landing with a massive thump on his back. His only concern was for the borrowed gun, holding it clear off the ground, but it ended up pointing right at the guts of the fellow next to me. I went cold. I gave the youngster a severe scolding, but it was actually too late. It was my fault. As the most experienced gun in the group, I should have taught him how to cross a fence safely, and I was not observant enough to see what he was doing. Fortunately no shot went off.
One can never be too careful. Gun safety is paramount. One accident is too many.
Speke never had the chance to defend his discoveries, or his honour. Speculation at the time was that Speke had committed suicide but of course no one really knew for certain what had happened.
Speke was buried in the tiny village of Dowlish Wake, 45 miles from Bath. Present at the burial were his travelling partner Grant, Dr David Livingstone, who only arrived home two months before, and Sir Roderick Murchison. On Speke’s memorial, which is an austere red-granite obelisk in Kensington Gardens, is the simple inscription “IN MEMORY OF SPEKE VICTORIA NYANZA AND THE NILE 1864”.