SMS Konigsberg at Pangani, 1914
by Ian M arshall
In 1953, artist Ian Marshall was a passenger in an East African Airways DC-3 flying over Tanganyika when the pilot took the plane low over the desolate mangrove swamps of the Rufiji River delta to enable them to see the 1915 wreck of the German cruiser Konigsberg. The bruised and rusty shape of her hull was largely submerged in river mud but still visible at low tide. Years later, while on a family holiday further up the coast at Pangani, he learned that the German light cruiser had entered the mouth of the Pangani River in the weeks before the outbreak of war in August, 1914. "I was entranced by the place and did some sketching. I was keen do a painting, but I also wanted to try and place the subject in the larger context of history. What led to this ship's presence at that specific time?" Marshall sought to fit this ship into the technological evolution of naval architecture, the broad historical circumstances that brought her to East Africa, and to the events of the First World War. Outbreak of that war concluded a long peace, a period of impressive self-assurance in the West, and it arrested efforts that were confidently expected to lead to a more humane and civilized world. "The year is not so very remote-I knew some of those who lived in East Africa at the time and were most affected when it took place. A warship wrecked upstream in an African river might be just a tiny sliver of history, but recounting some of the circumstances might provide better insight to the larger scene." - Ian Marshall he Industrial Revolution had been spawned in the British Isles towards the end of the eighteenth century; it was the outcome of the exploitatio n of iron manufacturing capability and of coal-fired steam engineering. W ith the edge that this new technology provided, steamships secured the country's naval superiority and facilitated an entirely unp recedented and prolonged expansio n of wo rldwide trade. It was, perhaps, a chance circumstance, but it placed Western Euro pean culture in a dominant position for the next 200 years. Germany fo llowed the same path as Britain, and, by the end of the nineteenth century, was eager to join in what was seen as the process of bringing progress overseas. Establishing law and order, coupled with faci litating the work of Christian missio ns and "opening up" backward lands to the benefi ts of economic development, we re regarded as the du ty of civilized nations. Wo rld trade was conveyed almost entirely by ships, and the whole international trading system was underwritten by the protectio n provided by national navies. Commercial engagements were en fo rced, pi racy was suppressed, and ultimately rrearies were implem ented only with this implied backin g. Major trading nations became aware of rheir need to be able to project naval power overseas. In the thi rd quarter of the nineteenth century, the French developed a process fo r m anufac ruring consisrenrly reliable steel. This enabled the use of steel fo r hull plating and scantlings, which were much lighter than those made of iron . Royal Navy
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builders soon adopted the use of Welshmade sreel for building a new class of warships; rhese we re the fi rs t to be offi cially designated as cruisers. The term "cruiser" used to be applied to any warship ass igned to independent service, such as scouring o r patrol, but the cruiser as a warship type seems to have been created in rhe first ,\ 30' E f
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