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The Alabama Factor in South African History
Damian O'Connor


Joined: 16 Apr 2006
Posts: 76
Location: Essex, UK
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Just to let you all know that my article "Imperial Strategy and the Anglo-Zulu War of 1879" is available in The Historian Vol.68 No.2 Summer 2006 ISSN 0018-2370. Bartle Frere is alive and well and living in Academia! It might go some way to explaining why there is a restaurant in Cape Town V&A called "The Alabama", why South Africans have a folk tune called "Here Comes the Alabama" and why the defences of Simonstown and Hout Bay were built by the Victorians. It might also give another cast on the cuases of the Anglo-Zulu War. Hope this doesn't sound like a trumpet being blown.
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Sean Sweeney


Joined: 31 Aug 2005
Posts: 185
Location: Auckland, New Zealand
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Tell us more, Damian. I don't have access to The Historian.

Other than the 'Southern Raider', Alabama's visit to the Cape in 1863,

I've seen reference to the Coastal Cutter, 'Alabama', plying St Helena Bay/Berg River/Cape Town, being the source of the ballad 'Daar kom die Alabama', in the Cape Malay communities.
It carried the 'dekriet' (thatch) used amongst others, for the Malay brides' beds.
Hence the gist of the body of the ballad.


ENGLISH translation

There comes the Alabama,
The Alabama comes over the sea,

Girl, girl, the reed bed is made,
The reed bed is made,
The reed bed is made
For me to sleep on.


(No doubt the grooms were anxious to get the beds made in time for the festivities)

as one would !

cheers,

Sean
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Rich
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....and you know supposedly Capt Raphael Semmes and his boys got the Cape started off on that carnival down there...not bad for a Maryland fellow to get around like he did going over the waves!..

also, Semmes and his Alabama got the US and Britain in a big row since the Alabama (a Confederate ship) was outfitted in Brit ports in violation of international neutrality principles.....

Damien...I'll be looking for your article....
Damian O'Connor


Joined: 16 Apr 2006
Posts: 76
Location: Essex, UK
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The Alabama sparked off more than a diplomatic row - it sparked off a series of investigations into the defenceles state of imperial ports which eventually resulted in the Carnarvon Commission...and Bartle Frere was right in there after his experiences in Bombay with a certain CSS Shenandoah. The idea that I'm floating is that Frere was sent out to defend the Cape against Russian privateers thought to be let loose by the impending Balkan war as his primary mission, carry out Confederation as secondary...and the Zulu war was not on his list of priorities at all until Mehlokazulu did his stuff. The Alabama is over the archives like a rash - and the first foreigner to address the British defence Think Tank, The Royal United Services Institute, was a Confederate naval Officer.
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Sean Sweeney


Joined: 31 Aug 2005
Posts: 185
Location: Auckland, New Zealand
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New Zealand had it's Naval shore defences upgraded with the first 'Russian Scare' in the 1870's and again later in the 1880's.

No doubt also partly due to your 'Confederate Conspiracy'.

cheers,

Sean
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Damian O'Connor


Joined: 16 Apr 2006
Posts: 76
Location: Essex, UK
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Sean,
You are absolutely correct. perhaps you know of the Russian plans to circumnavigate Australia, robbing baks, burning coal stocks and sinking shipping as they went?
Damian
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Rich
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Damian...as to the Russians at the Cape, do you know if there were Russian plans to actually invade? I'd suggest that, geographically, they'd have hell of a time supporting themselves there wouldn't you think? I could see though that they'd do like Semmes did, i.e raid a target and then go on to the next. But then they'd have the RN to deal with which would be no pushover.
Paul Bryant-Quinn
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Further to Rich's point, Damian, I'm most interested in what you have argued in your biography of Frere regarding this, and would like to know what specific documentary evidence you may have uncovered in either British or Russian sources to suggest that Russia actively contemplated an assault on the Cape. There is, of course, no question that Russian intentions were very much a matter of concern and speculation even after Berlin: but why the Cape rather than Suez? How did Russia propose dealing with the logistical problem to which Rich refers? Or did the fear of such an eventuality not in fact loom larger in Frere's mind than its possibility justified? Further, even with a quiescent ZAR and successful conclusion to a Zulu war behind him, did Frere actually imagine that the minimal military resources available to him at the Cape would be sufficient to mount more than a token resistance to a determined incursion? How did he propose to counter it?


Last edited by Paul Bryant-Quinn on Thu Feb 01, 2007 12:59 am; edited 1 time in total
Keith Smith


Joined: 30 Aug 2005
Posts: 540
Location: Northern NSW, Australia
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Damian

I refer to your statement above: 'The idea that I'm floating is that Frere was sent out to defend the Cape against Russian privateers thought to be let loose by the impending Balkan war as his primary mission, carry out Confederation as secondary...and the Zulu war was not on his list of priorities at all until Mehlokazulu did his stuff.'

I must take issue with such a sweeping statement because there is no evidence, of which I am aware. to support it. On the contrary, I have primary evidence that (a) Frere's primary task was that of confederation; (b) that a conflict with the Zulu over their treatment of farmers in the Disputed Territory was presaged as early as 1876; (c) that Frere actively planned his Zulu War as early as June 1878. Mehlokazulu and the Smith/Deighton affairs were minor incidents blown up by Frere to add to his ulimatum.

Quote:'I hope your harbours and stores in Cape Town are to some extent protected; at least sufficiently so to defeat the only kind of attack likely to be made on them, i.e. by a stray privateer or cruiser', (Hicks Beach to Frere, 4 April 1878, my italics). I might add that at this time, Frere was also very much involved in the Ninth Border War. No, I rather think that your Russian involvement was very much a side issue as far as Frere, and London, were concerned. Or perhaps you can supply me with evidence to the contrary?

KIS
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Sean Sweeney


Joined: 31 Aug 2005
Posts: 185
Location: Auckland, New Zealand
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Damian,

No I hadn't heard of their Australian plan.

I'd have thought that the Ned Kelly and his fellow Aussie bank robbers and 'Bushwackers' would have given them some competition, though !

It was the national sport around then.
My guess is they would have lost the ashes as well !

cheers,

Sean
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Damian O'Connor


Joined: 16 Apr 2006
Posts: 76
Location: Essex, UK
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There are a lot of good points here (sorry about the sweeping statement - I should have known better!). Firstly, on the general problem of privateering; there is extensive reference on the threat to the ports and trade routes of empire to be found in the National Archives in Kew in the Cabinet Office papers, in the Colonial Defence Committee papers, the Carnarvon papers, the Admiralty papers and in the Foriegn Office papers for 1876-78. This is further backed up by numerous contemporary writers who published in the Journal of the Royal United Services Institute of who JCR Colomb is probably the most famous. In the academic literature there is Strakhovsky's "Russian Privateering Projects in 1878".

Secondly, and this is something that I have worked on since my biography of Frere was published, is that Frere was deeply involved in imperial defence discussions while on the India Council in London -he was head of the Political and Secret Committee for ten years, a fact left out by Martineau for reasons of discretion no doubt. He wrote Lytton's plan for the defence of India and wrote two large articles on imperial strategy during the Balkan crisis. Confederation was certainly on the menu, but for Frere, Russia was always in his mind. His drafts for the defence of the Cape are in the British Library. The quote by Hicks-Beach is a good one, but H-B was completely out of step with the military and naval experts here and actually paid tribute to Frere's preparations on 17 June 1878.

Thirdly, I'm not buying any colonial office conspiracy theories...but I've probably gone on too long already!
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Re: The Alabama Factor in South African History
Chris


Joined: 01 Feb 2007
Posts: 180
Location: S.A.
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Damian O'Connor wrote:
Just to let you all know that my article "Imperial Strategy and the Anglo-Zulu War of 1879" is available in The Historian Vol.68 No.2 Summer 2006 ISSN 0018-2370. Bartle Frere is alive and well and living in Academia! It might go some way to explaining why there is a restaurant in Cape Town V&A called "The Alabama", why South Africans have a folk tune called "Here Comes the Alabama" and why the defences of Simonstown and Hout Bay were built by the Victorians. It might also give another cast on the cuases of the Anglo-Zulu War. Hope this doesn't sound like a trumpet being blown.


Hi Damien ,

I attended a very interesting talk given at the SA Military History Society by the authors of the book "A Warriors Gateway" --Durban and the Anglo-Boer War. It should be up on the SA Mil website somewhere.

During the talk mention was made of very similar material -- Russian Navy and the fear of the British of their interference in Southern Africa / Indian Ocean somehow. Please forgive me if this information is scanty. I must confess that a lot of the talk went over my head -- not having enough background knowledge. But you should be able to pick up the contacts from the article on the SA Mil site ( if it has made it online )

I do know that some of the ships of the Russian Navy called in at Cape Town on their way to disaster during the Russo-Japanese War.
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Damian O'Connor


Joined: 16 Apr 2006
Posts: 76
Location: Essex, UK
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Hi Chris,
You are absolutely right. The Russian fleet was maintaining a presence in the southern Indian ocean from around 1882 and the Baltic Fleet did pass Natal in 1904-5 but it was denied facilities by the British. This did not prevent several colliers illegally flogging coal to the Russians at sea anyway. In 1879 the USA sent the USS Ticonderoga around the South African ports to survey them for raids too in any potential re-run of the war of 1812. My favourite reference in the archives is to fears of a secret naval base being set up by the Russians to service cruisers and commerce raiders in 1877-8.
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Alabama and Russians
Chris


Joined: 01 Feb 2007
Posts: 180
Location: S.A.
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Damian O'Connor wrote:
Hi Chris,
You are absolutely right. The Russian fleet was maintaining a presence in the southern Indian ocean from around 1882 and the Baltic Fleet did pass Natal in 1904-5 but it was denied facilities by the British. This did not prevent several colliers illegally flogging coal to the Russians at sea anyway. In 1879 the USA sent the USS Ticonderoga around the South African ports to survey them for raids too in any potential re-run of the war of 1812. My favourite reference in the archives is to fears of a secret naval base being set up by the Russians to service cruisers and commerce raiders in 1877-8.


Sort of like Nacala Mozambique.? But then the Brits leased off the Chagos archipelago to the Americans ( Diego-Garcia ) Very Happy
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Damian O'Connor


Joined: 16 Apr 2006
Posts: 76
Location: Essex, UK
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Dear Chris,
Chagos - Diego Garcia- was the point at which the main trade route from India to the Cape bisected the main route from Australia to Suez. I don't know about Ncala. Love to learn though.
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The Alabama Factor in South African History
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