"On One of Donald Currie's Ships":

Networks of Celebrity, Imperial Power and

Steamship Travel to South Africa

Britta Anson

University of Washington, History Colloquium

January 28, 2014

“And indeed nothing is easier …than to evoke the

great spirit of the past upon the lower reaches of the

Thames…

… Hunters for gold or pursuers of fame…bearing the

sword, and often the torch…bearers of a spark from the

sacred fire. What greatness had not floated on the ebb of

that river into the mystery of an unknown earth! …

…The dreams of men, the seed of commonwealths, the

germs of empire.”

-- Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness

(1902)

Thames River, London

Union-Castle Liners in the East India Docks (1902)

“The Transvaal War—Sir Redvers Buller leaving for the Cape by the ‘Dunottar Castle’ at Southampton on

October 14: ‘Good Bye and Good Luck!,” Illustrated London News, October 21, 1899

From Armchair Travelers to

Steamship Passengers• Shift in material conditions:

Economic incentive – diamonds, gold

Steamship technology – increased speed, safety, comfort

Accessibility – frequent voyages, affordable tickets

Colonial infrastructure – railway access to mines

Military security (British control) of colonial territories

• Shift in British imagining of:

South Africa – from “darkest Africa” to “home away from home”

Self – as world traveler

Central Arguments:

Shift in British imagining of South Africa and steamship travel was

not only a byproduct of change in material conditions, but was

actively fostered and, ultimately contributed to colonial settlement.

The steamship – of utilitarian importance to the imperial state and

imagined as a particular liminal space, linking metropole and colony

– is crucial to understanding both the material and cultural

requisites of British empire in South Africa (and how they inform

each other).

Shipping magnate Donald Currie and his shipping company – by

controlling steamship travel to South Africa was effectively a

gatekeeper to the South African colonies.

While Donald Currie’s political and economic maneuvering are well

documented, his involvement in cultural productions and his

influence over imperial travel culture has been up-to-now neglected

as a crucial case study for illuminating the links between cultural

and political/economic forms of imperial power.

Case Study – Donald Currie and the Union-Castle

Line as agents of British imperialism

I. Donald Currie & Co. – working alongside the

British state

The steamship as a tool of the British imperial

state

The Union-Castle

Line

& Imperial Networks:

• Communication –

carried mail between

London & Cape Town

• Commodity (gold)

shipping

• Military transport

• Transfer of settler

populations & tourists

Case Study – Donald Currie and the Union-Castle

Line as agents of British imperialism

I. Donald Currie & Co. – working alongside the

British state

The steamship as a tool of the British imperial

state

Donald Currie’s relationship to the state & imperial

interventions

Sir Donald Currie: Shipping Magnate & Accidental Diplomat

1872 – Castle Line begins routes to South Africa

1875 – Elected chairman of U.K. shipowners committee

1876 – Royal Mail contract (with Union Line)

1877 – Mediates dispute over ownership of diamond fields between England and Orange Free State (Boer Republic)

1877 & 78 – After British annexation of the Transvaal (Boer Republic), attempts to mediate between Boer delegations and British government in London regarding Boer independence

Sir Donald Currie:Patriot, Knight, Parliamentarian

1879 – Battle of Isandhlwana

(Anglo-Zulu War)

Assistance to the Empire

1879

Currie’s Ship Dunrobin

Castle brought the news

of the Battle of

Isandhlwana (first battle

of Anglo-Zulu War)

Donald Currie & Co.

reimbursed by the

Secretary of State for the

Colonies for:

“extra expense, loss of

freight mails and

passengers, through being

required to sail one day

before the regular

advertised sailing date,

having only two hours

notice…” National Archives (Kew)

Sir Donald Currie:Patriot, Knight, Parliamentarian

1879 – Battle of Isandhlwana

1880 – Elected to parliament as a

Liberal from Perthshire

1881 – Knighted, in the Order of

St. Michael and St. George

“Submitted, observing

that it is presumed all

that is necessary will be

to acknowledge receipt.”

“I have read through this

series of allegations

against Sir Donald Currie

& can find nothing in

which the Admiralty is

concerned.”

Case Study – Donald Currie and the Union-Castle

Line as agents of British imperialism

I. Donald Currie & Co. – working alongside the

British state

The steamship as a tool of the British imperial

state

Donald Currie’s relationship to the state & imperial

interventions

II. Cultural Productions & Travel to South Africa

Marketing South Africa & the Castle Line

Case Study – Donald Currie and the Union-Castle

Line as agents of British imperialism

I. Donald Currie & Co. – working alongside the

British state

The steamship as a tool of the British imperial

state

Donald Currie’s relationship to the state & imperial

interventions

II. Cultural Productions & Travel to South Africa

Marketing South Africa & the Castle Line

Networks of celebrity & the popular press

Media Frenzy

Surrounding the Dunottar

Castle’s departure for war

(October 14, 1899)

“With General Buller on the way to the Cape” (pictured: Mr. Pole Carew, Mr. Winston

Spencer Churchill, Principal Medical Officer, Sir Bryan Leighton, General Willoughby,

General Buller, Colonel Trotter, Earl De la Warr, Mrs. Spence, Wife of English Consul

at Madeira.)

The Illustrated London News, 11 Nov, 1899.

Rudyard

Kipling and

Sir Donald

Currie on

board the

S.S. Kinsfaun

Castle bound

for South

Africa

June 1895 – Donald Currie

hosts William Gladstone and

other distinguished guests on a

pleasure cruise around the

Baltic Sea on the Tantallon

Castle.

Case Study – Donald Currie and the Union-Castle

Line as agents of British imperialism

I. Donald Currie & Co. – working alongside the

British state

The steamship as a tool of the British imperial

state

Donald Currie’s relationship to the state & imperial

interventions

II. Cultural Productions & Travel to South Africa

Marketing South Africa & the Castle Line

Networks of celebrity & the popular press

The steamship as imagined British space

“Steamers of the Castle Line order are… floating hotels, fitted up

with every modern luxury, even including the electric light and

electric bells. Their whole aspect, internal and external, is

suggestive of British solidity, British comfort, and British

thoroughness.”

-- “Donald Currie,” London Society (1887)

A game of Cricket aboard the Tantallon Castle,

1895

Troops embarking for South Africa, 1899

Dunottar Castle “The Ship –

Her Story” Pall Mall Gazette

(April 1899)

“Letters from South Africa” The Argossy:

A Magazine of tales, travels, essays, and

poems (1894)

From the “floating hotel” to the Mount Nelson

Donald Currie’s

“Mount Nelson

Hotel” opened in

1899 – just prior to

the start of the

South African War

“If the present age be, as Lord Salisbury has sometimes

said, an African age, then Sir Donald Currie is one of its

foremost men…

… indeed, we imagine that there is no South African pie

in which Sir Donald has not a finger.”

-- The Popular Guide to the House of Commons (1892)

"On One of Donald Currie's Ships":

Networks of Celebrity, Imperial Power and

Steamship Travel to South Africa

Britta Anson

University of Washington, History Colloquium

January 28, 2014

Sir Donald Currie –Cultural Figure

1888 – Brings first English Cricket team to South Africa – founds the “Currie Cup” tournament

Friends with William Gladstone

Subject of much satirical comedy in the Cape Town Lantern

Philanthropist

1899, Refugees aboard the Tintagel Castle, Boer War

1899, Cape of Good Hope –

Her Majesty’s Naval Establishments at Simon’s Bay

(NMM)