Hidden Treasure: Stranger than fiction

Mimi and Toutou’s Big Adventure: The Bizarre Battle of Lake Tanganyika by Giles Foden

By Jim Matthews

When I sort books at Orphans Treasure Box, I have to divide the literary world into Fiction and Non-Fiction. Is this a “true” story or a fictional account based on a historical event? Most publishers are helpful and somewhere on the cover indicate if it is a novel, but not always.

Sometimes the cover art and/or subject matter make it hard. One such example is Giles Foden’s excellent book, Mimi and Toutou’s Big Adventure: The Bizarre Battle of Lake Tanganyika. I first shelved this book in Fiction because the story seemed so implausible. It is in fact a true story of the remarkable efforts of a nondescript group of British Naval castoffs led by deservedly obscure Lieutenant Commander to victory over much stronger German forces in Eastern Africa during World War I.

As the War began, Lake Tanganyika lay along the border between the Belgian Congo and German East Africa, know today as Tanzania. The Germans had made heroic efforts to assemble a great steel ship with which to control the lake in addition to two other vessels equipped with quite large guns. They also boasted excellent officers and well-trained crews. To oppose them, the British sent an officer who might have stepped off the stage of a Gilbert and Sullivan musical along with a crew of rejects and naval castaways. Lieutenant Commander Geoffrey Spicer-Simmons outfitted them in theatrical uniforms complete with cutlasses and himself chose to sport a skirt made for him by his wife. Spicer’s naval career reflected his innate poor judgment, leading him to begin the War buried in the attic of the Admiralty where it was hope he could do no harm.

For seemingly inexplicable reasons, Spicer was put in charge of the African Expeditionary Force, sent by the Royal Navy to transport two primitive PT boats from Cape Town, South Africa to Lake Tanganyika across deserts, over plains, through swamps and over mountains. Each wooden boat weighed 45 tons and was packed in a heavy crate. The journey itself is well worth a book, with Spicer, described as “an expert on everything even in the presence of real experts,” egging on men who gradually came to ignore him as much as possible. By means of train, giant steam tractors, teams of oxen, river steamers and sheer human muscle, Spicer’s men dragged these two boats 2/3 the length of Africa.

Two improbable victories over larger German vessels won Spicer the status of a god among the African people who lived around the lake as well as promotion to Commander. These victories came of course at the hands of his men who had learned how to ignore his bumbling commands while focusing on the enemy before them.

The Company doctor finally invalided Spicer back home after a humiliating episode during an attack on a German fort where Spicer ordered his “fleet” to retire for fear of the fort’s guns that proved to be wooden dummies. Spicer’s withdrawal of his ships allowed the Germans in the fort to escape across the lake to fight another day.

In short, Foden, author of The Last King of Scotland, has written a highly entertaining book about a series of incidents that E. M. Forester turned in to The African Queen. I maintain that there is a jewel to be found on every shelf at Orphans Treasure Box; Mimi and Toutou certainly proves to be a diamond equal to Forester’s — if I can determine which shelf to put it on.

Hidden Treasures is a column dedicated to highlighting the gems you can find on the shelves at Orphans Treasure Box. You can read Jim’s column “Ramblings” in the Mahomet Citizen.