Navy Humor

I copied the following article from the New York Times:

The Sailor in a Land Fight
(From The Spectator)
Wherever and whenever Jack has been permitted to join in the work of the army he has made his mark so deeply that he has come to be looked upon as indispensible, invincible. His effervescent humor never seems to desert him, as the following anecdote, told the writer recently, fairly well illustrates: It was at Gingindlovu, and the Naval Brigade was face to face with an apparently overwhelming force of Zulus, numbers of whom were armed with rifles. The sailors were reserving their fire, only sending an occasional volley when a favorable opportunity presented itself. Forth from the Zulu host stepped a warrior laden with an ancient firearm, which he calmly mounted upon a tripod in the open, while the sailors looked on admiring his pluck, but wondering much what he was proposing to do. At last one jovial tar suggested that their photographs were going to be taken, and, by common consent, no shots were sent at the supposed photographer. Having loaded his piece with great deliberation, the Zulu primed it, sighted it, and, leaning hard against its breech, he fired. The recoil, for the thing was much overloaded, knocked him head over heels backwards, while a great roar of laughter went up from the delighted sailors. He sat up looking hurt and dazed, and then, the amusement over, he, along with a sudden charging Impi of his countrymen, was annihilated by a volley from the steadily aimed pieces of the little cheerful band of bluejackets.
New York Times
January 28, 1900

Here is the link to the site:

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=FA0F13F9395D12738DDDA10A94D9405B808CF1D3


Petty Officer Tom

Wasnt there a situation that a young Zulu charged the defences and was grabbed by a sailor and sat on till the raid finished?

Regards

Quote :

He sat up looking hurt and dazed, and then, the amusement over, he, along with a sudden charging Impi of his countrymen, was annihilated by a volley from the steadily aimed pieces of the little cheerful band of bluejackets.

:lol!:

springbok9,

I believe this is the young Zulu you are talking about.

From "A Lost Legionary In South Africa" by Colonel G. Hamilton-Browne:

"The Zulu's rush was only checked when they were within twenty yards of the laager, some of them falling dead at even a closer distance; while one small boy, a mat-carrier, crossing by a
miracle the zone of fire, reached the Naval Brigade bastion, where one of the blue-jackets spotting him, leaned over, grabbed him by the nape of the neck, and collected him, kicking and squirming, inside the work, where after he had been cuffed into a state of quietude his captor kept him prisoner by sitting on him till the end of the engagement."

He is supposed to have be kept by the sailors of the Boadicea as a mascot, and later entered the Navy. (But that is another posting.)

Petty Officer Tom

Correct Tom..

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http://www.archive.org/stream/lostlegionaryins00hamirich#page/208/mode/2up

Hi all .
The book about the zulu lad getting to the trenches is ' Jabulani' I think this book is based on that story . Its often on ebay
if anyone is interested I will post a link tomorrow as Pressed for time today . .
I have mentioned this before on the forum if anyone wishes to pursue the matter .
cheers 90th.

http://1879zuluwar.forumotion.com/zulu-war-publication-and-reviews-f3/my-story-zulu-war-jabulani-1879-1882-t2062.htm

hi littlehand.
Thanks for finding and posting the thread I was sure I had mentioned it before . .
cheers 90th. :lol:

Hi all .
Here is the book in question . .

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/offer-listing/0439981077/ref=sr_1_1_olp?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1289283584&sr=1-1&condition=used

cheers 90th. :lol:

I wonder if this was the same gun, that Zulu was using mentioned by Tom.

"Captured as trophy shotgun about 8-6 gauge, you-can-put-in-barrel coca-cola can... That shotgun was muzzle-loading, fired from tripod (!) and as load used about half beer can of black powder and half-can of selfmaked from any screws and nails buck-shot. No one knew how the operator of this gun managed the recoil - Legend has it that this shotgun was never fired after its capture, because there were no voluntary testers, not one soldier agreed to get his shoulder broken during test-shot...
That shotgun can't really kill somebody at a range more than 50 meters, but was sutable to hurt a whole lot of soldiers and make them out of order... kind of non-lethat one-shot machinegun"

Extract from Bulletin