Film Zulu: Colour Sergeant Bourne: It's a miracle. Lieutenant John Chard: If it's a miracle, Colour Sergeant, it's a short chamber Boxer Henry point 45 caliber miracle. Colour Sergeant Bourne: And a bayonet, sir, with some guts behind it.
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Posts : 2558 Join date : 2009-04-06 Age : 60 Location : UK
Subject: Letters Home Mon May 12, 2014 9:55 am
How long would it have taken for a letter from Zululand to reach England in 1879.
Frank Allewell
Posts : 8395 Join date : 2009-09-21 Age : 75 Location : Cape Town South Africa
Subject: Re: Letters Home Mon May 12, 2014 10:27 am
John Pretty slow, by boat to Cape Town then by boat to the UK, weeks rather than days. Judging by the time it takes for me to get books from the UK and The States not very different from today really
Cheers
Kenny
Posts : 552 Join date : 2013-05-07 Location : Brecon
Subject: Re: Letters Home Mon May 12, 2014 7:15 pm
John
Cape Town to Portsmouth in 1879 - about 28 days; then you add the land journeys at each end.
Guest Guest
Subject: Re: Letters Home Mon May 12, 2014 8:05 pm
The news of the defeat at Isandhlwana arrived on the 11th of February.
Kenny
Posts : 552 Join date : 2013-05-07 Location : Brecon
Subject: Re: Letters Home Tue May 13, 2014 12:04 am
But the bad news had the advantage of the telegraph from Madeira. I was answering the original question - how long a letter would take!
Guest Guest
Subject: Re: Letters Home Tue May 13, 2014 12:08 am
yeah i know
Frank Allewell
Posts : 8395 Join date : 2009-09-21 Age : 75 Location : Cape Town South Africa
Subject: Re: Letters Home Tue May 13, 2014 6:54 am
Telegraph from either PMB or Landmans Drift to Cape town, by sea to Madeira then by telegraph to England. Cheers
barry
Posts : 947 Join date : 2011-10-21 Location : Algoa Bay
Subject: Comms delays with home Tue May 13, 2014 7:30 am
Hi All, Correct , there was a land station or terminal telegraph point in Madeira where SA-UK bound ships called as a matter of procedure, so as to speed the news on. from Natal by telegraph, via undersea cable, to England. However, in answer to the question about door to door letter transit time, it is safe to assume 4-5 weeks. In this the time elements were of the order of 24-28 days at sea , the balance being land terminal transit times at either node. In the annals it is recorded that passing ships wanting to pass urgent news on to each other would sail past each other close enough to read messages written on large blackboards fitted to their superstructures and visible to each other. This method was faster than the use of signaling flags.
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