Page 30 - Oct-Dec 2024 Edition

TRAVEL FEATURE

Following the movie, she went back into service
and remained in the employ of the British East
Africa Company operating on the river Nile
under her original name the SS Murchison. It
was during this time our ‘Queen’ had a ‘brief
encounter’ with the author Ernest Hemingway,
who in 1954 famously crashed his chartered
plane in the wilds close to the Murchison Falls.
After surviving the night in the bush, a badly
shaken Hemingway and his wife Mary made
their way to a rocky outcrop, where they saw
the approach of a sightseeing launch, the
SS Murchison, which was carrying a party
celebrating a golden wedding. Hemingway
was delighted to discover this was the very
boat used in the film, and best of all, for
Hemingway it boasted “An excellent refrigerator
containing Tusker beer and several brands of when she was discovered by New Zealander
ale’. The ‘Queen’ took Hemingway and Mary to Cam McCleay, who at the time was looking for
Butiaba on the shores of Lake Albert, where they an authentic African boat. So, after spending
boarded a rescue plane, which also famously
crashed and burned on the take off, but over 10 years as a garden trailer in Nairobi, the
miraculously all aboard escaped unhurt. But Queen returned home to Uganda and was
once again lovingly restored and put back
once again the Queen made world headlines into service on the river Nile as a tourist cruiser,
following her encounter with the famous where she would steam up the river and relive
novelist.
some of her glory years.
Little is known of what happened to her beyond
this point, other than she remained in the But once again, following the owner’s
departure from Uganda, the Queen was left
employ of the British East Arica Company and to rot by the shores of Lake Victoria, waiting
then passed into the ownership of the Uganda for someone to come along and breathe life
National Parks, until 1984 when a Patagonian back into her. This time her saviour came in the
Engineer (Yank Evans) found her whilst working
on the roads in the Murchison Falls National form of Bruce Martin, who owns and operates
Park. lodges in Murchison and Lake Albert, the
Queen had come full circle, she was coming
At the time she had fallen into disrepair and home.
was lying rotting away, her steel hull was rusting On an overcast day in late February this year,
below the water line and much of the wood
had been eaten by termites. When Evans Bruce pulled the boat out the wooded lake
enquired about her, he learnt from the locals shore spot which had been her home for
over a decade, emptied her hull which was
that she was the ‘African Queen’ so after full of water, strapped two out board motors
agreeing to pay $1 for the boat from the to her stern, and sailed her to Entebbe Sailing
Uganda National Parks, Evans trucked her to Club where she was greeted with rapturous
Entebbe and restored her with his son Billy. It applause.
was a labour of love.
Over the last few months, Bruce with the
In the 1990’s the fully restored Queen was dedicated support of Tim Rogers has lovingly
working again, this time running boat trips on restored her back to her very best. The
Lake Victoria, but in 1997, Evans left for Kenya restoration was done with attention to detail
and took the Queen with him. She remained
there covered in Tarp in his garden until 2010 retaining the original parts and making sure that
everything remained true to her original design.

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