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10 - The Citroën Expeditions, part 1
23 Plays1 month ago
Tracy reveals her passion for automotive history as we learn about the Citroën expeditions. In this first part, French automaker André Citroën commissions two African expeditions done entirely by car.
For sources, please visit www.thewonderkamer.ca
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Transcript
Introduction to 'The Wonder Camera'
00:00:23
Speaker
Hello and welcome to another episode of The Wonder Camera. This is your podcast in which three dilettantes will pull something out of the cabinet of curiosities and share it with you, our audience. My name is Jen Rumpel and I'm here with Dave Powell and Tracy Anderson Powell.
00:00:45
Speaker
And we are your dilettantes
Garage Humor & Hantavirus PSA
00:00:47
Speaker
today. Today, Tracy is going to be opening up a little door of the Wonder Camera going to tell us a tale of, whoa, happiness. What's it going to be, Tracy? It's more of a an adventure.
00:01:00
Speaker
an adventure tale. We're going to open the garage door to adventure. Hell yeah. That's what happens when you actually clean out your garage, which I have never done. I don't have one anymore, but when I had it, it was a stye and I stood by that. I cleaned that garage.
00:01:15
Speaker
You're opening the door to adventure or hantavirus risk. So do be careful when you're opening your garage doors or your wonder camera doors. If there's droppings in there, use bleach. Public service announcement.
00:01:27
Speaker
Fun fact, deer mice, not related to mice. Not related to deer either. No, they're their own thing. Really? i mean, I mean, they are related to mice in the same way that all animals are related to one another, but they're not like a different kind of mouse. They're a mouse looking critter.
00:01:43
Speaker
I literally had no idea. That's going to be my next episode. Maybe, maybe. Actually, we could probably talk about mice and rats in Canada. and That would be a good episode. But I think today we're talking about little bit something, something some a little bit different today. hey Something a little, a little different. Yeah.
00:01:58
Speaker
Yeah.
Tracy's Love for Cars & Road Trip Adventures
00:01:59
Speaker
What do we got? So anyone who knows me knows that I love cars. I'm never happier than when I'm behind the wheel. And what's the best part about driving? Long road trips. Woo! Give me a full tank gas and an endless ribbon of highway and I am set.
00:02:14
Speaker
Road trip. I used to be that way, but now I'm like, my back. my old back. Yeah. Can't do those drives. We're Canadians, so we do have to get used to those drives, though, I have to say. So you're lucky you do enjoy it.
00:02:30
Speaker
Tracy's happy place is finding any excuse to go on ah to drive for, like, minimum an hour. Yes. All right. Good to know. I'm happy to measure things in hours.
00:02:40
Speaker
Yeah, and I'll shout out Tracy as the best driver I know. Nice. Thank you. So today we're talking about a couple of road trips, not just any road trips. No, these are the ultimate road trips.
00:02:51
Speaker
One across the Sahara Desert and one from Algeria to Madagascar in cars with caterpillar tracks for rear wheels.
André Citroën's Origins
00:02:58
Speaker
We're going back to the early days of the motor vehicle and not long after Frenchman André Citroën started his own car company in 1919 called Citroën, funnily enough.
00:03:08
Speaker
Makes sense. It's French for Johnny Lemon. was going to There is a story behind behind the name, but I'll get into that in maybe another podcast.
00:03:18
Speaker
I can do one more about Andre Citroen himself.
Adolf Kégress & His Innovations
00:03:22
Speaker
So our story starts in 1903 when Frenchman Adolf Kigras arrived in Russia. He had a job as a mechanic in St. Petersburg, working for the railway company.
00:03:32
Speaker
Then, one winter day, he was working on the tracks when the Imperial train, carrying Tsar Nicholas II, became stuck on a turntable that was blocked by ice. He stepped in and was able to unblock the switch, an action that was spotted by a member of the Tsar's entourage.
00:03:47
Speaker
Kegress then found himself employed as a mechanic in the Royal Garage. Oh, that's nice. Although, Tsar Nicholas getting blocked by ice immediately made me think that someone was trying to deport him Yeah, I was stuck on the turntable. like I can't do the DJ noise, but like turntable. Fuck yeah. Just gotta rub your fingernails on your jeans. It's the same thing.
00:04:10
Speaker
Yeah. I say is a great insult turn to decades of turntablists. Oh, yes. So fast forward two years. Tsar Nicholas II had many problems in 1905.
00:04:22
Speaker
but I'm like, no shit. I'm sorry. Oh my God. Yeah, just a little. He was a weak ruler to begin with. His heir had hemophilia. There was the Russo-Japanese War. Peaceful demonstrators were shot during the Bloody Sunday Massacre.
00:04:35
Speaker
The people of Russia dipped their toes into the pool that was revolution, and the country became a constitutional monarchy. It was also the year that Nicholas and his wife, Tsarina Alexandra, first made the acquaintance of the Siberian mystic Rasputin.
00:04:48
Speaker
Motor vehicles should have only been a minor concern. I was just going to say, and top of it all, she's sleeping with that dang Rasputin. Rasputin. But no, that's still content contentious.
00:05:01
Speaker
Yeah, I was about to say, maybe. Doesn't really matter. It could have been slander, because she's a woman, but also, who knows? Well, I i honestly ah not to go on a Rasputin digression, but I think anybody who had like this weird ah Russian mystic who is a legendary sex addict slinging a hog in a way that will live throughout the centuries. I think anybody who's really close to him, they're going to guess that they're sleeping together because that's who he was Because he slept with everything.
00:05:35
Speaker
yeah absolutely i in fact uh fucked rasputin and it was awkward selfish lover and he did not bathe no i would imagine so you'd smell of vodka too pretty bad not bathing lots hair yeah let's already hear that dave every venereal disease oh my god i'm sorry tracy And it didn't kill him. So maybe some of that invincibility powers. I mean, he's still alive after all.
00:06:02
Speaker
The reason he was so unkillable is the Mr. Burns phenomenon where he had every single kind of ah of a venereal disease possible or STI, I believe is the more appropriate term now, but when all of them come together and you've got gonorrhea, syphilis, he had AIDS. I don't know how you have AIDS in the 1910s, but there you go. And all of them together make him invincible because they just like all crowd through the door at once.
00:06:29
Speaker
Anyways, this is about cars. Yes. i know Just slightly off track. But we love it. We're dilettantes. This is what we do. We love the digression. Kegers attached skis to the front axle and created detachable, lightweight, caterpillar-like tracks to replace the rear wheels of a car.
00:06:45
Speaker
These weren't like tank tracks, which had already been invented and used heavy hinged metal plates. These tracks function like a moving railway track, constantly unrolling under the vehicle, described as endless rubber bands running on sprung bogeys pivoting from ah the rear axle.
Citroën's Vision for Kégress' Tracks
00:07:01
Speaker
Oh, that's a contraption. Especially with the word bogey in there. you gotta get those bogeys. God, what are we used to be a real country. I say about a car that is in ah ah you know Europe and Russia.
00:07:13
Speaker
and Just sort of Europe. Russia used to be a real Soviet Union, damn it. According to Wikipedia, a bogey can be found on both train cars and tractor trailers and, quote, comprises two or more wheel sets, two wheels in it on an axle, in a frame attached under a vehicle by a pivot. It allows for stable running on both straight and curved track. And a sprung bogey is the same thing, using springs to support the vehicle's weight, absorb shocks, and improve ride quality.
00:07:41
Speaker
far so good The tracks provided grip to support and carry a loaded vehicle over soft snow and so or sand, rocky crater surfaces, mountainous terrain, and boggy land. In Kegress's words, the vehicles could, quote, travel at all speeds, either over deep snow or ice, or roads covered with lightly packed snow, or on dry and stony roads, and then leave the road and proceed to travel across country without stopping or slowing down, end quote.
00:08:07
Speaker
This is 1903? This is later than that now. Oh, sorry, 1905. This is closer to 1910. Right, because this is coming out of him ah in 1905, getting associated with the Tsar, and then working in all this fancy engineer stuff, thus this vehicle coming out from it. yeah Got it. He made the vehicle suit the ground instead of the usual way so far of trying to make the ground suit the vehicle.
00:08:33
Speaker
That's a great fra turn of phrase. In 1913, the system Kigres was perfected and patents were filed in both France and Russia. Although Kigres developed the system, he didn't invent it. That was done by an American man in Maine in the 1890s who used his half-track for hauling logs.
00:08:49
Speaker
The first logging truck. Why don't we have half-tracks all over the place here? We've got like the ah we've got the ATVs or quads, but ah got half-tracks out on the trails.
00:09:00
Speaker
They'd probably tear up the dirt but and destroy our pristine boreal, but ah those would be fun. I don't see why they can't still use them for logging, for getting in and out of tight place. Well, they've probably got better equipment now.
00:09:13
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, I guess there's a reason why they don't use them for logging. Ah, it's like a little pseudo tank, though. They're so cool. Yeah, that does sound very cool. Kigras served with the Russian army when war broke out in 1914. At the start of the Russian Revolution in 1917, Kigras found himself, understandably, without a job. He first went to Finland, but decided that it really wasn't for him. So he returned to Paris, arriving in 1920.
00:09:36
Speaker
He met Andre Citroen there at a demonstration of three vehicles fitted with the Caterpillar-like tracks. Citroen immediately recognized the potential of the system. There was no such thing as four-wheel drive utility vehicles yet, and agricultural tractors were still in their early days. So Citroen seized the moment and acquired sole rights to the Kegress system.
00:09:56
Speaker
He set up a new company to provide Kegress the necessary funds and facilities to manufacture a wide range of vehicles. These new vehicles were classified as light tractors and marketed as a replacement for the cart horse. They found immediate commercial success being employed in civilian and military roles.
00:10:13
Speaker
Through the 1920s and 30s, they were used throughout Europe for farming and forestry. Militaries of France, Belgium, Poland, and Great Britain bought and used them. Surviving examples were prized by Germany during World War II, and any that were found were repaired, reconditioned, and sent to the Russian front.
00:10:29
Speaker
Remember these assholes? Yeah. Oh, wait, I'm saying that on behalf of the Nazis. Oh, no. Yeah, I'm like, that's what their attitude would have been.
00:10:41
Speaker
It's like how they just ah realized that the victims of communism memorial in Ottawa was covered in the names of Nazis. who i mean So they just like removed a ton of it so you got this blank victims of communism memorial? It's so good. It's actually better because like oh it's seems like a good system then.
00:11:04
Speaker
It's empty. ah If it only it gets rid of fascists. he Anyway... Among other things, André Citroën was a master of publicity. He organized a series of demonstrations and exhibitions to show off the car's cross-country abilities. The first of these was a snow trial held in the Alps.
00:11:23
Speaker
Then in September 1921, three of the half-track cars traveled from Paris to Arcachon on the Atlantic coast of France. One of them pulled a 3.5-ton caravan that looked like a two-story house, and as far as I can tell, was a two-story house.
00:11:38
Speaker
Good Lord. See, these ones are cool. I want one. yeah Yeah, this is actually pretty neat, and it actually works. Can you imagine a product that actually works? Right? No, we don't have those anymore. No. At the nearby Pilat Sand Dune, which is the highest one in Europe, the cars were put through various tests and experiments.
00:11:56
Speaker
It all culminated in an assault on the summit, 344 feet above sea level. The cars had no problems, even with the steep gradient of the dune. Wow. Steep sand dunes. And it had no problems. They're climbing up.
00:12:09
Speaker
Perfect thing take to the beach. Sounds fun. Love it. So these half tracks are just kicking ass. In the first week of July 1922, a demonstration was held in England for influential British
Crossing the Sahara: A Demonstration of Capability
00:12:19
Speaker
journalists and important potential civilian and military customers. The event was staged at a former military transport depot in Slough, 20 miles or 32 kilometers west of London, known locally as The Dump, the location that's Slough. was about to it's Slough, which is ah one of those places in England that is apparently just as lovely as its name. I have no idea if Slough is a dump, but the name is probably not a good indication. But it could be a lovely little place. legendary dump
00:12:46
Speaker
I don't know. Isn't there a whole poem about how Slough sucks? yeah i'm I'm sure there's multiple. Some places are so shitty they can only be described with a poet. but I'm trying to give Slough the benefit of the doubt here.
00:12:58
Speaker
I am not. You know what? If you're from Slough, we don't want you. oh The UK, no, I don't give them the benefit of that. They've run out. they've They've committed too many crimes against humanity. No more benefit of the doubt for the UK. I'm sorry. Yeah. it ah Thankfully in Canada, our government have never committed crimes of any kind. No, no. Perfect. Oh, yes. It's great.
00:13:18
Speaker
Oh, yeah. We're just nice. I'm kidding, Slough. We love you. ah This podcast is one of the nice few gifts you can have in your home. Anyway, scrapped army vehicles were collected there for reconditioning and rebuilding after World War one It provided an excellent obstacle course.
00:13:34
Speaker
In heavy rain, two cars went up and down slippery banks of a gravel pit where the gradient exceeded 45 degrees in some places. A tow rope was attached to a pair of railway wagons that were filled with people and pulled them starting from a stop.
00:13:48
Speaker
The car ran alongside the tracks through a plowed field with no trouble. So they're just doing feats of strength. Yeah, they are. Yeah. but I was getting worried there. When you mentioned there were passengers, I'm like, oh, no. This could all go very badly.
00:14:01
Speaker
Later, both cars went from London to Cambridge and back, a round trip of 108 miles or 174 kilometers. They averaged 21 miles per hour, 34 kilometers per hour, and still showed no signs of having any trouble.
00:14:16
Speaker
the demonsttra Do you know what terrain, are they sorry are they going off-road then? I think they were on the road at that point. Okay. The demonstrations went well and the British subsidiary Citroën Cigress Limited was established in London. One of the founders was British military vehicle expert Major General Sir Ernest Swinton.
00:14:33
Speaker
Swinton was a British Army officer who played a significant role in the development of the tank during World War I. He became an ally of Andre Citroën and proved invaluable to him in the world of Britain and the Commonwealth.
00:14:45
Speaker
He had plenty of high-level connections in Whitehall and Westminster and used them in his work behind the scenes for the coming Citroen expeditions. Over the next 10 years, 200 vehicles were sold on the British civilian market and eight examples were provided for the British military for use as battery staff cars in the Royal Artillery in 1924-26.
00:15:06
Speaker
Sounds like he's doing well. Successful product. Is this all just one car that Citroen is ah selling or is this an array of models? They're different. It's not an array of models, but updated versions come out.
00:15:20
Speaker
Got it. And are these are they all variations on the single half-track car? Yes. Okay, got it. From his time as a logistics specialist in the Army during World War I, Citroën understood the cross-country limitations of conventional wheeled motor vehicles. The first time he saw a vehicle with caterpillar tracks go over sand, he understood exactly what he was looking at. And it appealed to him as an engineer, an industrialist, and a motor vehicle manufacturer.
00:15:46
Speaker
He was also aware of wider long-term strategic significance to the French economy. He did, but I actually don't. I try not to get too bogged down with the economy. Yeah, not necessarily our Mitch A here. With a vehicle that didn't need roads, it could open new military and trade routes in the colonial territories of Asia and Africa.
00:16:06
Speaker
Oh. Citroën just needed to prove it by crossing the Sahara by motor vehicle. So he's the first one to do a Top Gear challenge. Yeah.
00:16:16
Speaker
That's the first thing I thought of too. like This sounds like Top Gear. Unlike Jeremy col Clarkson, I think Andre Citroen is the only automotive manufacturer ever who's not a fascist. Yeah, I think you're right. Really?
00:16:29
Speaker
yeah No, he's just lab he was Jewish and like as left-wing as you get when you're a business mogul in the 20s. Yeah, check the story of Louis Renault. That that guy was a fascist.
00:16:40
Speaker
there are Henry Ford. I mean, Ford, yeah. Auto tycoons are fascist. It's a rule. Yeah. ah Which is why anybody who likes watching an old Top Gear episode should never listen to a single opinion Jeremy Clarkson has shared outside of that TV show.
00:16:56
Speaker
because My God. i agree. So cars are fascists. Sorry, guys. They're fascist technology. but there's they're a capitalist technology. They are.
00:17:07
Speaker
It's called atomization. But yeah, car bad, but car also cool at the same time. fun. I know. That is the struggle. Yeah. Car use. So anyway, Citroën is, oh God, i was trying to do it. I was going to do a Jeremy Clarkson voice with a French accent. I can't, I just can't. How hard can it be in a French accent? It's, but i can't even put it in your head there.
00:17:27
Speaker
Since the French colonization of North Africa in the eighteen eighty s there were major issues in establishing communications and maintaining military and political control over the vast Sahara. It was big, it was wide, it was a desert, and it made a lot of things very difficult.
00:17:44
Speaker
<unk> like Yeah, that's that's so this is this is just what we gotta do, you know, I mean, I guess it's the hardest possible test, but I don't know. It could go but can you go a bit smaller. In 1912, when Niger was annexed, the establishment of a land route from the Mediterranean down through the desert to French Equatorial Africa, then across the interior to Madagascar, became a priority.
00:18:05
Speaker
The arrival of transport aircraft ended the age-old reliance on the slow-moving camel trains, but there were still logistical problems. Staging posts had to be constructed That had a place for planes to land, repair facilities, fuel and water, and radio stations.
00:18:22
Speaker
A route that could be used by motor vehicles was an important and unavoidable step forward in the civilization of French Africa. You did not see Tracy's giant air quotes of the word civilization. But aside from the like horrific crimes against humanity committed here, the logistics of it are like Niger is landlocked, right? it's ah And it's it's in the Sahel. There's a hell of a lot of desert there.
00:18:48
Speaker
And, ah you know, just broadly not a particularly accessible place to get to, let alone when you get down into the holdings in the sort of... ah and yeah in the rainforest. So basically they're trying to strike a line ah from Algeria down to West Africa and then through to Madagascar. Yes.
00:19:11
Speaker
That's insane. yeah That's wild, yeah. The issue of a ground route through the desert became suddenly more serious when a plane carrying the regional military commander, General Laparine, flying between Algiers and Timbuktu, was blown off course during a sandstorm and crashed in the desert.
00:19:28
Speaker
A column of conventional motor vehicles set out to rescue the survivors, but the terrain was too difficult for them. Every one of the vehicles met with either an accident or they broke down. The general, who was injured in the crash, died of thirst after 15 days in temperatures upwards of 123 Fahrenheit or 50 degrees Celsius.
00:19:48
Speaker
Oh, Just get out of there. you're not supposed to be there. telling There's people living there. They're doing fine. Leave them alone. Christ. Exactly. like White folks are not supposed to be there. Get out. We are not made for that.
00:20:03
Speaker
No. And it's like, nobody asked. Nobody asked them. Just get out.
The Sahara Expedition Begins
00:20:10
Speaker
General Laparine had made the first attempt to organize a crossing of the Sahara by motor vehicle.
00:20:15
Speaker
In 1916, Commandant Beddenburg attempted his own journey on an old camel route between two oases. They covered 200 of the 2,000 miles between Tugert, Algeria, and Timbuktu, the city of salt on the Niger niger River in what was then French Sudan and is now Mali.
00:20:33
Speaker
200 miles. I assume that could be a story in itself. Doomed expedition. Only one vehicle made it through undamaged. It took 20 days for them to go 470 miles or 750 kilometers.
00:20:45
Speaker
Most of that time was spent trying to dig the vehicles out of sand. It worked out to be no faster than the camel trains it sought to replace. no way I am not surprised. The indigenous message method of travel that's been used for thousands of years is actually better. By 1920, General Laperine had directed three unsuccessful expeditions through the Sahara.
00:21:06
Speaker
The Sahara, as he learned, was not just sand. There were also several mountain ranges that had to be crossed. And on top of that, the temperatures ranged between extremes, boiling the car's radiator dry during the day and freezing it solid by night.
00:21:20
Speaker
but Look, you're basically on Mars. Yeah, the you're so interior as well that like, well, ah like and again, rain isn't getting to the Sahara for various different reasons. And in that part of the Sahara, there's nothing that are regulated. So you just pinging ponging between extreme temperatures. So these events created much public interest in France, and it got André Citroën's publicist side thinking about his half-track cars and the trek across the desert.
00:21:45
Speaker
Quote, not only in men, but in supplies of all sorts, from the oil products of Senegal to the rubber of Guinea and the Congo.
00:22:03
Speaker
It showed that this wealth could not achieve its real value until the Bloc Africain was realized by the establishment of rapid, safe, and permanent communications between our various possessions on the Black continent.
00:22:17
Speaker
Oh, God. and So it is a not beating the fascist technology rap, the motor vehicle. Now, now, now, again, this is just capitalism. All colonialism is exploitation. All capitalism is exploitation. And the problem is they can't exploit efficiently.
00:22:33
Speaker
That's right. going to solve that with technology. Despite the romance and adventure of the mission, it was first an industrial venture using industrial and logistical techniques. In the winter of several of the Caterpillar cars were sent to Algeria to look over and plan routes for the expedition. In charge of this run was a short, rotund, and robust Louis Audouin Dubrai, who could easily be an episode on his own.
00:23:00
Speaker
Louis grew up in a well-off, deeply religious conservative home. At the age of 20, he was recruited into the cavalry for his mandatory three years of service and performed his duties with much enthusiasm.
00:23:12
Speaker
When war broke out in 1914, he returned to service and fought in the Battle of the Marne, among others. He was awarded Qua de Guerre and was appointed lieutenant in 1916. When the cavalry was dissolved, he moved to aviation and obtained his pilot's license in 1917 and was sent to Tunisia.
00:23:29
Speaker
He fell in love with the country and said, it would now be impossible for me to live fully and happy elsewhere. Wherever he went, he always returned to his little home in Tsarsis. At the age of 35 and a veteran of Laparine's ventures, Louis had a lot of knowledge about the area.
00:23:46
Speaker
He loved the desert, and even in his 60s, he was out exploring solo in his Citroën 2CV. Andre Citroen proved himself to be a good patron and had a knack for always picking the right man for the job. He inspired both enthusiasm and loyalty, but the expeditions were never under his direct control.
00:24:05
Speaker
Enter Georges-Marie Hart. The ah opposite of Louis Audelon Dubrai. He was the lean and lanky sang-froid leader of the Trans-Siberian. Why do I keep saying Siberian? The Trans-Saharan Expo. It's so easy to say. Because we want to say Trans-Siberian Orchestra, Trans-Siberian Railway, right? Yeah, I want to say Railway. It's just buried our brain.
00:24:24
Speaker
He had been a trusted colleague of Andres for the last 15 years. General Swinton described Hart as physically a fine specimen of unusual height with great personal charm. Hart was an Anglophile who spoke English extremely well and was always dressed immaculately. He was fastidious, fashionable, and artistic.
00:24:43
Speaker
Sounds like a a dilettante. I'm picturing like a 17th century fancy boy. That's right. The expedition, also referred to as the raid, was to be the first ever conducted under the unforgiving eyes of the world's press. Failure was not an option with the prestige of the company at stake. Also because lives would be at risk in the desert.
00:25:03
Speaker
Regular news bulletins hit the newspapers as soon as the radio and telegraph reports came in. The entire journey was recorded on film for showing in cinema newsreels. Really? meticulous testing preparations and rehearsals were carried out leading to modifications to the design construction and the equipment of the vehicles and in autumn nineteen twenty two everything was ready to go fifteen of the caterpillar cars were shipped to and assembled in africa five of them would go all the way across the desert to timbuktu and back the other ten would be supply vehicles that only went partway
00:25:35
Speaker
the plan was to make the two thousand mile or thirty two hundred kiilometer trip in twenty two days Hmm. Considering how long everything else had taken to date.
00:25:46
Speaker
I'm just showing one of those images, the press ah press put together. no Yeah. okay yeah Oh, and that gives a good sense of what the vehicles look like. So they do have the wheels on the front and the caterpillars on the back. Yes. yeah That's the half track. It's,
00:26:00
Speaker
Okay, yeah, i was picturing that, but yeah, okay. Because you can steer with the front and then you get this tank track in the back. It's pretty cute. Little buggy-eyed headlights there. want one!
00:26:12
Speaker
There is apparently one in, at one point, there was one in a museum in Saskatoon, which I would like to go see if it's still there. Yeah.
00:26:23
Speaker
Or we can modify our Ford Ranger. Yes, we can do that. Ranger Danger, baby. At daybreak on December 17th, 1922, 10 men in five half-track cars left to Gert, southeast of Algiers.
00:26:40
Speaker
The vehicles were painted white to reflect the heat of the sun, literally, not metaphorically. Each car had a brightly colored Egyptian symbol. The Golden Scarab was the command vehicle, which Hart rode in.
00:26:51
Speaker
Then came the Silver Crescent with Louis Audouin Dubray. Carrying the film equipment and the expedition's official cinematographer, Paul Castlenau, was the Flying Tortoise. Fourth was the Apis Bowl with Adjutant Chapuis, an officer in the French colonial forces serving as the expedition's guide and interpreter.
00:27:10
Speaker
And finally, the crawling caterpillar carrying George Estienne, the son of General Estienne, the French tank and armored car pioneer, the French equivalent of Britain's General Swinton.
00:27:21
Speaker
oh This does sound fun. Like, I'm kind of like, yeah, get into that expedition. oh i got I mean, this sounds awesome, right? Ignoring all the colonial exploitation problems, which are, ah let's take these exciting new machines and try to do something nobody's done before, which is a genuinely successful expedition across the Sahara.
00:27:40
Speaker
Yeah. Like one of the most inhospitable places on the planet, which is really full of mountains. People don't get that if you because you just kind of see this. You look at a map, you just see like orangish yellow desert is this big block, but it is quite mountainous.
00:27:55
Speaker
And they brought with them their own mascot, Hearts Terrier Flossie, who is the role for Milu in Tintin comics. Really? Yeah. Oh, they even brought a little dog who I really hope survives. Although I think if the dog didn't survive, Tracy wouldn't tell the story. We'll see. Okay.
00:28:10
Speaker
I would have definitely left out the part about the dog if the dog didn't make it. I know how you work. Yeah. Okay. Oh, no. i'm My next episode. Unfortunately, I don't skip dog harm. Well, at least we know in advance. Yeah. Thank you for the... um yeah Content warning. Weeks in advance content warning.
00:28:31
Speaker
Okay. just Just keep it in mind when you come down to mine in a couple weeks. All five vehicles had two tons of stores, a reservoir of eight gallons of drinking water, a fuel tank with 50 gallons of gasoline, and a collapsible tent attached to its bodywork for shelter at night.
00:28:47
Speaker
They also carried rifles and ammunition just in case, and three of the cars were armed with heavy machine guns mounted in visible positions to deter would-be robbers. I appreciate the giant machine guns that they have. was like, no, you don't want to mess with this. Yeah. We've got gun cars. Yeah, I'd probably stay away. Yeah, I would.
00:29:09
Speaker
The group started at 5 a.m., m stopped for lunch around midday, then pushed on until 10 p.m. At night, the cars were drawn into a circle around the campfire with guns pointing out. don know This is just hilarious to me. I don't know. why I'm picturing an old wagon train where they're circling the campfire and a all paranoid and just like these little stubby cars. Yeah, exactly. lives in All cozy.
00:29:32
Speaker
If you are driving through ah certain parts of the world, I don't know what the conditions were in. This is probably going be like southern Algeria into like, oh, God, I get confused about the map. But either way, I'm the people who are out there and see ah large amounts of wealth are probably going to want to take it because I certainly, am you know, but but yeah large amounts of machine guns guarding that wealth. Suddenly, you know, your, ah your risk calculation changes a bit.
00:30:04
Speaker
In four days, they reached the fort of Insala, marking the end of the first leg. They covered 600 miles or 965 kilometers at an average speed of 20 miles per hour or 32 kilometers per hour, 10 times the speed of a camel train.
00:30:20
Speaker
They stayed at the fort to rest for two days. So where are they again? ah Right now they are somewhere in the Sahara. Oh, fair. I can't be any more specific than that.
00:30:33
Speaker
That's totally fine. Unless there's like some handy map of ah with ah with with with dates and places. We'll just use the theater of the mind. yes The next leg was through the mountainous hogger region of the desert of unquenchable thirst.
00:30:47
Speaker
james so Sounds fine. Probably don't get too thirsty there. What return to Oz shit is that? There would be no well or oasis for 300 miles, 480 kilometers in any direction. And with no path to follow, they navigated by sextant and compass. In his diary, Hart noted that the path was strewn with the skeletons of camels. Is that bad?
00:31:12
Speaker
Jesus. In the desert of unquenchable thirst. Yes. Those dead camels known for being able to store water in their backs. Yeah, that is not a good sign.
00:31:23
Speaker
Fun science fact. Although it was originally considered a myth that camels store water in the back because they actually store fat, fat converts to water chemically really efficiently. And that's why they store fat there. So they do store water in their back.
00:31:37
Speaker
It's just yeah in a roundabout way. Oh, fascinating. I did not know that. And I was just thinking, you know, don't know if that's true or not. Thanks, Dave. There you go. And also to clarify, deer mice are considered ah new world mice, but they're not closely related to the classic house mouse or rat old world or all old world mice. They're their own thing in aver and and evolved separately. That's what makes them magic. Anyways.
00:32:02
Speaker
Enough biology facts. I will be doing an evolution episode eventually. Excellent. Because we haven't covered any science. No. On New Year's Eve, the party arrived at Tinzoutin in French Sudan, now Mali, on the border of Algeria. 1,250 miles or 2,000 kilometers from where they started.
00:32:21
Speaker
They had champagne around the campfire, then carried on as usual the next day. My parents have been and ah have been to Mali. Really? Yeah. Took a bus up through ah Ghana into Ghana, a bit of Niger, Burkina Faso and into Mali.
00:32:37
Speaker
And a bit of the unquenchable thirst desert. You know, I you know they might have done a little bit time there. Yeah. Yeah. We'll have to check with your mom. Hey, mom, have you ever been to the desert of unquenchable thirst? Yes, I kidnapped a goose there from a casino. What?
00:32:54
Speaker
These are the sort of stories my mom tells. She is delightful. When we eventually do guests, she will be on this podcast. Excellent. On the 4th of January, they reached Fort Boram on the banks of the Niger River and followed the river across the savanna lands of French Sudan.
00:33:09
Speaker
Two days later, they arrived at the gates of Timbuktu, welcomed by huge crowds. The crowds pressed in to surround the cars, the applause tumultuous. That's cool. I can imagine. And people survived. Cars were not lost in the desert.
00:33:23
Speaker
No, everything went according to plan. Awesome. And they're Timbuktu at this point. Okay. Yes. The next morning, on the 7th of January, 1923, 20 days out of Tagort, the cars entered the gates of Timbuktu.
Challenges on the Return Journey
00:33:36
Speaker
For hundreds of years, until 1893, when conquered by the French, the ancient city had been forbidden to Europeans on pain of death. There was a short c ceremony for the adventurers in the... Sorry?
00:33:48
Speaker
I said, oh, that's fair. Yeah. There was a short ceremony for the adventurers in the city's great central square, which the French had recently renamed Place Joffre and were formally received by the French colonial governor.
00:34:02
Speaker
Hart presented the first mail delivered across the Sahara from the mother country, inaugurating what was to be regular postal service. Speaking on behalf of the Minister of State for Posts and Telegraphs, Hart said, As the result of our efforts, we hope to see a revival of the old caravan routes which long ago linked Algeria and Tunisia with the Niger River, even in the times of Charlemagne.
00:34:25
Speaker
Next, the leaders of the expedition reported back to André Citroën at the company's headquarters at Quai de Javel in Paris. The reply from André read, "'At this moment of your reaching the pearl of the Niger, having accomplished by your superhuman efforts the work of the titans towards the cause of humanity and the triumph of French industry, may I greet your arrival and express from the bottom of my heart the joy that I feel as a result of your achievement.'" Aw, I wish someone sent me a letter that nice. Oh, yeah.
00:34:56
Speaker
Well, Dave, maybe you should drive across the desert then. Nonsense. I'm starting a podcast so I can get those kinds of accolades. And by accolades, I mean abuse.
00:35:07
Speaker
Yeah, mean exactly. I mean, more abuse, but less thirst. So yeah. freeoffs Yeah. Well, least not that kind of thirst. Oh, yeah. The party spent three weeks in Timbuktu for rest and recuperation. They filled their time with filming and photographing the city, hunting game nearby and overhauling their cars for the journey.
00:35:26
Speaker
On January 26, they were off again, following the same path back to Turgert, where they would meet up with Andre himself. Initially, the leaders went ahead to Borham, where the supply vehicles were waiting to refuel them. They reunited on the 10th of February 1923, and the crew set off northwards. They made their usual pace 120 200 kilometers per day traveling at about miles per hour kilometers per hour.
00:35:53
Speaker
Seems slow to last, but at the time was pretty good. By the 16th of February, they were back in the heart of the Tannis Roofed. This time of year, the daily temperature was at its most extreme. During the day, the heat melted the grease in the rollers of the tracks, and at night the men froze. There was no wood for them to gather to build a fire.
00:36:10
Speaker
On the 21st of February, they were stopped by two men on camels who said other caterpillar cars were spared spotted at the oasis the previous day. There was said to be a white woman with them.
00:36:21
Speaker
Hart knew this to be Andre's party, as and the woman was his wife. Madame Citroen was a fearless traveler who would not have hesitated to join the party. that's interesting. did not know about her. Yeah, she seems like she was pretty cool.
00:36:34
Speaker
At 11 a.m. on the 24th of February, both groups finally met up. Andre had thought of everything for this moment, right down to bringing mail from France and plenty of champagne. Attaboy. How did that survive the heat? Yeah, warm champagne sounds... no Although i can I guess you can do it. If you had it at three in the morning after everything had cooled off, maybe it was a little better.
00:36:59
Speaker
Quick, everybody wake up and drink your champagne. Yeah. On the 26th of February, they arrived back at the fort of Insala, which was decorated with French flags for the occasion.
00:37:12
Speaker
John Reynolds writes, quote, surrounded by cavalry and camelry adorned with the finest ceremonial costumes and regalia. The seven caterpillar cars advanced through the gates in parade order to be greeted by the military commander in chief of the region, acting on behalf of the governor general of Algeria.
00:37:29
Speaker
So this is kind of a big deal. Yeah. The following day, Andre was summoned back to Paris, so he and his wife left immediately. Hart and his group went to Ouargla.
00:37:40
Speaker
O-U-A-R-G-L-A. Let's think about that. I'll trust your pronunciation on that one. Yeah. yeah They arrived on the 5th of March, greeted by fanfare and 500 men on camels.
00:37:52
Speaker
but ba I don't know what noise camels make. Ah!
00:37:58
Speaker
That's probably about right. Yeah. Just a couple octaves lower.
00:38:03
Speaker
On March 7th, they arrived back at their starting point in Tugert. In 12 weeks, they covered 4,300 7,000 over days of travel.
Tourist Venture Plans Thwarted
00:38:14
Speaker
it showed that a caterpillar car could cover miles,
00:38:18
Speaker
forty eight hundred kilometreers and the amount of time it took a camel to do a hundred miles or hundred and sixty kilometers Okay. Man versus machine. no Machine versus beast. Yeah. Machine wins.
00:38:30
Speaker
Back in Paris, Andre Citroen had imagined a package holiday to Africa transported by his caterpillar cars. He was thinking of a 24-day tour to Timbuktu. He ordered the inauguration of the company Trans-African Citroen and started planning.
00:38:45
Speaker
He planned out everything and got it all together for departure on the 6th of January, 1925. So we're now talking about like tourist trips through here to Timbuktu. Yes.
00:38:56
Speaker
Now that they've done it. André himself, though, canceled the trip on January 2nd. There were reports of a, quote, resumption of warlike activity among dissident tribesmen, end quote.
00:39:07
Speaker
Military authorities said they could not guarantee their safety and declined all responsibility if something should happen. The French government then withdrew their permission. What on earth could they be dissident about? It's a mystery. They're just kind of like that. We'll never know. yeah Yeah. It was a humiliating failure and Andre Citroen lost a small fortune. He abandoned the project, liquidated the company, and disposed of the vehicles. Later, he learned there had been no disturbances of any kind. The whole thing had been invented.
00:39:36
Speaker
Really? Louis Renault, who was known to dislike Andre and referred to him as the little Jew of Javel, was considered the prime suspect. Renault is such piece of shit. It is industrial sabotage.
00:39:49
Speaker
Yeah. In a way Not necessarily. It's sabotaging their promotion in there. And if it caused him to scuttle the entire thing. Hmm. Andre refused to discuss the affair for the rest of his life.
'Black Cruise' Expedition Across Africa
00:40:02
Speaker
Damn. A few months later, Renault announced their plans for a similar holiday expedition using six wheeled vehicles. There would be no official obstacles. Right. So they just had ah more in with the French government, yes? Yeah, so everything worked out great for Louis Renault.
00:40:18
Speaker
Well, until the end of the war, but that's a different story. Hmm. Well, hopefully he's dead. Oh, yes. Well, sure he's dead by now, but I mean... Yeah, he didn't survive long after war. Hopefully he was executed for his crime.
00:40:30
Speaker
André Citroën had other ideas for an expedition, something more sensational than simply crossing the Sahara. He was now looking at... a 12,500 mile or 20,000 kilometer coast to coast crossing of Africa by caterpillar cars. He called it the Citroën Central African Expedition, but it was popularly known as Croisier Noir, the Black Cruise.
00:40:55
Speaker
Hmm. Doesn't sound promising. what and was One of those things is it's odd because I think calling Africa the black continent and the dark continent all that was not actually a race thing, although I'm sure people dug in on the ah double meanings there. It's like cartography. Yeah, it's just that ah the interior was not mapped by Europeans very well because it was so dense. The expedition was staffed and equipped as a scientific expedition, looking at things like geology, meteorology, zoology, ethnology, anthropology, geography, and cartography. they would Oh, so this is...
00:41:35
Speaker
sorry The Voyage of the Beagle, but on card. I was about to say, it's like a 19th century voyage where you ah throw in a bunch of like ah scientists who want to go and ah catalog and eat everything they find and ah you know play with cartography, all that kind of different stuff.
00:41:52
Speaker
Train ants to sort nuts and screws in the jungle. Exactly. That sounds like a great time. ah That's a deep cut Simpsons...
00:42:04
Speaker
ah They would also have a photographer, cinematographer, and an artist on board as well. The expedition was endorsed and sponsored by the French Geographical Society and the Museum of National History.
00:42:16
Speaker
i was going to say earlier, the next road trip I go on, though, I want a cinematographer. Yeah, I want somebody to work for a picture thing. Yeah. I want a zoologist who wants to eat everything we encounter.
00:42:28
Speaker
Hmm. There you go. I mean, if you can pick one. yeah Yeah. The expedition had both a cultural and political purpose. It was seen as the way of establishing a strategic land route from French North Africa to the East Coast to Djibouti and Madagascar, which were considered inaccessible possessions.
00:42:46
Speaker
The expedition was to be undertaken in 10 months, from October 1924 to July 1925, going from Algiers to Mombasa, then to Madagascar by sea by way of the Sahara, Niger, and the Sudan.
00:42:59
Speaker
This expedition, like the last one, was led by Georges-Marie Hart with Louis Audouin Dubrai as the second in command of the Team of Sixteen. Eight Type B2 Citroën Kigras vehicles would be used for the expedition, with many others used to supply the main group.
00:43:17
Speaker
They left from Colomb-Bachar, a French foreign legion fort, in northwest Algeria on the 28th of October 1924, and arrived at Borem on the Niger on November 9th.
00:43:29
Speaker
They arrived at Niamey, the capital of Niger, in the southwest corner of the country on November 24th, met by 3,000 horsemen and camel riders. From there, they headed due east, parallel with Nigeria's northern border.
00:43:42
Speaker
Huh. OK. And that's a fun thing about Niger and these sort of Sahel countries is the ah they're kind of like Canada in that the and entire in that the population is crowded into the southern bit.
00:43:54
Speaker
There are still definitely people living in the northern areas. But as it gets ah more difficult and deserty, well, Niger is, ah you know, it's the waters of the south. That's where the people are. That's where you build your city. Makes sense.
00:44:07
Speaker
On the way to Lake Chad, in the southwest corner of Chad, bordering on Cameroon, they had to fight the wilderness. There was no path to follow, so they were forced to create one by hand with machetes, cleaving their way through solid walls of grass as tall as the men, with herds of elephants hanging about.
00:44:23
Speaker
That's incredible. What a scene. Elephants are like, the fuck are you doing? This is my home. you know, they're curious. And so they're just probably just hanging out going, okay, we'll just watch. This is kind of fun. They reached the lake on December 18th, then went south to Fort Lame, arriving on December 24th, where they were greeted by the entire European community. Fort Lame, called N'Jimena since is the capital city of Chad.
00:44:53
Speaker
I knew I was going to screw that one up. I'd say. That's all right. You can superimpose the, you can edit in the correct pronunciation. Yeah. In Jemena. Yeah. In Jemena. In Jemena.
00:45:05
Speaker
We got it. Yep. If you're from Chad, ah please write in contact at the wonder camera.ca. Yep. And then correct us on the pronunciation of your capital. And also let us know how it's going in Chad. I hear it's not particularly fun right now. We look forward to hearing from you.
00:45:24
Speaker
They rested at Fort Lame until the 3rd of January 1925. They celebrated Christmas and rang in the new year, wrote reports, shot film and wild game, and prepared their cars for the next stage of the adventure, the most difficult and dangerous one.
00:45:38
Speaker
On January 11th, they camped on the border of the Sudan and the Belgian Congo, then went southwards through the jungle. The first 400 miles, or 650 kilometers, were easy because they could follow a track cleared by the Belgians.
00:45:52
Speaker
But after that, the going was incredibly slow. They reached Stanleyville, now Kisangani, named for explorer Henry Morton Stanley, on March 12th. If I can promote another podcast for a second, Behind the Bastards has an excellent two-part series on Henry Morton Stanley.
00:46:08
Speaker
Mm-hmm. I suggest checking that out sometime. Absolutely. right. Having covered 5,600 miles or 9,000 kilometers, in a little under five months, they rested for 11 days in Stanleyville. After that, they would take a northerly detour to Kampala at the head of Lake Victoria in the British colonial territory of Uganda.
00:46:28
Speaker
Yakovlev, the expedition's artist, sketched the chief of a giant... sketched the chief of tribe. Sorry, does that sound like he said it? The chief vagina. I was to say the chief giant.
00:46:40
Speaker
Or friendly giant. That's what it is. Sketch the friendly giant. Okay. sketch that what Sketch the chief of the... I did it again. Sketch the chief of a friendly tribe and was embarrassed to be given the chief's daughter as a gift.
00:46:56
Speaker
Hart came to the rescue, explaining the lack of women on the trip was penance imposed by their head man, Andre Citroen. I love that kind of thing. Just that, like, difficulty in cultural exchange and then being able to frame the rejection in a way that isn't horribly insulting. i mean, like, sorry, no, it's a rule, it's taboo, whatever you'll take. Mm-hmm. Yeah.
00:47:17
Speaker
but That's good. From here, as originally planned, the group was split into two into four two-card groups. Each group would take a different route to the Indian Ocean than reunite in Madagascar.
00:47:28
Speaker
The Audouin-Dubrai group... Group one went to Mombasa via Nairobi, skirting Mount Kilimanjaro. Between Nairobi and Mombasa, it is noted, there is a railway line, but the journey by automobile has never been attempted.
00:47:42
Speaker
After that, two hundred go ahead. I'm going to interject briefly. I ran a role playing game because Tracy had been looking into the Andre Citrian stuff a couple years ago, in fact, where the group was ah doing like pulp Cthulhu adventure stuff based out of Mombasa and had to get to Nairobi. And they took a Cagrass up to Nairobi rather than taking the rail track. Oh, no way. Around this time, like it was in the 1920s. Well, that's pretty cool. I had no idea that this sort of actually happened, just and just in reverse.
00:48:17
Speaker
Yeah. huh After that, 250 miles or 400 kilometers of unexplored route to Tanga on the Indian Ocean. Commandant Beddenberg and his group headed for Dar es Salaam, crossing Lake Victoria by boat to Tabora. There is a railway connecting Tabora to Dar es Salaam, but again, there is not an automobile route.
00:48:39
Speaker
Routes traced formerly by the Germans had been abandoned. Group 3 was to go to Birra, Mozambique. They would take the same route as Group 2 as far as Tabora. Then they would descend as far as Lake Nyassa and skirt around the lake to Blantyre. Their information said the going would be difficult due to numerous rivers without bridges or ferries.
00:48:59
Speaker
As regards to crossing Nyassa land, great difficulties may render its realization impossible. Go on. go on Oh, they divided into four to see like the best route. Or is it a deliberate like race situation? i don't know. The book never explains why they why they broke into four.
00:49:21
Speaker
More passive exploration, perhaps. I think it might have been about exploration. I think so, too. Let's all go. And then understanding these cars are invincible. We'll find the route that it hurts the least, particularly if it is this ah really difficult country, ah like countryside, which is like shot through with rivers.
00:49:40
Speaker
And when I first heard about this, my brain went, well, the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. And when they start heading east across the Sahel, the sub-Saharan area, I'm like, why would they do that?
00:49:51
Speaker
Oh, yeah. The shortest distance between two points is a straight line, unless that straight line goes through the Congo. for Yeah. Territory is very treacherous there. lot of people who probably don't want you there. it's just very very It's just very, very dense rainforest, ignoring anything political at
Documenting Colonial Africa
00:50:13
Speaker
that point. People might have been lovely or fine. i don't know at this point in time, but the the terrain is just impossible.
00:50:21
Speaker
Yeah. Group four would go south in the direction of Lake Tanganyika and cross it from Kagoma to Albertville to reach the region of Katanga, where it seems there are road possibilities.
00:50:33
Speaker
The plan was then to head to Cape Town and then on to Durban, where they would take a boat to Madagascar in early August. Hopefully by the time they get there, they don't have an out of gas car. Yeah.
00:50:44
Speaker
but um i I had to say it once. I am. ah Yeah, that's that's fair. again Quote, our information regarding the communications in Rhodesia is not reassuring, but farther to the south, the situation gradually improves and becomes very good in Cape Colony. End quote.
00:51:03
Speaker
The greatest difficulty they decided was to be the length of their route at 3,100 miles 5,000 kilometers. Mm-hmm. Group 3 reached Uganda, they entered through Butiabwa. In The Black Journey, the English translation of Hart and Adoen Dubrai's book on the expedition, they described what was then called British East Africa as being more British than African, despite the presence of numerous natives. They talk about how most of the Ugandans speak Kiswahili, while the English colonists speak, of course, English. Yeah.
00:51:36
Speaker
And they do not like to hear the natives speaking the same language as them. They point out that in the French colonies, instead of putting up these barriers, they try to break them down. How positively humanitarian.
00:51:48
Speaker
the The different character of each colonial European state is really interesting because the French were probably... the least directly awful. And by that, I mean, they were awful.
00:52:04
Speaker
I certainly know about some horrific stuff they did in Algeria, let alone other colonial ah colonial holdings. But when you compare that to the Spanish who just murdered everybody,
00:52:16
Speaker
Or Belgians. know I about to say. And the Belgians, of course, have the ultimate crown. And the British have, again, endless human horrors to their name under the British Empire.
00:52:27
Speaker
And in all sense of proportionality, you'd still probably put them differently on a tier list than you would Belgium and Spain. ah And so it's interesting, because of the sense of ah that. No, it's fine if they speak our language. It makes life easier. Mm-hmm.
00:52:42
Speaker
Yeah, the idea of being offended that they're trying to speak your language, just, I don't get that. Well, it's also very, it's an odd, on like, part of the entire British thing is this very patrimonial, um we are the gentlemanly caretakers of the world, and how they've always taken great delight in kidnapping people and then making them act like a gentleman, right? Like, they've done that forever.
00:53:10
Speaker
yeah ah So the notion that there's this offense of the locals trying to speak English is, um ah I don't know, we'll ask Rudyard Kipler what he thinks. No. all right, we can't. He's dead because he was a racist, and that's what happens. Do you know every single racist in history has died? No, not someone to say no, was like, no. Has died or will die. Every single racist in history has died. yeah that's good there's none left every racist eventually will die i wish there was none left thinking did you know that shows a racist in power it's like no no no all the racists are dead me exactly as i was gonna say no no racism is bad for you because every racist will die of it racism is a terminal condition we don't even have to do anything life will just take care of itself it's just cosmic that's right
00:54:01
Speaker
this system We were so far from all the racists being dead. It's actually sad. But anyway. The most dangerous stage was between Kampala and Blantyre, where it could take um take an hour to go half a mile.
00:54:14
Speaker
They had to deal with torrential rain, thick forest, and steering by compass. The going was incredibly slow. Group four moved on to a place called Hoima, due south of where they entered the country.
00:54:26
Speaker
It is here they met the king of Buganda, a man named Tito Wynel, for five o'clock tea. The following day, they arrived at the Court of Justice. The book goes on to describe what they see, talking of judges who bow at the portrait of the English royal family when they enter the courtroom.
00:54:41
Speaker
There are Black bureaucrats going about their work, referring to the people and the location as the paraphernalia of progress. Lovely. The text then goes on to say,
00:54:53
Speaker
but all this civilization is possibly not very deep it would be abnormal if it were so how in a few decades could the black race reach the development which has required centuries of effort on the part of the white race to attain the remarkable faculty for imitation possessed by the african races is deceptive and imitation does not necessarily mean assimilation Ugh.
00:55:17
Speaker
What a gross, gross quote. Jesus. Yeah, the book has a surprising number of quotes like that. i'm When was the book written? 1926. Ah, there you go.
00:55:30
Speaker
Nice to you sources ah that were ah contemporary ah contemporaneous. However, there's going to be some ah gems of just just pure, like, uncut nineteen twenty s racism.
00:55:44
Speaker
Yeah. Unfortunately, look at the UK right now. They still have that attitude. Of course they do. people They do. it's all It's very... And I'm not just shit just on the UK, but we've got some issues to deal with. I mean, all of we all do, obviously. I was about to say, i can't really single Look at Canada. Genuinely. You want to visit the third world? Well, welcome home. Anyways. Mm-hmm.
00:56:12
Speaker
They recounted an anecdote where a local man went to a missionary and asked to be baptized. The man had three wives, and the missionary told him this was incompatible with the dignity of a Christian, that he could only have one wife.
00:56:24
Speaker
Thinking hard, the man returned to his village. A few days later, he returned. You can baptize me now, he told the missionary, for I only have one wife now. I have killed thee two others. oh my god i had a feeling and i was the moment you started the story and uh just at the story i mean that sentence i was like oh no where is this going nowhere good dave nowhere good nope just like jesus would have wanted The final 435 miles, or 700 kilometers, was through open country from Blantyre to Birra, which should have been easy.
00:57:01
Speaker
Alas, it was not. They had to cross the Dabo, a vast, soggy plain thickly carpeted with grass where the sun beat down like a golden sledgehammer.
00:57:13
Speaker
Sun beat down like a golden sledgehammer is some beautiful language there. Yeah, that's great. As somebody who's extremely heat sensitive, I'm like, I don't even like when it's like 25. I'm like, it's too hot. Yeah, that's when I started. This is like, yeah, this sounds like torture to me. Yep.
00:57:28
Speaker
Groups two and three parted ways at Tabora, and on April 30th, they boarded a train for Dodoma at lunchtime. The two Caterpillar cars were placed on a truck and covered with old tarps.
00:57:39
Speaker
A wagon loaded with tins of gasoline separated them from the one they were occupying. At the first major stop, they stationed boys with pails of water near the cars because the engine was throwing off sparks, which formed dangerous falling stars.
00:57:54
Speaker
And the tarps are tinder dry. Oh, look, make a wish. I don't i wish to not die in a fire. and This time, aren't tarps just like oiled cloths? Like waxed and oiled rags? likes kind of Not rags, you know what i mean.
00:58:11
Speaker
Like canvas? Everything is just flammable at this point in time. ah There is nothing made which is inflammable. When did you say that? Yeah, and I was going to ask them. Inflammable is the same as flammable. What a country. Anyways. That's right.
00:58:26
Speaker
But you're say I was going to ask them, and you said they have like go all these, the gasoline is with them in in these caravans, yes? Yeah. Because they have to fuel up. Yeah. So they have it right there, too. During dinner in the dining car, everyone could suddenly smell smoke. Upon opening the door of the dining car, they saw the train was enveloped in smoke and fire. The caterpillar cars were on fire, and there was still some gas left in the reservoirs.
00:58:49
Speaker
Shouting drew no result, so Hart fired a shot from his revolver, which had the desired effect. The train came to a halt. The golden scarab was on fire, and the wagon of gasoline tins was next to it.
00:59:02
Speaker
Everything that was not metal was burning. Seats, hood, packages piled up, and the spare rubber tires. There was no water to be had, so the men set about throwing sand on the fire. Hart described the golden scarab as nothing more than a blackened skeleton, but one of the mechanics with them gave it a look over, replaced a few wires, established a contact, and the car came back to life.
00:59:22
Speaker
At another
Citroën's Legacy in Transportation Innovation
00:59:23
Speaker
stop, Hart got down from the train and had a telegraph sent to Taborra, where luckily they had left spare parts. What kind of charred-ass, like, Nightmare Before Christmas-looking vehicle would that be i Charred husk, like, crawling through the...
00:59:39
Speaker
I also love that like the mechanics going on here are so compared to what we have now simple because nothing everything is engineered ah to the like and to an incredible extent. But you could just crack open a burned out husk of a car, throw in a couple of wires, toss in some gas and she's good.
01:00:02
Speaker
Yeah. He's riding a frame at this point. Yeah. Hey, you know. Yeah. On May 3rd, after working for two days on the Golden Scarab, it rose from the ashes. It even had fresh new cane seats.
01:00:14
Speaker
And at midday, they started off for Lake Nyasa. The group crossed several rivers, including the Ruaha, which required 30 men to get both vehicles across.
01:00:24
Speaker
How are they doing that? Like rafts? Yeah. Okay. Around the middle of May, they found themselves in a region that experiences rain eight months of the year. And to no one's surprise, it was raining when they arrived and it continued to rain until they left several days later.
01:00:39
Speaker
here On May 19th, they received a telegram that Group 2 reached the Indian Ocean on May 13th. On June 2nd, the group arrived in Blantyre, the commercial capital of Nyasaland, which is now Malawi.
01:00:53
Speaker
They were given a warm reception and learned how there had been bets placed against their success. Hart noted in his diary that, quote, we caused several people to lose their money Right. And Lake Nyas has now lake mola um Lake Malawi, which is this big, long lake that adjoins several countries. And ah the disputes over who owns what parts of the lake are fierce. They also call it different things.
01:01:21
Speaker
Yes. Yeah. But Lake Malawi is, I guess, what's generally agreed on. i like a Canadian and or American cyclopens atlas. If those ever existed anymore, I'd probably call it Lake Malawi.
01:01:33
Speaker
Yeah. Well, in America, it's called Lake of America. so yeah. Yes. Weird, there's a lot of those around Africa. Yeah, it seems like the whole, it's just all, like oh, and and then and Africa is called America now? Yeah. It's all just America.
01:01:48
Speaker
The Africa of America. ye While driving on June 6th, brush fire came into view. Though the grasses around them were dry, the ground was not. Hart knows that this meant they thought they'd be safe, but he was wrong. The fire was fanned by a westerly breeze that came right towards them.
01:02:05
Speaker
Just before reaching them, the wind changed. They were able to find a way through the burning grass with the rubber caterpillar tracks burning and their clothes the clothes on their backs singed. Don't smell great, too. Yeah.
01:02:16
Speaker
When they finally reached Bira, the party set sail for Madagascar on the 20th of June. They arrived five days later, eight months after setting out. Quote, it is never a matter of indifference when one is approaching the end of a long journey, says Hart in The Black Journey on June 26, 1925.
01:02:34
Speaker
Now the Grand Isle is more than the end of our efforts. It is the object achieved. And so it is with emotion that we endeavor to make out the outlines of what is to us an unknown land and the boat draws near to a new shore. That is wild. Go on, sorry. I imagining the relief of this expedition being like, finally, it's done. Only three groups made it to this point. The fourth group was still en route, said to arrive at Talir to the south.
01:03:01
Speaker
Quote, Africa is the land of giant trees and fierce passions. Madagascar at first sight appears to us an island softened of softened nature and slumbering emotions. Their arrival at Antan... Antan... There's ah lots of A's and N's in this. Antan... Antan... Crap.
01:03:20
Speaker
We'll raise ourselves to see who pronounces it right first. Yeah. Their arrival at Antananarivo. Oh, man.
01:03:31
Speaker
The capital of Madagascar was met with speeches and receptions and general celebrations. Antananarivo. Yeah. Antananarivo. See, there's there's too many A-Ns in there. Antananarivo. There's ah different ways you can put them fast. It's on different syllables.
01:03:46
Speaker
Yeah. On route, 90,000 feet of film were was taken, along with 8,000 photographs, 300 botanical drawings, 15 books of sketches, samples of over 300 mammals, 800 birds, and 1,500 insects, many of which were unknown to science at the time.
01:04:03
Speaker
A triumph for science, as well as the motor vehicle. All right. The final paragraph of The Black Journey says this about the future. Quote, Our white cars have only been the advance guard.
01:04:15
Speaker
The faithful worshippers of the Bula Matari were not wrong in believing them to be the heralds of a new era. The old world is suffocating. In its conquest of space, it is annihilating distance and also the charm of the unknown.
01:04:29
Speaker
Sorry. That's a hell of a line. I can see that. And I immediately want to joke, yeah, suffocating in leaded gasoline fumes. Yeah. Because that is where the future did. Was leaded gasoline invented at that point?
01:04:43
Speaker
I believe... I'm not... No, I don't think so. i think the leaded gasoline came on a bit later, but... I want to say the 50. I understand the the the freedom that the motor vehicle does entail. It's just all the unintended consequences.
01:05:00
Speaker
This is why we need to have cities where people don't have to drive. So you can leave the driving to the people that really want to do it, and there's not that many...
01:05:12
Speaker
It's not the default way to get around in all the different situations. Yeah, exactly. So you've got just the people that really want to drive that are driving and everyone else has glorious public transit to rely upon and like good public transit.
01:05:25
Speaker
Not in Canada. I mean, depends where you are. But for the most part, and not in Canada. You're not in a city. It's so much better than in the States where giant cities are actively hostile to public transit.
01:05:37
Speaker
And all of it's much worse than Europe, Japan, China. Yeah. We want to make an environmentally friendly world. We need big trains. Mm-hmm. Well, I remember, like, you know, over 10 years ago, going to New Orleans and being like, wait, there's no bus from the airport downtown? Nope.
01:05:56
Speaker
Nope. Take a taxi. Yep. That's what everyone does. Take a cab, drive. Yep. Nothing. On the expedition's return to Paris, they were greeted as heroes. There were a series of gala receptions and celebratory banquets attended by the French president and prime minister, plus senior military and government officials.
01:06:14
Speaker
The progress of the Central African expedition was charted almost daily by reports from the international press. There was enormous public interest both at home and abroad. From John Reynolds, quote, to satisfy this curiosity in the mysteries of the dark continent, a fascination in the life of the noble savage and all things primitive was in vogue among the sophisticated people at the time.
01:06:37
Speaker
A lavish ex exhibition of the expedition's vehicles and trophies was mounted at the Louvre. It's like every quote, you gotta to be like, ugh. Yeah, every quote quote is eye-rollingly racist.
Conclusion & Future Discussions
01:06:50
Speaker
Yep. The expedition cost more than £100,000 to stage. I'm not sure if that's at the time or if that was more recently, but the publicity and prestige generated was worth so much more. The expedition was considered highly profitable, more so than completing in Grand Prix races and motorsport events. Unlike Grands Prix, which only showcased how fast a car could go, the expedition showed how these vehicles stacked up against difficult terrain and how reliable they were. which was undoubtedly more useful information for the military and others that might consider purchasing such a vehicle.
01:07:24
Speaker
Right. In terms of an advertising campaign, you can say, hey, we just did something everyone thought was impossible and did it shockingly well. So little went wrong.
01:07:35
Speaker
Yeah. i mean, aside from, you know, the fire, but I thought there'd be piles of corpses behind them or something like that. no no. I was really expecting more mayhem. Yeah, I was a very team corpse there.
01:07:49
Speaker
ah know So in the next episode, we'll talk about the third and fourth Citroën expeditions to Asia and North America. i am fascinated already. i am Thank you so much, Tracy. That was amazing. yeah Thank you. I'm so happy you got to start telling the story because I know you had it with you for a while and this was very fun.
01:08:08
Speaker
Yeah, I've been waiting for the right moment to write about this. Now the perfect time has come. No, and it's so fascinating. And I'm, yeah, looking forward to hearing um what happens. and To be honest, I'm a bit disappointed that there wasn't more madness and mayhem. Yeah, right. It's a fascinating story. And it's very, very impressive and a very cool story. i was just like, hopefully. But, you know, I'm just a i' a ghoul. so You've just listened to too many dollops about Australians getting murdered in the in the outback. I know. yeah I'm not used to expeditions actually going smoothly and well. and Yeah, this succeeded remarkably easily.
01:08:47
Speaker
Yeah. Fascinating. Thank you, Tracy. You're welcome. Yeah. So that was the Wonder Camera for today. Tracy will be back with part two next time.
01:08:58
Speaker
do we want to leave our audience with some contact information? Maybe some sources? I believe you left those already. The sources you can find in the show notes. the If you're interested in finding us on social media, we're on bluesky at thewondercamera.ca.
01:09:16
Speaker
Does anybody else have any other online places they want to share? ah Yes, we will have an Instagram account created after this episode is recorded. Okay.
01:09:28
Speaker
So it'll be, by the time you hear this, hopefully it's live. Look up the wonder camera. There's not going to be a lot of us. It's a Dutch word. It's not going to show up all over the place in English language. Just Google the wonder camera, you know, have some faith in yourself for the love of God.
01:09:41
Speaker
And you that's right you can find us. And it's wonder K A M E just the one M wonder camera. And yeah, it was great talking to you guys, Dave and Tracy. I'm very excited to hear how our story concludes. And you can always reach us at contact at thewondercamera.ca.
01:10:00
Speaker
All right. Bye, everyone. Bye. Bye. Thank you for listening to The Wonder Camera. Find us under The Wonder Camera on Blue Sky, YouTube, and Instagram.