Luederitz, June 14th 1888, German South West Africa, German Empire
The Africander lounged in the chair and played with his beard as he waited in the living room for the man whom he had been sent to see at the small house on the sea-front at Luederitz. Outside the sound of crashing waves could be heard over the sound of the city.
Most of what went on in Luederitz these days was to do with the Schutztruppe or the missionaries. Imperial armies and priests were creatures that infested South Africa, he mused to himself. In the corner sat one of the Nama scouts with whom he had travelled to Luederitz, one who spoke both Afrikaans and Deutsch, easing things for the forthcoming discussion.
Luederitz strode into the room, a smile on his lips and his hat askew from the wind whipping it. He stepped forwards and shook the Africander's hand quite forcefully, his mouth splitting into a grin as he spoke.
“Ah, Herr De La Rey, you know I must thank you since your last action against the British spared me a trip up the Orange River. The rapid arrival of the enlarged Schutztruppe have greatly relieved me of my financial burden and of course they would not be here if it were not for you!”
The Nama looked to Koos, who nodded that he understood, for the time being at least before looking back to Luederitz, the man the settlement was named after and who had personally owned the coastline from Cape Colony to Angola, right until the German Colonial Society had bailed him out.
“A pleasure to meet the King of the Skeleton Coast.”
“Please, call me Adolf.”
“Then you must call me Koos.”
“It is done. So...”
“I am here as a representative of the Zuid African Republiek. You may be aware that we have recently struck gold in the Transvaal.”
“I would have had to have slept for the last two years.”
“Indeed. Well, we have a proposal for Mauser and Krupp. We'd be willing to pay you the pertinent brokerage fee if you would ensure that he hears of it personally. It would also be wise to contact Bismarck. We will need the services of the famous German army to train our new artillerymen.”
Luederitz's thin eyebrows rose as he peered over his glasses at Koos for a moment.
“You do not waste time with words, no?”
“Adolf, we are talking about immediate shipments where possible. There is no time to waste because every minute spent deferring this is another minute where Cecil Rhodes arms and trains another brigade of his mercenary legion.”
“I understand. The struggle of nationhood is something our peoples share.”
“So you will convey our message?”
“I will.”
Stolzenfels, July 19th 1888, German South West Africa, German Empire
The Schutztruppe men and the Nama scouts watched the Boers and their hired Nama labourers who were loading the crates of Mausers into wagons. Those guns had been sent with many of the men who still patrolled the border. Their provenance in Africa was from the brief brush war between Germany and the British on the other side of the river and now they were being packed into wagons to fight the British once more.
One of the Schutztruppe men, a lieutenant in a brown shirt strode over and presented a clipboard with a receipt on it to the leader of the commando. Koos De La Rey signed his name at the bottom of the receipt and then gave the other man a smile.
“Don't worry, the Kaiser will have some more for you soon.”
“I pray only that they come soon enough. You know, we here in the Schutztruppe, we don't think much of the alliance you have with those Zulus. You can't rely on kaffirs.”
A couple of the labourers paused and several of the Nama scouts looked uncomfortable. Koos straightened his back and looked at the young lieutenant.
“I am rather aware that Dr Goering takes a dim view of this sort of thing, so I will make a deal with you. You deal with your blacks, and we'll deal with ours and no more talking about this kind of thing, Lieutenant Zurn. I came here for your guns, not your opinion.”
Zurn's face crumpled slightly as he grimaced and then looked at the Nama scouts, teeth gritted as he strode away from De La Rey.
Koos looked at the retreating figure pointedly and then rolled up his sleeves and joined the labourers in loading the wagons.
DAL Anna Woermann, 200 km South of East London, October 27th, 1888, Off the Coast of South Africa
The ship rolled on the waves as the storm overtook the steamer. In the boiler room, the crew worked double time to keep the engines full of coal as the motor strained against the tempest. Up on the bridge, Captain Brinkert gritted his teeth and squinted as he saw without warning the light of another ship approximately 1000 metres to the port.
He called this out and made a movement to steer away from the ship, as the ship tossed and bounced underneath him. The British ship was on a direct course and underneath his breath Brinkert swore as the heliograph aboard the ship burst into phosphorescent life and signalled for Anna Woermann to prepare for boarding.
Brinkert had nothing to do but comply, but as he manhandled the steamer onto a convergent course, he sent his second in command, down to the hold. There in the depths of the ship, dissembled and packed in crates were eight Krupp field guns and approximately 5,000 Mauser rifles. All of them were stencilled with the words as 'Agricultural Equipment'.
Jobst, his second in command conducted a rapid search by torchlight, checking that none of the crates that were mingled in with other cargo, had broken and exposed their secret cargo.
By the time Jobst had completed this and concealed a damaged crate under a waxed cloth, six British Marines were aboard the bridge of the Anna Woermann as their commanding officer, Captain Robert Holt inspected the manifest. The ship continued to bounce and sway on the waves and after a cursory inspection of the hold they returned to their ship, unwilling to spend longer in the storm.
Lourenco Marques, November 2nd 1888, Mozambique, Portuguese Empire
As the crates came out of the hold of the Anna Woermann, Koos De La Rey shielded his eyes against the sun and allowed himself a small smile. The Swazi dock-hands broke the crates up and loaded the dissembled guns into the wagons before hauling the crates of rifles and ammunition into further wagons, until there was quite a convoy waiting to leave.
Slowly, they set off toward the hinterland, Zulu escorts meeting them outside of the port-town and screening the countryside for hostile tribes folk as the Krupp Steel made it's way to Pretoria.
Gun Runners, The men and women who armed Kruger by Dr. Johannes du Toit, Professor of Modern Conflicts, Harvard University (1978).
...The role of Koos De La Rey in brokering the deal for Kruger is well known, what is not part of the mainstream historical record is the role played by Captain Ulf Brinkert of the Woermann Deutsche-Afrika Line. Brinkert and the shipment of Krupp field guns to Lourenco Marques in 1888 provided a key component of Kruger's arsenal going into the Tweede Vryheidsoorlog. Archive evidence shows that on the night of October 27th, Brinkert's vessel, the Anna Woermann was stopped by the HMS Galatea and inspected by Royal Marine Captain Robert Holt. Holt's inspection was cursory at best, as the ships log for Galatea indicates extreme bad weather. Ironically for Holt, he would later die during the Tweede Vryheidsoorlog at Colesburg whilst being shelled by the very guns he had failed to halt the shipment of...
~
