African Entrepreneurship Record

Chapter 125: Chapter 120 Mwanza Shipyard

January 3, 1868.

Great Lakes Region, Mwanza.

The Great Lake (Lake Victoria), with a water area nearing seventy thousand square kilometers and an average depth of around 40 meters, possesses excellent navigational capabilities.

To develop the Great Lake, advanced ships are indispensable; they don’t need to be extremely advanced, but at least better than the canoes used by the indigenous people.

Moreover, the Great Lake contains over a thousand islands, many of which are suitable for human habitation, and naturally home to indigenous people.

These indigenous people make a living by fishing, possibly spending their entire lives on the islands, something the East African colonial government pursuing a ”zeroing out” policy would never allow.

Thus, for the development and utilization of the Great Lake, and considering the clearing of indigenous people from the islands, establishing East Africa’s own inland lake force becomes very necessary.

Regardless of whether it’s for fishermen or establishing an inland lake force, ships are indispensable.

Even in previous times, the primary mode of transportation on Lake Victoria was ferries, and Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania all built ports along the shores of Lake Victoria, relying on the vast water area of the Great Lake to establish numerous large-scale port cities, which were comparable even to some of Africa’s seaports.

The Great Lake also holds abundant freshwater fishery resources. With the development of the East African colonies and the restrictions on consuming wild animals by the East African colonial government, finding new alternative meat sources becomes inevitable.

Currently, Ernst has two ideas: one is to develop pastures for animal husbandry, and another is to exploit the fishery resources of the freshwater lakes in East Africa.

The development of animal husbandry requires time, whereas the fishery resources in East African lakes are readily available. The Great Lake, Soron Lake, Lake Malawi, and even Lake Turkana, any one of these is sufficient to meet the current meat needs of the East African colonies.

As for marine fishery resources, it’s true that the fishery resources along the East African coast are very rich, especially during the Somali cold current season, which forms large-scale fishing grounds.

However, given the current conditions of the East African colonies, establishing large shipyards is not feasible, and if the fishing boats are too small, they are unsafe on the ocean.

Thus, it would be more cost-effective to develop fishery resources in inland lakes, as unlike the ocean, inland lakes are not as turbulent.

Ernst plans to set up several small shipyards in the inland lakes; the ships produced can satisfy the fishing industry and accelerate the development and expansion of East Africa.

After all, these lakes have large areas and wide waters; if one were to go to the opposite shore, traveling by land involves a long detour, while having ships can save a lot of time.

Moreover, the large cargo capacity of ships makes the transportation of goods and personnel convenient, effectively reducing losses.

Currently, the most important means of transportation in East Africa are horse-drawn carriages and ox carts, and in areas with large-scale construction, there are also many wooden wheelbarrows (mainly pushed by manpower, transporting grain and other supplies), which are also important transportation tools in East Africa.

The first shipyard in East Africa was selected to be located on the shore of the Great Lake (Lake Victoria) in Mwanza.

This was the result of comprehensive considerations of various factors.

The two important cities of the East African colonies are located along the Great Lake’s shore, one being Mwanza (capital of the Great Lakes Region) and the other Kisumu (capital of Western Kenya). Connecting these two cities can accelerate the development of the Great Lake, and naturally, connecting the two cities relies on ships.

At the same time, the indigenous residents on the islands in the Great Lake also need to be addressed. Soron Lake and Lake Malawi do not have similar needs, so there’s no urgent need to build shipyards there.

Moreover, the advance towards the northwest requires utilizing the Great Lake’s navigability, which in the future can enhance control over the northwest.

Finally, the excellent natural conditions of Mwanza itself, leveraging Mwanza Bay, make Mwanza a naturally excellent lake port.

This area was previously inhabited by tribes of the Sukuma Tribe (referred to as ”Tanzania’s Gypsies” in reality, and it’s the largest ethnic group in Tanzania, which has over 120 ethnicities). Later, the East African colonies directly took over this place.

In the subsequent ”rectification” movement, the Sukuma Tribe from the entire Great Lakes Region was driven away, pushed by the East African colonial government to the northwestern regions ruled by eight other countries.

The location of Mwanza Shipyard is set in the southwest direction of Mwanza City, on the southern side of a small peninsula extending west into Mwanza Bay, where the waters are calm and deep, making it suitable for building docks relying on the peninsula.

...

Going to East Africa was undoubtedly tough work for those who could stay in Europe.

So, Ernst directly appointed personnel from the Chinese interns in his family’s European shipyard to go to Africa to guide the shipyard construction work.

These Chinese interns are all students of the Heixinggen Military Academy, so they unconditionally obey Ernst’s orders.

Compared to the Far East, where life was precarious and one was hungry daily, the conditions in East Africa, though still poor, were not lacking for these young Chinese who had lived in such harsh circumstances.

Moreover, during their time at school, they were prepared to face any challenge for the principal, but because their spoken (German) was not good enough, they couldn’t go; for translation, at least fluent communication is necessary.

So many students who are not proficient in languages stay in Europe to continue their German studies. However, schools cannot support them indefinitely, so they can only intern at companies under Heixinggen, working while learning German. This is faster than studying in school, as most of their colleagues are German, providing a better language environment.

Students with excellent grades (good at German) are transferred to East Africa to enter the military and local government, responsible for coordination work.

Since European native students were enrolled late, early interns in Heixinggen factories were all Chinese.

Rob Lee was the person chosen by Ernst, and just from the name, one could tell he was previously Chinese.

Rob Lee previously interned with German workers at the Venice shipyard and was later transferred to work in Hamburg.

As one of the few Chinese students working in a shipyard, he was selected to go to East Africa to guide shipyard construction work.

Despite having only over a year of work experience, the shipyards in Venice and Hamburg both built ocean-going ships, and Rob Lee also learned about the construction of ocean-going ships.

Therefore, going to East Africa to guide the Mwanza shipyard work seemed like overkill.

Hundreds of workers, under the guidance of Rob Lee and German technicians, leveled the coastal land, cut down trees, and cleared rubble.

This time, it wasn’t just Rob Lee; there was also a German technician involved, but he was only responsible for work in the first few months and would return to Germany afterward.

The fact that this German technician came to East Africa was already due to a substantial payment, a risky gamble. As an experienced shipworker, his economic conditions in Germany were already good, much better than average.

Thus, he just planned to make a quick profit and leave, given the poor conditions in East Africa, lacking even entertainment facilities, coupled with his understanding of Africa (Prussian compulsory education includes geography), he naturally did not intend to stay permanently.

Quickly, under the command of the two, a large open space was cleared by workers on the south side of the peninsula, and the surrounding areas were planned with reserved land for construction and roads.

To ensure the shipyard starts production early, Rob Lee decided to start on both land and water, constructing the shipyard’s land-based workshops and roads while relying on the waterbody to build docks.

The Great Lake region receives ample rainfall, the forests are dense, providing an inexhaustible source of timber.

The Mwanza government organized the populace to cut wood, providing raw materials support for shipyard construction work.

These trees are high-quality materials that have grown for many years, but due to the backward indigenous productivity, they lack the ability to exploit these trees on a large scale, thus benefiting the East African colony.

The design scale of the shipyard is not large, and the technical requirements are not too high either. Most of the materials for the ship hull come from local timber.

Even though it’s a shipyard in Africa, production equipment still needs to be imported from Europe. Although due to geographical reasons, transportation of this equipment is challenging, the impact is minimal.

Besides production equipment, some parts, including ship nails and ship paint, need to be imported.

Although the Mwanza shipyard is small and would not stand out in Europe, it will be recorded in history as being the first to use engines and custom-made propellers produced by the Berlin Energy Power Company.

Currently, many technologies of Berlin Energy Power Company are stored and not used in Europe, whereas East Africa has no such concerns. Here, it is under Ernst’s control, so there’s no fear of leaks.

This specialized engine for boating is tested here, measuring its data and performance, effectively paving an early waterway for future products of Berlin Energy Power Company.

Currently, these important components are manufactured in closed factories under Berlin Energy Power Company and shipped to East Africa by sea.

The shipbuilding workers in East Africa only need to complete the assembly according to the design drawings.

This type of boat equipped with an engine is essentially a small speedboat, with a wooden hull shaped like a willow leaf that runs extremely fast once the engine is started.

Placed in previous generations, such an extremely simple boat could easily be replicated by ordinary people with gathered materials, certainly considered insignificant.

However, in this era, such a boat using a petroleum engine is the most advanced boat of its size.

These speedboats require power generated from petroleum, which needs to be imported, but if not in a hurry, one can also use oars to glide slowly.

Aside from these engine-equipped boats, the Mwanza shipyard primarily produces non-engine small fishing boats.

The engine-equipped speedboats will be prioritized for forming lake troops (navy), while traditionally powered small boats will be provided to fishermen in Mwanza and Kisumu.

Although Kisumu is not close to Mwanza, once the boats are built, using speedboats with ropes can tow a large batch of regular small fishing boats to Kisumu.

Thus, the Mwanza shipyard, once completed, is sufficient to meet the demand for boats in Mwanza and Kisumu (after all, the combined population of both cities is only 26,000 currently).

In the future, Mwanza and Kisumu are designated important cities in East Africa. The local environment has a high carrying capacity, abundant water sources, and rich resources, making Africa suitable for population gathering, and the development of fishery resources is a crucial step in its growth.