African Entrepreneurship Record

After the battle of Lamu Bay, Grand Duke Ferdinand felt disheartened; over a decade of effort destroyed in just a few hours confirmed the greatest unpredictability of naval warfare.

However, there was no time for him to be sentimental now; he still had to clean up the mess, including the half-dead ironclad ships at sea and a large number of personnel needing rescue.

In this battle, although East Africa suffered heavy losses, the overall result was still acceptable. The entire fleet was not annihilated, and the British expeditionary fleet also suffered severe damage.

East Africa should be thankful for the Indian Ocean; the scarcity of islands here to some extent inhibited the British from resting and continuing their offensive. The nearest British naval base to East Africa’s core maritime area was in the Seychelles, and the British expeditionary fleet’s escape route was likely in that direction. However, the Seychelles lacked the capacity to support the maintenance of the British expeditionary fleet, so it could only serve as a transfer station.

”Report to Your Excellency, the Grand Duke, so far we have rescued more than five hundred of our sailors and captured over seven hundred British troops, along with two British ironclad ships,” a soldier announced.

Finally receiving some good news, Grand Duke Ferdinand felt somewhat comforted. The capture of two British ironclad ships could be seen as a supplement to the East African Navy, and although they had been subjected to varying degrees of shelling and were stranded at sea, as long as they had not sunk, they could be towed back to East Africa for repairs.

Even if repairs were impossible, it didn’t matter. As the world’s leading naval power, Britain was unparalleled in shipbuilding technology, and these two British warships could fill many gaps in East Africa’s military shipbuilding industry.

Of course, this was a future consideration. The East African Navy itself had two ironclad ships sunk, and the remaining ones were not in great condition either, so they probably couldn’t rejoin the battlefield in the short term. In this sense, the East African Navy did suffer somewhat greater losses.

Because it was wartime, nobody could guarantee that the British Royal Navy wouldn’t make a comeback. Currently, the number of warships East Africa could deploy had sharply decreased, while Britain hadn’t really been weakened.

Specifically, based on this year’s British shipbuilding plan, Britain had drawn up a plan to build ten battleships, forty-two cruisers, and eighteen torpedo boats over the next five years, investing over twenty million British Pounds.

Conceivably, Britain’s shipbuilding capacity was such that they could make up for the losses suffered in this battle of Lamu Bay within a year.

This highlights the differences resulting from the national conditions of the East African, Austro-Hungarian, and German navies. The East African Navy, while an emerging naval force that could rival both countries,

had entirely different responsibilities. Although the Austro-Hungarian and German navies were quite limited, one being blocked in the Baltic Sea and the other in the Adriatic Sea, they only needed a small navy to blockade the seas near their own countries.

The defensive pressure wasn’t significant, whereas the East African coastline alone in the east was over four thousand kilometers, directly facing the Indian Ocean, with a lack of large islands or island chains nearby for cover. This meant enemies could strike the East African coast from multiple directions.

Therefore, even though East Africa held one of the top ten naval forces globally, it was indeed insufficient for its needs, much like the East African railway network. Although the total length of the East African railway could also rank among the top ten in the world, it apparently couldn’t meet domestic demand.

Furthermore, the East African maritime position, primarily in the Indian Ocean region, while not optimal, was closer to the world’s center compared to a ”remote” continent like America.

East Africa occupied a certain share of the primary trade routes across the Eurasian continent, which also meant the challenges facing the East African Navy were greater. The good news, however, was that Asian countries currently had relatively weak naval strength, unable to pose a threat to East Africa.

Yet Britain had its largest base in South Asia on the Indian subcontinent, as well as a penal colony in Australia.

So whether from the European or Asian direction, the biggest threat to the East African Navy was the British.

If the British home navy could directly sail south to threaten the South Atlantic, East Africa wouldn’t invest an excessive amount of naval military forces there; deploying the main naval force elsewhere would lead to quick obsolescence within half a year.

In the Indian Ocean region, the East African Navy still had the ability to resist, especially with its three major naval bases forming a core triangle formation at Bajamojo, Bemba Island, and Zanzibar, effectively safeguarding the East African Navy’s security.

This was also the main reason Grand Duke Ferdinand kept half of the naval force before the outbreak of the Lamu Bay battle; until the British expeditionary fleet’s location was confirmed, the East African Navy couldn’t mobilize completely. If their home was raided, the East African Navy might be in danger of total annihilation.

All things considered, the overall combat performance of the East African Navy wasn’t bad, given that it was the underdog, and their opponent was the world’s number one. For a fledgling East African Navy, the battle of Lamu Bay matched the paper strength of their navy.

”Send the prisoners to Bajamojo and prioritize rescuing our crew. As for the British, treat them only after our people are taken care of, but the treatment process must be strictly controlled to avoid problems arising from emotional impulses,” said Grand Duke Ferdinand.

The primary concern was that East African doctors might seize the opportunity for retaliation against the British sailors, as the war between the two countries had officially broken out, and this battle had just been fought. The East African Navy was relatively young and prone to emotional reactions.

”The soldiers and ships that participated in this battle currently cannot operate. Let them rest at the rear; assign sea patrols to other ships. After the Lamu Bay battle, our naval ship numbers decreased significantly, so we must use the remaining naval vessels wisely. The main force will still remain in Bajamojo. If the British Navy returns, do not engage immediately. Try to find the nearest port and rely on coastal defense artillery systems to maneuver with the enemy.”

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In reality, Britain had no intention of returning. Although the British Empire’s foundation was strong, it could not afford such squandering.

And the proposal in 1888 for a five-year shipbuilding plan was essentially a response to the rapidly increasing global naval power dynamics.

East Africa faced significant defense pressure, but the British Royal Navy faced even more so, as every ocean in the world was Britain’s domain of activity.

The British Royal Navy’s expeditionary force in the Lamu Bay battle had been drawn from the Mediterranean Fleet, which, as the second strongest naval force after the home navy, was already somewhat dissatisfied with having military forces diverted south.

After all, with so many countries in the Mediterranean, like France, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, and Spain, which wasn’t more important than East Africa? And none of their naval forces were weak.

This didn’t even account for the Russian Navy blocked in the Black Sea and some of the smaller Mediterranean nations’ navies, like Italy, Greece, and the Kingdom of Naples.

If the Lamu Bay battle had been won, it would have been acceptable, but currently, both sides were at a stalemate, a draw in terms of battle records, yet for the Mediterranean Fleet, it was a ”complete defeat.”

This was also what made the battle of Lamu Bay intriguing because both the East African and the British navies believed they had suffered the greater loss.

Now, the military force drawn from the Mediterranean Fleet was enough to overturn a country’s main naval force in Europe. It seemed a waste to use such naval power against an ”uncivilized” African country, with nearly half of the expeditionary fleet’s combat power lost—how could it be compensated?

If a sudden situation occurred in the Mediterranean region, how could the Mediterranean Fleet cope? Therefore, the Mediterranean Fleet was against continuing direct confrontation with the East African Navy and suggested letting the Royal Navy deal with it through the Royal Indian Navy in Mumbai or the home fleet.