''African Queen'' (also known as ''S/L Livingstone'') was the name of two boats used in the 1951 movie '' The African Queen'' starring Humprey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn. It was filmed in the

Belgian Congo The Belgian Congo (french: Congo belge, ; nl, Belgisch-Congo) was a Belgian colony in Central Africa from 1908 until independence in 1960. The former colony adopted its present name, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), in 1964. Colo ...

on a tributary of the

Congo River The Congo River ( kg, Nzâdi Kôngo, french: Fleuve Congo, pt, Rio Congo), formerly also known as the Zaire River, is the second longest river in Africa, shorter only than the Nile, as well as the second largest river in the world by discharge ...

, and on the

Nile The Nile, , Bohairic , lg, Kiira , Nobiin: Áman Dawū is a major north-flowing river in northeastern Africa. It flows into the Mediterranean Sea. The Nile is the longest river in Africa and has historically been considered the longest ...

in the

Murchison Falls National Park Murchison Falls National Park (MFNP) is a national park in Uganda and managed by the Ugandan Wildlife Authority. It is in north-western Uganda, spreading inland from the shores of Lake Albert, around the Victoria Nile, up to the Karuma Falls. ...

in Uganda. Two boats were utilised, one in each location. One of the boats is now located in Key Largo, Florida and on February 18, 1992, was added to the U.S.

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

. The other is located in Jinja, Uganda.

History

The Congo boat

This ''African Queen'' was a 30-foot steam boat built of riveted sheet iron in 1912 in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

for service in Africa on the

Victoria Nile The White Nile ( ar, النيل الأبيض ') is a river in Africa, one of the two main tributaries of the Nile, the other being the Blue Nile. The name comes from the clay sediment carried in the water that changes the water to a pale color. ...

and Lake Albert where the movie was filmed in 1950. Originally named ''Livingstone'', she was built for the British East Africa Railway and used from 1912 to 1968. It spent most of its first 50 years operating in the waters of the Ruki River in the northern Democratic Republic of Congo where she was used to transport hunters, mercenaries, and cargo. According to an article on its 2012 restoration, it was built by Lytham Shipbuilding and Engineering Co., as evidenced by the boiler plate and

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancash ...

records. The boat was found in

Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the Capital city, capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, List of ...

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Medit ...

in the 1970s, with coal still in its

bilge The bilge of a ship or boat is the part of the hull that would rest on the ground if the vessel were unsupported by water. The "turn of the bilge" is the transition from the bottom of a hull to the sides of a hull. Internally, the bilges (usu ...

s. Purchased and shipped to the United States, it has had a succession of owners and is currently held in trust. It was refurbished in 2012, including installation of an interior steel hull frame and new boiler, and restored to service as a tourist boat.

The Nile boat

The other ''African Queen'' was built in 1950 for the film purposes and was discovered by Yank Evans, a Patagonian mechanical engineer who'd come across what was left of the vessel while working on the roads in Murchison Falls National Park, Uganda in 1984. "Yank came across a carcass of a steel boat, in the bushes there just left to rot. He asked the locals what this was and they said well that's the ''African Queen''. So he bought it off the National Parks for $1." Evans, who had worked on the boat with his son Billy and gave her a steam engine then stored the boat when he moved to Kenya in 1997 and her new home became a trailer in the garden. Cam McLeay, a Kiwi who lived in Uganda for ten years with his family, purchased the Nile ''African Queen'' after hearing her story and set to finishing the restorations and getting the boat's original steam engine functioning and in the water. McLeay and his team rebuilt the ''African Queens century-old Brady steam engine and replating the hull and replacing over 100 pipes, sourcing parts mostly from the UK but also from within Uganda.

Gallery

File:African-Queen-Key-Largo.JPG, alt=, The African Queen under a canvas canopy in 2009 File:African Queen - Key Largo.jpg, The African Queen, June 2020

References

External links

*
Monroe County listings at National Register of Historic Places

Monroe County listings at Florida's Office of Cultural and Historical Programs
*https://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/jan/20/african-queen-boat-takes-tourists-back-on-nile *https://www.nzherald.co.nz/entertainment/news/article.cfm?c_id=1501119&objectid=11150624 {{DEFAULTSORT:African Queen (Boat) National Register of Historic Places in Monroe County, Florida Steamboats Tourist attractions in the Florida Keys Ships on the National Register of Historic Places in Florida