We Were Boating

“We were boating,” is one of the most famous lines of dialogue uttered by Rose Sayer (played by consummate actress Katharine Hepburn) in the 1951 vintage comedy , The African Queen. Rose was responding to interrogation directed at her and African Queen skipper Charlie Alnutt (played by Academy Award winner Humphrey Bogart) about their presence on Lake Victoria in Africa by the captain of a real life World War I German steamship, Konigin Luise (pronounced Luisa) patrolling the waterway. (The Konigin Luise was used during the war to lay mines before she was sunk in 1914).

My Side Of Things

by LARRY GRIMALDI

upset at Charlie’s drinking that she dumps his entire stock of gin into the river while he is sleeping off his latest binge. His whining protests are hilarious.

The captain wants answers before he hangs Mr. Alnutt (as Rose, the proper Queen Victoria era lady, refers to him throughout the movie and he calls her “Miss”) for trespassing and espionage. The movie was adapted from a book of the same name written by Britain’s C. F. Forester (hence its English flavor) in 1935 and is considered to be mostly historically accurate.

The classic film was directed by the legendary John Huston. Much of the movie is devoted to the snappy exchanges between the protagonists. On a recent visit to Key Largo, where the African Queen is now moored, my wife Kathy and I sailed on this legendary steamship.

Set in 1914, the grungy, gin-swilling Alnutt makes his living piloting his ramshackle essel ferrying supplies and cargo to mercenaries, missionaries, and transporting hunting parties along Lakes Victoria Nile and Uganda. (In one key departure from the legends surrounding the movie, Bogart and Huston drank only whiskey during filming and Hepburn drank only water, contracting dysentery). Rose and her brother Samuel are English missionaries in the village of Kungdu. They are unaware that World War I is raging until Alnutt advises them of the conflict as he warns them that it will probably be impossible for him to return.

One particularly funny scene has the disheveled, alcohol imbibing captain reluctantly sipping tea with the pious couple. While Rose wants to leave, Samuel declines to abandon his mission. Invading German soldiers soon burn down the mission and severely beat Samuel. He dies a short time later. After they bury Samuel, Rose and Charlie steam down the treacherous, seemingly unnavigable Ulanga River seeking safety and refuge from the war.

Along the way, they encounter alligators, a swarm of black flies, Charlie becomes covered with leeches, mimic a playful herd of hippos, brave the river rapids and later dodge gunfire from the Konogin Luise. At one point, Charlie dives under the river to repair a broken propellor, then drags the Queen through a thick mass of reeds until the boat becomes beached on a sand bar. One of the funniest scenes in the movie occurs when Rose finally becomes so

Rose convinces Charlie that it’s his patriotic duty to aid England sink the Konigin Louise. Finally, he reluctantly agrees to her plan and carves holes in the hull of his steamship, arming it with makeshift torpedoes fashioned from hydrogen stored on the boat. When the Queen becomes beached and their hopes of destroying the warship are apparently dashed, a heavy rain lifts the boat from the sand bar and onto the lake. Rough seas ultimately pitch Charlie and Rose out of their craft and they are plucked from the lake by the crew of the Konigin Luise. What happens after that? You will have got see the film to find out!

The history of the African Queen and its journey to Key Largo is fascinating. She was built in Lytham, England in 1912 and steamed along African rivers for more than three decades. In 1968, the Queen was purchased by a restaurant owner from San Francisco and used as a charter.

In 1970, Oregon resident Hal Bailey, an Oregon bought the boat for the price of a shipyard bill and also chartered her. The business was so successful he decided to ship the Queen to Florida for year-round steamship tours and charters. In 1982, Bogart fan Jim Hendricks, Sr. discovered the boat in a state of disrepair sitting in a cow pasture in Ocala, Florida. He purchased the Queen for $65,000, refurbished her, and transported her to current berth in Key Largo. Over the years, Hendricks shipped her to England for the 90th birthday of Queen Elizabeth II, and the 50th anniversary of the World War II Battle of Dunkirk in the English Channel. After Hendricks’ death, Captain Lance and Suzanne Holmquist secured a longterm lease from his son and restored the boat for her 100-year anniversary in 2012.

Like Rosie and Charlie Alnutt,“we were boating” on the canals of Key Largo took spin around the Atlantic Ocean with African Queen Captain Dave. It was exciting to be on the same legendary steamship as American icons Hepburn and Bogart. That’s the closest we will ever come to being Hollywood stars. And while we are not at war or under the threat of execution, our odyssey into classic filmdom was great fun!

Larry Grimaldi is a freelance writer from North Providence. Many of his previous PrimeTime columns have been re-issued in the anthology, “50 Shades of Life, Love, and Laughter.” Columns published in this book are used with the permission of Beacon Communications. For more information about “50 Shades of Life, Love, and Laughter;”