Dreadnought hoax

Dreadnought hoax
The Dreadnought Hoaxers in Abyssinian regalia; Virginia Woolf is the bearded figure on the far left

The Dreadnought Hoax was a practical joke pulled by Horace de Vere Cole in 1910. Cole tricked the Royal Navy into showing their flagship, the warship HMS Dreadnought to a supposed delegation of Abyssinian royals. The hoax drew attention in Britain to the emergence of the Bloomsbury Group.

Contents

Chronology

The hoax involved Cole and five friends—writer Virginia Stephen (later Virginia Woolf), her brother Adrian Stephen, Guy Ridley, Anthony Buxton and artist Duncan Grant—who disguised themselves with skin darkeners and turbans. The disguise's main limitation was that the "royals" could not eat anything or their make-up would be ruined. Adrian Stephen took the role of "interpreter".

On 7 February 1910 the hoax was set in motion. Cole organised for an accomplice to send a telegram to HMS Dreadnought which was then moored in Portland, Dorset. The message said that the ship must be prepared for the visit of a group of princes from Abyssinia and was purportedly signed by Foreign Office Under-secretary Sir Charles Hardinge.

Cole with his entourage went to London's Paddington station where Cole claimed that he was "Herbert Cholmondeley" of the UK Foreign Office and demanded a special train to Weymouth; the stationmaster arranged a VIP coach.

In Weymouth, the navy welcomed the princes with an honour guard. An Abyssinian flag was not found, so the navy proceeded to use that of Zanzibar and to play Zanzibar's national anthem.

The group inspected the fleet. To show their appreciation, they communicated in a gibberish of words drawn from Latin and Greek; they asked for prayer mats and attempted to bestow fake military honours on some of the officers. An officer familiar with both Cole and Virginia Stephen failed to recognise either.

When the prank was uncovered in London, the ringleader Horace de Vere Cole contacted the press and sent a photo of the "princes" to the Daily Mirror. The group's pacifist views were considered a source of embarrassment, and the Royal Navy briefly became an object of ridicule. The Navy later demanded that Cole be arrested. However, Cole and his compatriots had not broken any law. The Navy sent two officers to cane Cole as a punishment but Cole countered that it was they who should be caned because they had been fooled in the first place.

Aftermath

During the visit to Dreadnought, the visitors had repeatedly shown amazement or appreciation by exclaiming, "Bunga! Bunga!" When the real Emperor of Ethiopia, Menelik II, visited England some time later, he was chased by children shouting "Bunga! Bunga!". Ironically, the Emperor afterward requested to view the Navy's facilities, but the senior Admiralty officer in charge declined to grant his request—possibly to avoid further embarrassments.[1]

In 1915 during the First World War, HMS Dreadnought rammed and sank a German submarine. Among the telegrams of congratulation was one that read "BUNGA BUNGA".[2]

Contemporary media coverage

References

  1. ^ Westcott, Kathryn (5 February 2011). "At last - an explanation for 'bunga bunga'". BBC News. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-12325796. 
  2. ^ Jack Broome, Make Another Signal, William Kimber (1973), ISBN 0-7183-0193-5

Sources

External links


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужна курсовая?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • HMS Dreadnought (1906) — For other ships of the same name, see HMS Dreadnought. Dreadnought at sea; note the torpedo net booms folded against her side Class overview Name …   Wikipedia

  • Canular du Dreadnought — Les participants au canular. À l extrême gauche : Virginia Woolf. À l extrême droite : Cole. Le canular du Dreadnought fut une grosse farce organisée par Horace de Vere Cole en 1910. Cole réussit à tromper la Royal Navy, qui fit visiter …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Мистификация на «Дредноуте» — Мистификаторы «Дредноута» в одежде «абиссинцев». Вирджиния Вулф  крайняя слева. Мистификация на «Дредноуте»  спланированная мистификация розыгрыш, устроенная британским аристрократом …   Википедия

  • List of hoaxes — The following are lists of hoaxes: Proven hoaxes These are some claims that have been revealed to be deliberate public hoaxes. This list does not include hoax articles published on or around April 1, a long list of which can be found in the April …   Wikipedia

  • Adeline Virginia Stephen — Porträt Virginia Woolf, 1902. Fotografie von George Charles Beresford Virginia Woolf [vəˈdʒɪnjə wʊlf] (* 25. Januar 1882 in London als Adeline Virginia Stephen; † 28. März 1941 bei L …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Virginia Woolf — Porträt Virginia Woolf, 1902. Fotografie von George Charles Beresford Virginia Woolf [vəˈdʒɪnjə wʊlf] (* 25. Januar 1882 in London; † 28. März 1941 …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Kenneth Dewar — Infobox Military Person name=Kenneth Gilbert Balmain Dewar honorific suffix = CBE born=birthdate|df=yes|1879|9|21 died=death date and age|df=yes|1964|9|8|1879|9|21 caption=Vice Admiral Kenneth Dewar (as a Captain) nickname= placeofbirth=… …   Wikipedia

  • Virginia Woolf — Infobox Writer name = (Adeline) Virginia Stephen Woolf birthdate = birth date|1882|1|25|df=y birthplace = London, England deathdate = death date and age|1941|3|28|1882|1|25|df=yes deathplace = near Lewes, East Sussex, England spouse = Leonard… …   Wikipedia

  • Horace de Vere Cole — William Horace de Vere Cole (5 May 1881–25 February 1936) was a British eccentric prankster. His most famous trick was the Dreadnought hoax in 1910 when he fooled the captain of the famous Royal Navy warship HMS Dreadnought (1906) into taking… …   Wikipedia

  • Virginia Woolf — Nombre …   Wikipedia Español

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”