Photograph Album - SS Ulysses - 1933 Voyage
 

This album is titled 'Book IV - Reminiscences of a Round Cruise in the S.S. Ulysses'. It contains one hundred seventy-seven photographs, of which over thirty are from Zululand. This historic journal was authored by Robert Toms (RT), who was 'Head' at Exeter Technical college in Devon UK - circa 1925. In this ablum, he refers to himself only once as R.T. Robert Toms travelled alone and offers here an unusually detailed account of a 1933 – 1934 voyage from Adelaide - Fremantle South Australia, onto Durban, Cape Town, Las Palmas and London.

 

 

 

The S.S. Ulysses - Blue Funnel Line

 

The S.S. Ulysses IV was commissioned by the The Blue Funnel Line, so called because its steamships had a blue funnel with a black top (above). The vessel was built as a first class passenger and cargo liner in Belfast in 1913 by Clark & Co. Ltd. It weighed 14652 tons and on average, consumed 100 tons of coal and 50 tons of fresh water each day at sea.

 

 

Itinerary - A Voyage in the ULYSSES - 1933 / 1934

R.T. boarded the ship at Liverpool on September 9 1933 on a three month journey ending January 10 1934. The ship steamed to Marseilles, docked at Port Said and Suez, then proceeded across the Indian Ocean to Colombo, Penang, Singapore, Batavia (Jakarta), Samarang, Sourabaya, Bali, Macassar and Thursday Island. The voyage continued to Cairns, Brisbane, Newcastle, Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide Australia, whereupon this album began. Of the twenty-one stops, most were for a day or a matter of hours, while only eight had a duration of two or three days. 

 

 

 

                                  Australian Lyre Bird                                                  World War I War Memorial

 

Regardless, R.T. spent every moment on land to the fullest. He showed keen interest in architecture, Australian birdlife and native South Africans. In very short order, he put together studies of scientific and factual information. In addition, he routinely recorded his cabin temperature and the nautical miles travelled each day. Taking this further, he detailed to the day - hour and even minute, the time it took to travel between each port of call.(Information available at the bottom of this page.)   

 

 

 

December 3rd 1933 - Australian wild flowers in three slabs of ice.

 

En route to South Africa, R.T wrote: “Today we had on display three slabs of ice, about 5 feet long, 2 feet broad and 1 foot thick. Each slab contained specimens of Australian wild flowers, presented to the ship by the Australian Government Railways. They have now been placed on the deck to melt, then the flowers will be used for table decorations.”

 

 

 

Zulu Ricksha Pullers - Centre image R.T. - December 16 1933

 

An image of R.T. appears twice in the album. Above he is seen photographed in a Zulu Rickshaw. His use of the word 'splendour' attached with the word 'barbaric' defines the moment of the day. The text below appears above the Ricksha photographs and gives the reader insight to the historic notes recorded throughout the album.
 

DURBAN - SOUTH AFRICA

By popular account the credit of discovering Natal belongs to Vasco da Gama, the great Portuguese navigator, who, on Christmas Day, 1497, is said to have seen this land and gave it the appropriate name it now carries. For over three centuries after this intrepid explorer had stood away from her shores, Natal was little known to the rest of the world. But little over a century ago - in 1823 - the brig Salisbury (from which the picturesque island in Durban Bay derives its name0 bore from the Cape the man who was virtually the founder of the first settlement that finally became Durban. He was Lieutenant Farewell of the marines, and from Chaka, the chief of the mighty Zulu nation, he secured the cession of a 25-mile strip of coast one hundred miles in depth. The following year he returned from the Cape with a small band of pioneers. These was formed the nucleus of the young colony of Natal, and from these weak beginnings did Durban spring. In 1843 Natal was formally proclaimed the British Territory, and in 1854 Durban, which in 1835 had been named D'Urban after Sir Benjamin D'Urban the then Governor of the Cape, was granted its seal of incorporation as a Borough. In 1854 the European population numbered 1,204. To-day there is a European population of 76,264. Including the non-European population the total is 217,134. 

According to current government statistics (2011), the population of Durban is 2,523,601, of which 14% are Europeans (+ - 353,220).
 

 

 

Zululand - Valley of a Thousand Hills - 1933

 

The following day R.T. set off for the Valley of a Thousand Hills. What follows is the narrative showing selected photographs from the album. (The full set is copied at the bottom of this page.) Many of the photographs taken are well known (purchased) and others not.

Sunday, December 17th. – This morning we set off by car for a 75 miles run into the heart of the Valley of a Thousand Hills, which was given by Queen Victoria as a reserve for the natives of Zululand. The first part of our tour being through banana groves, pineapple fields and magnificent hill and mountain scenery. Climbing 3,000 feet in about the first 25 miles, we reached Botha’s Hill and looked into the hollow, where, amidst trees, is the little farmhouse that was General Botha’s birthplace.

 

 

Valley of a Thousand Hills - 1933 - Watershed of the Umgeni River

The Valley of a Thousand Hills is really the watershed of the Umgeni River. It is a series of granite heights stretching for miles in steep serrated waves. In the far distance are flat topped mountains characteristic of the eastern side of South Africa. The hills are of granite, lightly covered with red soil. There are few trees, and those mostly cacti. The Zulu reserve is within this valley, approached by a track turning sharp to the right beyond Botha’s Hill, and there are heavy penalties for any white person trespassing into the Reserve without a permit.

 

Our car owner has a permit to take tourists, and in due course we commenced our journey of ten miles to the Chief’s kraal. The views are splendid, and perched on the little hills are kraals, each surrounded by a bush fence. In the centres are cattle enclosures, and round a main communal beehive hut, where the younger members of the family sleep, are the small huts of the wives. One may tell the number of wives by the number of huts – to each wife a hut.

 

 

 

Interior of a Zulu Hut or Kraal.

 

I do not think that I have ever experienced anything like those ten miles to the Chief’s kraal. The way wanders over the hills. It is not really a road, but just a rough track full of hollows and lumps, over which our cars rolled in a drunken fashion. Every other minute one expected to be thrown out into the veldt. In a number of places the gradient is one in three! The soil is very friable, and the surface and sides of the track are apt to slide away after rain. The car proprietor told us that he engaged natives to fill up the worst holes as they appear, but it is not uncommon for the surface to change in twenty-four hours. “That one wasn’t here when I was out two days ago,” he said, as we lurched horribly over and around a gaping chasm, which ought to have broken every spring and the back axle. At times we were thrown off our seats, but the driving was marvellous.

 

 

 

Zulu Children

 

When we had penetrated five or six miles we found many Zulu children to greet us, ages from two to ten years. Most of them had a string of beads adoring their necks, some wore their beads as a waistbelt, but scores of them were stark naked. They clamoured for pennies and sweets.

Presently a party of warriors passed us, decked out in feathers and waving plumes, each carrying a shield, assegais and knobkerrie stick, also an umbrella. Our guide told us that they were off to a wedding. Evidently the twentieth-century savage does not like to get his finery wet.

 

 

 

Fine Specimens of Zulus

 

In this wildest part of Natal it is very interesting to be able to see some of the native tribal life among the famous fighting Zulu race which in time past swept Natal from end to end. Although to-day, the Zulus, like other native races, are amenable to European rule, and the kraal conditions and primitive life are much the same as in the days of the impis of Chaka and Cetewayo charged with assegais aloft.

 

 

Zulu Warriors - 1933

 

We lurched on our way to the Chief’s Kraal, horn blowing to notify our approach, and to collect the natives a distance round. The Chief is a well set up man of middle-age. He has seven wives and 23 children to date, so the kraal is necessarily extensive. Passing within the ring fence, attended by a horde of children, we were invited by the Chief to enter the community hut, which is round in plan, and has a low entrance, but no window or chimney. Being large, the framework of twigs is supported by three pillars. Between the first and second pillar we found the smouldering ashes of a fire, and long cobweby smuts depended from the roof above it. The unmarried women and girls sleep on one side, the bachelors and boys on the other. On the men’s side a very young calf was tethered. This hut, and the others is thatched with reed-like grass.

 

 

 

Zulu Chief with Seven Wives - 1933 - Valley of a Thousand Hills

The domestic details of the interior of the kraal were explained to us by our driver-guide. We then emerged into the sunlight to find thirty or forty Zulu men and women, and a large number of children awaiting us. First the men – the warriors - posed with shields and assegais, to be photographed. They are excellent actors and struck savage attitudes, eyes rolling and teeth grinding – quite terrifying. Then the women were posed. Amongst them were the seven spouses of the Chief – strapping women, their clothing a waistcloth, and a few strings of beads.

 

 

Zulu Women with Lady Passenger - 1933 - Valley of a Thousand Hills

Other members of the ship’s party arrived, making our number up to about sixty. We had been warned not to give indiscriminate alms; we each contributed a shilling, which the driver-guide distributed, so much to the Chief, and a sixpence to each of the other adults. That did not prevent the women and children asking for “tickies” (threepence), but they were in no sense objectionable, or unduly persistent. The children indeed, were remarkably well behaved.

 

 

 

Zulu women crushing mealies - mending a pot and fetching water at the spring.

The women and children found a ready sale for their bead necklaces, which are love tokens. Each has a pendant square, of different design and colour, and each has its own meaning. A love-sick maiden sends a love token to the young man she fancies, if he wears it, all is well, and the haggling between families to decide how many cattle the man shall give for his bride begins. If the maid suspects her man of vagrant fancies, she sends him a token with green as its predominant colour, Red, blue, white – each conveys a specific message to those who know the language of the beads.

 

 

Zulu warriors selling shield, spears, assegais and knobkerries at tourist gathering in 1933.

 

After the photographing, the warriors became busy offering weapons – shields, spears, assegais and knobkerries – for sale. They were small shields of black and white cowhide mounted on a short tufted staff. The large shields are not in evidence except when a tribal fight is being waged. We gathered that such fights are not infrequent in the Reserve. The latest serious on, we were told, raged around the last wife of the Chief. He had brought her from across the river, which apparently caused the offence. The consequence we were told, was a battle royal in which several warriors were killed and many wounded.

 

 

 

Hill Crest Hotel - Travelers aboard the SS Ulysses - December 17 1933

 

We rejoined our cars and jolted our way out to the main road, and then on to the Hill Crest Hotel for lunch, which is situated at 2,225 feet above sea level. The return journey being made through the beautiful Sarnia Valley and south coast to the Fairy Dene Hotel for afternoon tea, 1,100 feet above sea level, giving wonderful views over the valley and the hill in the distance.  Lastly we had a magnificent view from the Berea, overlooking the town and bay.

It is noteworthy that R.T. recorded the elevations of the Hill Crest Hotel lunch stop and Fairy Dene Hotel tea stop. Imagine this. He also records that the Ulysses travelled 4410 nautical miles from Fremantle Australia to Durban South Africa, taking 14 days and 25 minutes. It then travelled 818 nautical miles from Durban to Cape Town, taking 2 days, 15 hours and 4 minutes. He records that the steamship then travelled 4500 nautical miles from Cape Town to Las Palmas, taking 13 days, 18 hours and 46 minutes. In total, 30 days 11 hours and 15 minutes were spent traveling at full speed from Australia to the UK.

 

According to the album's content, it is clear that the highlight of R.T.'s Southern African trip was Zululand. In exchange for 2 days, 9 hours and 44 minutes in Zululand and 1 day, 9 hours and 58 minutes in Cape Town, R.T. spent over 30 days travelling and the Ulysses burned over 3000 metric tonnes of coal. 

 

 

 

R.T. atop Table Mountain - Cape Town South Africa - December 22 1933

 

We do not know what became of Robert Toms or the three other albums. What we do know is what he had for Christmas dinner 1933 and also that this was not his first Christmas meal aboard the Ulysses. Scroll down to view the menu. Learn how they collected a stowaway off the coast of West Africa and how R.T. spent his 12 hours in the Canary Islands.

 

You may also enjoy the 'The SS Ulysses Story', where you will learn of its war encounters, both before and after R.T.'s 1933 - 1934 three month trip.