C. S. Forester, The African Queen

The African Queen is an interesting story of a journey through the heart of Africa during the days of international conflict of WW I. Rose Sayer is the sister of a missionary living in the heart of Africa. After he dies of sickness, she is left alone in the midst of the continent. She encounters Allnutt, a pilot of a small steam-powered launch for a mining company. The Germans have just come through and conscripted every able-bodied African to fight against the advancing British and Allied forces, and Rose has found herself alone. So she heads off with Allnutt. After they've been on the launch a few days, she gets the patriotic idea that she wants to make a difference in the war, and do something to the Germans, who she blames for her brothers death (the taking away of the people to whom he was ministering took the purpose and fruit of his work away and caused him to despair, she thought). So they begin the treacherous journey down river to the lake at the end, where a German boat, the only boat on the lake other than small native canoes, rules the waters and stands guard against advancing forces. Their journey is a time for Rose to develop and mature, as she begins to make her own decisions and realise her own strength, after a life living in deference to her father and then to her missionary brother. During their journey, her an Allnutt also fall in love.

Along with the story of development of these two characters, they are undertaking a difficult journey down almost uncharted waters. The first have to skirt a German outpost on the river, and make it by with only a few shots fired at them. They next must navigate the launch down the canyon toward the lake, a journey full of eddies, rocks, and rapids. Allnutt mans the boiler, which needs constant attention to keep the pressure where it needs to be without blowing out the fragile seals, and Rose handles the tiller. Along the way they damage the shaft and screw of the boat, and need to do some make-shift repairs, which Allnutt manages. After finally making it to the lake, a journey that has only been accomplished once before, they see the German boat. Their plan is to make their little lanuch, The African Queen, into a torpedo and run it into the German boat. And they set out to do just that, but on the night the try it, a storm comes up and sinks the launch before they make it out to the German boat. Both of them are eventually captured, but the Germans don't know what to make of them, and turn them over to the advancing British forces. The British, in turn, manage to sink the German boat. They also send Allnutt and Rose off to the coast, him to join the army and her to go back to England, but the two of them decide when they get to the coast that they will get married, and that is where we leave them.

It wasn't a bad book. The development of the characters was interesting, as was the African setting. Reminiscent in some ways of Conrad's Heart of Darkness.