Reflecting on the Hoax's Meaning

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Wherever you dine Points are piling up So bring your friends along for your next course because it's not all about the posts It's about the company and the memories. How can gold from MX sweeten your next food moment? Learn more at Americanexpress dot com slash explore dash gold. Terms and points cap apply Racist attitudes can be baked into the cake of our history. Go back and try to understand a moment from the past. The unexamined prejudices and biases of historical actors can sometimes go unnoticed. And then sometometimes They hit you square in the nose The story I want to tell you today deals with the type of ambient racism that can pervade a society It deals with prejudices that are entirely taken for granted cavalier way that degrading stereotypes are deployed by people not giving them much thought On Thursday, march second, nineteen oh five The Mor of Cambridge, England received a very exciting telegram The message had been sent from London's luxurious hotel Cecil by one Henry Lucas presumably some official from the British foreign offffice Telegram read, quote To the Mayor of Cambridge The Sultan of Zanzibar will arrive today at Cambridge at four hundred twenty seven for a short visit Could you arrange to show him buildings of interest and send a carriage? The mayor eagerly and politely responded in the affirmative Cambridge was, of course, home to the world famous University of the same name It was not entirely unusual for foreign dignitaries to tour England's prestigious educational institutions This type of tour seems to have been a first for Mayor Campkin who until recently had been a local pharmacist A few hours later, a second telegram arrived informing the mayor that there'd been a slight change of plans The visitor would actually be the sultan's uncle, Prince Mukasa Ali And the time of his arrival would be a touch later at five forty three At the appointed time, a train from London pulled into Cambridge where there was a carriage waiting to take the Zanzibari dignitaries to the town's guild haall to meet with the mayor The Zanzibari prince had come to Cambridge that day with a small entourage. including the Grand Vizier a ranking Zanzibari nobleman and a personal servant They also brought with them a boler capped Englishman who was to act as their interpreter, as the mayor was informed that unfortunately, none of the dignitaries spoke or understood English. Mayor Kampkin greeted the visitors with the appropriate pomp He presented the prince with a ceremonial guidebook of Cambridge, and the prince reciprocated with a gift of his own dorsal fin from the sacred shark of Zanzibar After touring a charity bazaar in the Gild Hall, a small crowd of curious townsfolk started to follow the exotically dressed entourage. From there, the group was led to the university, where they toured Kings's College and Trinity College. As they passed, young scholars doffed their caps or bowed to show respect to the august foreign guests. For their part, the royals seemed impressed by Cambridge and often gestured approvingly at the buildings while speaking to one another in their native tongue They seemed especially taken by Trinity College's Great Court, which was famous for being one of the largest enclosed courtyards in all of England And yet There was something about these visitors that struck at least onene of the guides as odd. The five men seemed strangely at home during the tour Around the time that the group came to the Great court, one clerk muttered to the mayor, quote, people seem to know their way about The tour was so brief that the mayor barely had time to find anything unusual It was made known through the interpreter that the prince and his companions were eager to catch the seven hundred five train back to London And so farewells were said quickly with a little less ceremony than might be expected and the group hurried back to the train station But what the mayor did not know was that this group had no intention of taking the train back to London The entourage got on the train They then frantically ran the length of the vehicle and stealthily exited at the far end, where hopefully they would not be noticed by the representatives from the mayor's office who had sent them off Now, why would they do something so strange If the group had gone back to London, it might have caused some trouble All of these fellows were technically due back in their dormitories at Cambridge by ten PM As you might have guessed Prince of Zanzibar did not actually visit Cambridge that day The whole thing had been a hoax pulled off by a group of irreverent undergraduates Pince, the Grand vizier, the nobleman, and the Zanzibaris servant. all in fact, Cambridge students. They had been made up in faux East African garb by a well known London costumer They'd also donned black face makeup and false beards in their attempt to fool the mayor Remarkably, the elaborate ruse had worked. Somehow, no one at Cambridge noticed that these men were wearing makeup No one knew enough about Zanibar to clock that their clothes were obviously stage costumes based on crude stereotypes No one noticed that the delegation spoke a fake language cobbled together from pigeon, Latin and Greek with an added dose of vaguely Arabic sounding gibberish No one had thought to ask if there was such a thing as the sacred shark of Zanzibar No one knew that the reigning Sultan of Zanzibar had been educated in England And as such, he and much of his household spoke English perfectly No one had noticed that when the dignitaries produced umbrellas to shield themselves and their makeup from the light rain One of them was monogrammed with the initials H. DVC This stood for Horace DeVre Cohle the name of the groups. infamous ringleader. DeVer Kole was the sire of an aristocratic Anglo Irish family who traced their lineage back to the Earls of Oxford. At the age of twenty four, he was already a veteran of the British A arrmy He had served during the Ber War and had been wounded while fighting in South Africa Cole had a lifelong love of mischief But his experience and injuries during the war had only made him more contemptuous of what he saw as unearned pretention He loved body and often racist music hall comedy popular at the time and the thrill associated with a daring practical joke. He also loved the limelight. The so called Zanzibar hoax might have remained a stunt remembered only by the perpetrators and a handful of Cambridge students in the K This escapade should have faded into obscurity But that wasn't the style of Horace DeVre Cole He needed the world to know what he had pulled off So He told the press Even better, he told the Daily Mail, the venerable English rag, whose founder literally coined the term tabloid journalism. just two days after the Cambridge tour The mail ran the headline Mayor host, Cambridge Undergraduatess daring trick opposed royal visit impostors received with civic honors Daily Mail's mocking coverage was then countered by the Cambridge Daily News, who ran the story with the caption A stupid hoax, mayor victimized by undergraduates The mayor himself was furious at being embarrassed. He took to the pulpit of the local Methodist church, where he condemned the hoaxers. Many assumed that DeVre Cole and his conspirators would be expelled from Cambridge But amazingly The whole thing managed to blow over with no serious consequences As Horace Cole's biographer, Martin Downer has pointed out Pranksters made a devious choice in targeting Cambridge's mayor and not the deans of the university Like many university towns, there had long been a tension between the upper crust university folk and the middle and working class townspeople the old town and gown divide to many of the aristocratic Cambridge men. The mayor was little more than an upjumped pharmacist with no pedigree. In their eyes, he was someone who deserved to be pranked. or as Downer puts it, DeVer Kole quote exploited snobism of one kind to humiliate pretension of another Cambridge decided to write the whole thing off as a joke Mor forced to swallow the humiliation Perhaps if the young DeVir Cole and his collaborators had faced some consequences History may have played out differently You see Even with the press coverage, the Zanzibar hoax should have been totally forgotten or look back upon as a little more than a relic of racially insensitive, music hall inspired collegiate pranks Instead, the brash young men behind the practical joke came out of it victorious boldened and a little famous No lessons were learned perpetrators would eventually strike again The Zanzibar hoax has been so well remembered because as a prelude to a much more audacious era defining stunt Five years after the prank at Cambridge Many of the same hoaxers would once again don theater costumes and black face and claim to be African royalty. this time, a delegation from the Kingdom of Abyssinia, or modern Ethiopia But on this occasion, they weren't just trying to embarrass a small town mayor target was the Royal Navy goal. gain access to the most important ship British fleet HMS Dreadnot argue that the Dreadnaought was more than just a ship Potentially the most important piece of military technology in the world The so called Dreadnought Hoax of nineteen ten. go down as one of the most preposterous impersonations of the Edwardian age This group of fake Ethiopians not only managed to gain access to Britain's most important floating weapon They were greeted with full honors and were given an in depth tour Adirally The hoax raised troubling questions about the competency of the Navy and the security of the British fleet at the time of heightened tensions with the German Empire in the lead up to the First World War How exactly did Horace DeVere Cole and his band of pranksters Get away with this further. How did it come to pass that Virginia Wolf one of the English languagage's most important modernist writers found herself. done up in black face and a false beard on the deck HMS Dreadnot on that fateful day One of the most interesting things about the Dreadnot Hoax is the range of emotions it has inspired At the time, reactions ranged from outrage to panic to bemused laughs Some found it hilarious, someome found it disrespectful Others thought it was downright treasonous Historians have been just as torn when it comes to evaluating the Dreadnot Hoax as a historical event Was this prank an indictment of British militarism and the lunacy of the naval arms race Was it meant to lampoon the arrogance of the Navy's officer class? Was it significant that one of the impostors was a woman in drag? And what should we make of the use of black face and racial stereotypes Some have argued that the racist attitudes and ignorance of the Dreadnoughts officers were being sent up. Others have said Ethiopians were being cruelly mocked Were the hoaxers considering any of this? or was the whole thing a weirdly personal, needlessly racist stunt orchestrated by some of England's most privileged people Let's see if we can figure it out today on our fake history Episode number two fifty one. What wasas the Dreadnot Hoax? Hello and welcome to O Fake History. My name is Sebastian Major, and this is the podcast where we explore historical myths Try to determine what's fact, what's fiction And what is such a good story, it simply must be told Before we get going this week, I just want to remind everyone listening that an ad free version of this podcast is available through Patreon And available now for all patrons is the brand new extra episode on the seeven wonders of the Ancient World Cocking in at a hefty two hours and eleven minutes This new extra is like a multip part Our fake history series served in one meaty package We've gotten some really wonderful messages from the patrons who all say that they've been enjoying it One of the nicest things I've heard was from a patron who was amazed at how much he learned from the show, even though he thought he already knew a ton about the wonders To me, that was high praise because that means that hopefully I found an original take on these amazing buildings which have been discussed for centuries Patrons at all levels get access to that new extra. Suort at three dollars and you get access to literally dozens of patrons only extras. Support at five dollars and you get all the extras, plus an ad free feed, a shout out at the end of the show, and that warm fuzzy feeling that comes with knowing that you're keeping this podcast Viable If you're interested, go to patreon. com slash our fake history. This week, we are turning our attention to a topic that has been lingering on my to do list for quite a long time As longtim listeners know, I'm always hunting for stories of audacious hoaxes to share on the podcast We've been steadily compiling a wonderful rogues gallery of impostors, con men, and humbug artists Dreadnot Hoax is one of those pranks that makes every list of history's greatest hoaxes. biographer Harry Greenwall called it, quote the greatest hoax that has ever been perpetrated in Great Britain. Richard Boston, who devoted himself to collecting famous jokes, dubbed it, quote, one of the century's greatest practical jokes, quote undeniable notoriety of the event has had it on my radar for quite some time I've waited to explore the Dreadnot Hoax on this show That's because the black face and racial caricatures employed in Horace DeVer Cole's pranks need to be addressed thoughtfully. We should recognize at the outset that Backface performance has a long and hurtful history. In our attempt to understand this event, we shouldn't forget the harm that's been caused by Black face Minstrely In many ways, we're still reckoning with the legacy of this racist performance style And I want to be respectful of that It's easy to tell this story in a way that celebrates the pranksters. And That is not what I'm interested in doing I've come back to this story I think it tells us something about how historians and other academics Simes look for meaning in events that might be meaningless At first blush, the Dreadnought hoax seems like it's loaded with meaning A group of pranksters managed to outwit the Royal Navy and were given an official tour of one of the most important ships on the planet They did this disguised as Abyssinian royalty The hoaxers wore black face, stereotypical music hall style costumes, And one of them was a cross dressing woman. successfully passed as a man. More incredibly crossdressing woman was none other than Virginia Steven go on to become the famous novelist and feminist thinker Virginia Wolf These facts make the Dreadnought hoax rich for dissection Many have assumed that the prank had to have been satirical And for some, the supposed satire of the prank softens the more problematic elements of the Dreadnot hoax. Part of the reason many have read the prank as satirical has to do with the undeniable historical significance of the Dreadnought itself The ship originally launched in nineteen oh six was lauded as a modern super weapon. At the time of the Hoax, it was not only recognized as the most important piece of military technology anywhere in the world But it had also come to symbolize British naval superiority and the global reach of the empire The Dreadnnau was more than a ship. It was a powerful totem of Edwardian confidence Therefore, it should perhaps come as no surprise that some scholars have interpreted this prank on the Dreadnot as a political statement, meant to lampoon British militarism and imperialism The hoax has been read as a deeply anti authoritarian stunt to mock Britain's rigid class structure reverence for the Amed serervices It's also been seen as a type of punk rock anti establishment gesture For instance, the biographer Hermione Lee has seen in the incident quote ridicule of empire, infiltration of the nation's defenses, mockery of bureaucratic procedures cross dressing and sexual ambiguity. She's also argued that the reaction to the hoax, quote served to turn the incident into the epitome of establishment pomposity versus anti establishment satire Qote. Some scholars have even argued that the hoaxers's costumes were a subversive way to reveal the prejudices of the naval officers who were being pranked For instance, the scholar SP. Rosenbaum argues that the hoax was quote veryer much an anti establishment class joke fininally, an anti imperialist one in which upper middle class costumed black faced gentlemen and a lady speaking gibberish could uncover the preposterous ignorance of the officers and sailors of the homeome fleet's flagship. their unique codes of martial honor Rosenbaum is suggesting that even though the pranksters employed Blackface The joke was firmly on the Dreadnaought's crew they could not tell white Britons in makeup from authentic Ethiopian people The scholar, Panthea Reid has taken this line of thought even further. She has suggested that by dressing up as Ethiopians, the hoaxers were engaged in a type of anti colonial activism in solidarity with African people She has written, quote enabling Abyssinian royalty to humiliate the most visible sign of English colonial power was the choice of a subtle mind I have a real hard time with that one Britainons in costume enabling Ethiopian empowerment I mean ind You see, the more I've learned about the Dreadnought hoax, the less convinced I've become of these interpretations When you get into the details of how this prank was conceived and what the hoaxers hoped to achieve with it The less it seems like an act of political theater and the more it seems like an unfocused, needlessly racist stunt When I was researching this time, I started to notice that many of the academics who offered the most elaborate defenses of the Dreadnot Hoax had something in common tended to be scholars who studied Virginia Wolf The last three people I cited Hermione Lee, SP. Rosenbaum and Panthea Reid are all either wolf biographers or English scholars with an interest in Virginia Wolf's writing How did Virginia Wolf get all twisted up in this? Wolf was born Virginia Stevenenss. brother, Adrianne Stephven, was attending Cambridge in nineteen oh five where he became close friends with Horace DeVre Cole Adrian was one of Cole's chief collaborators in the original Zanzibar hoax two remained close for years after that And in nineteen ten plan to hoax the Dreadnought emerged Adrian Stephven was living with his sister, Virginia in London's Fitzrooyy Square neighborhood. Virginia got involved because Horace and Adrian plotted the whole thing. at their shared home Now for those that don't know, Virginia Stehen would eventually be married and would take the name Virginia Wolf She would go on to distinguish herself as one of the most important English writers of her generation She's now recognized not only as a great artist and a literary pioneer, but also a groundbreaking feminist Later in life, she became a devoted pacifist who was deeply critical of colonialism and imperialism She wrote persuasively about how the ugly rise of fascism grown out of the type of militarism fostered by the patriarchal society in which she grew up She has been celebrated as an important British progressive With that in mind, you can understand how the Dreadnought hoax presents a problem for Wolf scholars The modern academic who's looked at this issue most closely is Danelle Jones in her book Girl Prince, Virginia Wolf, Race and the Dreadnought Hoax She's pointed out that scholars interested in the work of Virginia Wolf have tended to either brush past the hoax as an impetuous and embarrassing youthful exploit or they go to great intellectual ends to make the hoax fit within the feminist anti imperial politics of her later life In this way, Virginia Wolf scholars have done much in recent decades to shape the historical reputation of the Dreadnought hoax. Normally, I don't like to come for the English department But I believe that Wolf scholars defending their literary hero contributed to a number of historical myths about this prank It's been argued that the prank was politically minded, anti authoritarian, and anti establishment I think we need to ask if any of that is true Were the hoaxers consciously trying to make a point about British militarism Or has that justification been cooked up after the fact by admirers of Virginia Wolf. Let's take a close look at the events of february nineteen ten and see what we can discover Today's episode of Our Fake History is being brought to you by Progressive Insurance. You're listening to this podcast, so I know you've got a curious mind. Here's a helpful fact you might not know yet Drivers who switch and save with progressive save over nine hundred dollars on average They make it super simple Pop over to progressive d. com, answer some questions, and you'll get a quick quote with coverage options tailored to your choices Plus, you'll see which discounts you may qualify for, like the online quote discount or savings for paying in full. In fact, ninety nine percent of progressive auto customers earn at least one discount See if you could save when you switch to progressive You'll feel good about making a savvy choice. Visit progressive. com and see if you can enjoy a little extra cash back Progressive casual Inurance Company and affiliates, National average twelve month savings of nine hundred and forty six dollars by new customers surveyed who saved with Progressive between june twenty twenty four and may twenty twenty five Potential savings will vary Save more on what you need to get the job done right. Right now, at Lowe's! Get fifteen percent off, select custom entry and interior doors. Plus, save eighty dollars on the DWal twenty Volt Max two tool combo kit, now just one hundred sixty nine dollars. And at the Lowe's Pro desesk, bring us your materials list and get a quote in minutes. Handwritten, a photo, or even a sticky note is all you need Keep your jobs moving faster and on budget at lows. Valid through sevenenty eight, while supplies last. Selection varies by location To understand this hoax, we first need to take a minute to consider the HMS Dreadnum If a socially conscious Britain was trying to make a point about the growing militarism in society arrogance of the ruling class during the late emmpire or the increasing madness of European relations then the dreadnot would have been an obvious target for satire. The launch of the HMS Dreadnot in nineteen oh six is regarded by naval historians as a true watershed in the history of warships inaugurated a new era in shipbuilding As historian Jeffrey Collander has commented, quote It regulated all existing battleships to a limbo of pre dreadnaought Obsolescence, end quote The Dreadnot was so impressive because it combined new levels of firepower. It was the first so called all big gun ship new levels of armor On top of that, the state of the art steam engine in the ship meant that it could move at speeds previously unimagined for a vessel of that size. In short, it was bigger stronger and faster than anything else on the water The ship's launch was also understood as a provocative escalation in the naval arms race that had been going on between Britain and the German Empire since the late nineteenth century Keeping an edge on the Germans became a defining part of British politics during this period after the launch of the HMS Dreadnought. The focus became squarely on building more dreadnoughts The jingoistic British media of the day helped whip up public support for even greater naval expansion Pro military crowds were known to interrupt political speeches to chant Dread not, Dread not In nineteen oh nine, a campaign that pushed for the British government to build eight more Dreadnought class ships was helped along by the chantable slogan We want eight and we won't wait The Dreadnot was a potent propaganda tool and a symbol of British patriotism Beyond that, the ship was fully embraced by popular culture in a way that few pieces of military hardware have been since Historian Jan Ruger has pointed out that, quote, There were Dreadnought songs, poems, books, and films, end quote There was an opertta composed in honor of the ship The Dreadnut became part of British advertising as consumers were encouraged to quote dread not and buy British clothing or Drink Oxso and dread not Sneaking aboard the Dreadnought was not like sneaking aboard any other Royal Navy vessel The Dreadnot was dripping with symbolism And yet The people behind the hoax did not seem to be particularly concerned with the ship's cultural baggage when they started plotting their practical joke One of our key sources for all this is Virginia Wolf herself In nineteen forty, she gave a talk at London's Women's Institute, where she reminisced about the hoax that was now thirty years in her past Historians have shown that her recollection of the event was not always perfect But her take on the prank remains essential for those seeking to understand it She would remember that the whole thing got started when a naval officer who was good friends with her brother and Horace DeVre Cole, came to them bit of a challenge His ship, which Wolf remembered as the HMS Hawk good natured rivalry going on with the Dreadnought Interestingly, biographer Martin Downer thinks that Virginia Wolf may have misremembered the name of the rival ship He thinks that unnamed naval officer who prompted the whole thing was actually Bernard Buxton the seafaring cousin of one of the Zanzibar hoaxers, Leland Buxton Bernard Buxton served on the HMS indomitable notot the Hawk Either way There had been a bit of a prank war going on between the sailors on the Dreadnot and the sailors on arival ship Either the Hwk or the indomitable According to Wolf, this sailor, likely Bernard Buxton, came to Horace DeVere Cole and said, quote You're a great hand at hoaxing people Couldn't you do something to pull the leg of the dreadnot? Wolf would remember that, quote, this was a red rag to a bull She did not believe that Cole was trying to make any kind of political point with the Dreadnot Hoax did it because he had been dared to couldn't turn down a challenge. or as she put it, quote put him on his metedal Anyone can hoax a policeman, but to hoax the flagship of the channel fleet was a very different matter. and quote, He was drawn to the prank, not because he wanted to embarrass the Navy or make a point about the emperor of Abyssinia, or take a stand against militarism He was drawn to the stunt because it was challenging risky and would enhance his profile as England's greatest prankster The hoax was also interesting to Adrianne Stephven and his sister Virginia. personal reasons theirir cousin William Willie Fisher happened to hold the rank of commander on the Dreadnought and the Stephvens siblings Kinda hated cousin Willie pererhaps hate is a strong word Willie Fisher was a proud and touchy young man who Adrian and Virginia had enjoyed pranking since they were children Virginia would remember, taunting him with the rhyme, We fooly, we fooly, we fool it, Cousin Willie Oh man, Britain Anyway, Adrian and Virginia, the prank was a family affair If they could successfully hoax the Dreadnought, it would be the culmination of a lifelong quest to embarrass their cousin Was this hoax a type of anti war activism Not at all The hoaxers had been brought in by a sailor to act as mercenaries in an escalating series of intership practical jokes The added bonus was that the Stevens would get to embarrass a disliked family member and pull off an act of daring d. The hoaxers also seem to have been emboldened by the fact that one of the other people they would be embarrassing was Admiral Sir William May commander in Chief of Britain's home fleet. He would be on the dreadnought as it served as his flagship May had had a distinguished navy career He was also known as unimaginative, conservative, and a bureaucratically minded Adrianne Stephen would later comment that, quote, it seemed to me since I was very young, just as I imagine it seemed to Cole that anyone who took up an attitude of authority over anyone else was necessarily also someone who offered everyone else a leg to pull May was the embodiment of a certain type of pompous British authority figure He was a mediocre man in a very important position took himself incredibly seriously seemed to Adrian Stehven that he quote offered a leg to pull. Once it was agreed that the hoax would be attempted, Horace DeVere Cole and Adrianne Stehven started plotting and rounding up potential conspirators It was decided that they would tweak the formula that they had used in the Zanzabar hoax. It had recently been reported that a group of Chinese officials had been given a tour of the channel fleet This tipped the hoaxers to the fact that the Navy was giving tours of the Dreadnought to foreign allies goal would be to get an official tour of the flagship by the ranking officers while impersonating a group of foreign dignitaries This time, they chose to impersonate a group of Abyssinian royals Virginia Wolf would later claim that the choice to impersonate Abyssinians stem from the fact that the emperor was known to be touring Europe She recalled that earlier that year, he had been hosted by the French Navy who had toured him through some of their Mediterranean vessels This seems to have been another misreembering In nineteen ten, the emperor of Ethiopia or Abyssinia was King Menellek II. one of the country's most storied monarchs In that year, he was incapacitated in bed. In nineteen ten King Menellek did not leave Ethiopia. Virginia's brother, Adrian would also misreember that the group had specifically impersonated the emperor himself. That was not the case They had learned from the Zanzibar hoax that it was risky to impersonate a figure who might actually make the news Someone may have known what the real emperor of Abyssinia looked like or may have read about his declining health They decided that pretending to be obscure but important members of the royal family presented fewer chances of discovery In nineteen ten, the Kingdom of Abyssinia was allied with the British The German Empire was aggressively pursuing its interests in Africa at this time and the independent Abyssinian kingdom was understood in Britain as an important strategic partner in East Africa Ple and Stephen correctly guessed that dignitaries from that kingdom would be eagerly hosted by the Navy. But One should also not count out pure all pleasure These guys got from doing black face and passing off African stereotypes as the genuine article. Using racist caricatures seems to have been part of the fun for this group. The Backface made the prank more of a music hall style farce It would have arguably been easier for them to impersonate obscure European dignitaries They chose to go as Africans From there, Horace DeVer Cole learned, likely from his inside man in the Navy that in a few weeks on february seventh, the Dreadnought was going to be at Harbor near the coastal town of Weymouth This gave him just enough time to make all the needed preparations A group of impersonators was rounded up On the eve of the prank, a few unnamed people dropped out thinking better of the risks involved with attempting to humiliate the Royal Navy These last minute dropouts were the reason why Virginia Stephven got involved Apparently, Horace and Adrian were discussing the caper at Adrian's home. When his sister, Virginia, interrupted the conversation and insisted that she be part of the hoax saying, quote I am ready to come. I should like nothing better Why was Virginia so insistent on joining this prank? Well, it's hard to say In her talk to the Women's Institute, She made the decision sound completely impulsive motivated by no more than a youthful sense of adventure. After some cajoling, Horace and Adrian agreed to let Virginia take part Those three were then joined by three other old friends, Guy Ridley Lincolin Grant and Tony Buxton Another cousin of that seafaring Bxton who may have initiated the whole thing It was decided that Buxton would impersonate a fictional cousin of the Abyssinian king who they dubbed Prince Ross L. Macan. The name was meant to echo the name of King Menelik Virginia, Duncan Grant and Guy Ridley were to play the emperor's Ethiopian entourage porrest of your coal. the role of Herbert Scholmondeli, a fake official from the British Foreign Office, sent to accompany the Abyssinian partarty Adrianne Stephven was to be the group's English interpreter On the fateful day, the group met in London at the Stehvens home in Fitzroy Square There they were met by the costumer Willie Clarkson. who had brought with him a trunk of y oriental style theater costumes and a group of apprentice makeup artists They then set to work painting all the exposed skin on the would be Abyssinians and applying dark colored fake beards They were decked out in colorful turbans, long robes, and crucifix necklaces for a touch of religious authenticity that was almost immediately forgotten by the hoaxers who assumed they were meant to be Muslims Adrian's character only called for typical Edwardian attire He also chose to wear a fake beard in hopes that he would not be recognized by his cousin Be aboard the ship Once they were made up, the group posed for a series of photographs, which would eventually become famous in the English press. there was no time to linger, for they were on a tight schedule and they had a roughly three hour train ride from London to Weymouth About an hour after they climbed on the train, another accomplice named Thomas Harvey, sometimes called the invisible manan of the Hoax sent a critical telegram from the St. James Street Post Office It was addressed to Admiral May, commommander in chief of the homeome fleet and simply read Qote Prince Machelin of Abyssinia and Sweet will arrive at four hundred twenty today, Wymouth He wishes to see Dreadnought kindly arranged to meet them on arrival Regret short notice forgot wire Interpreter accompanies them And quote It was signed by one Charles Harding of the Foreign Office Now Harding was a real official which helped sell the telegram when it was received by Admiral May But as Martin Downer has pointed out, quote, The teelegram's wording was so bureaucratically correct that no one thought to challenge it. E quote May didn't even bother to call the Admiralty to confirm that the visit was on the books The admiral was not one to question orders so prereparations were made to receive the guests When the group exited the train in the seaside town of Weymouth, they found the Dreadnought's flag lieutenant, Peter Willoughby waiting to greet them This was the first test of their disguises And amazingly He was totally fooled The group was then conveyed quQeayside, where they boarded a small steamboat known as a Steam launch, which took them out to where the HMS Dreadnought was anchored. approached the flagship, the imposters noticed The Navy had rolled out the proverbial red carpet. All the ship's officers stood at attention wearing full dress uniform band of Royal Marines greeted the party by weirdly Playing Yankee Doodle Dandy Not knowing the Abyssinian national anthem, they launched into the national anthem of Zanibar which quietly delighted Horace Cole Virginia remembered seeing her cousin, Commander William Fisher as soon as she boarded the Dreadnon and was relieved when he solemnly saluted her Clearly, he did not recognize his cousins in disguise was then greeted by Admiral May and Horace DeVer Cole proceeded to introduce each member of the party In the course of these introductions, DeVer Cole forgot the fake identity that they'd cooked up for Adrianne Stepven' translator character. So he improvised and introduced him as Hare Kaufman a language expert from Germany Now this could have been a huge blunder after the fact many of the more panicked critics of the hoax seized on this detail Remember Tensions between Germany and Britain were building to a fever pitch at this time. The dreadnought itself was central to the mounting war fever between the two nations And here was DeVir Cole informing the admiral that an unexpected German visitor had just come aboard In the moment, if any of the British officers had any misgivings about this They kept them to themselves In many ways, the whole affair was a comedy of manners The rules of decorum demanded a certain deference to one's guests It would have been considered profoundly impolite to turn away a member of the Pince's entourage at that moment By the same token, if you were going to accuse one of these distinguished guests of being a fraud You needed to be completely sure Otherwise, it would be a breach of decorum so severe that it might damage the alliance between Britain and Abyssinia In the moment, the fast talking Horace DeVir Cole in his guys as the foreign office official kept things moving with the addmiral. was then allowed to inspect the ship's honor guuard taken along the decks and were shown the Dreadnought's enormous guns. The captain of the ship even offered to fire the weapons as a salute to the Abyssinian royalty which the group politely declined They were then taken to the state of the art wireless room and then below decks Bizarrely, they were shown the officers' bathrooms This particularly worried Virginia Wolf, who thought that they might have been led to the washroom to have their makeup forcefully washed from their faces. did not happen Dreadnots officers just seemed to think that the washrooms were particularly well appointed. At one point, the group was offered tea and refreshments in the wardroom The imposters had been warned that eating or drinking anything could have potentially ruined their disguises So Adrian Stephen quickly improvised the excuse that the Abyssinians could only eat food that had been specially prepared in accordance with their religious rules He forgot or perhaps never knew that real Abyssinian royals were Christians and not Muslims In hopes to hurry things along, he also told the Dreadnoughts officers that at sundown, the group would need to prostrate themselves towards Mecca This could have been another disaster if anyone on board had known anything about Ethiopia. or it simply noticed that the supposed royals were all wearing large crucifixes around their necks Once again, no one questioned a thing In fact, Admiral May became so preoccupied with the idea that a Muslim ritual might be performed on board the Dreadnought that he officially delayed suunset. or more specifically He commanded the buglers not to signal the end of the day until the ship's guests were well on their way. Of course, the hoaxers were in no mood to overstay their welcome Pole informed the officers that the Pince was set on catching the six o'clock train out of Wymouth Polite goodbyes were made. The Marine band struck up God save the King And the guests were once again saluted and loaded onto the steam launch, which took them back to shore The group was then ushered back to the train station where they just made the six o'clock they breathed a sigh of relief Amazingly, Hold it off Interestingly Almost all of the hoaxers would later remember all sorts of mixed emotions in the direct aftermath of the prank exactly had been the point of all that In particular, Adrian Stephven would remember feeling guilty when he considered how accommodating and kind the naval officers on the ship had been he would write that he felt conflicted about quote moocking, even in the friendliest spirit such charming people. Horace Cole would admit the same in a letter to a friend. writing, quote, They were tremendously polite and nice. C couldn't have been nicer One almost regretted the outrage on their hospitality and quote, Pranksters. had no real problem with the Navy or were they trying to make a point about militarism? So it was decided on the train that the conspirators should keep this particular exploit to themselves consequences of it becoming public be dire As we know, that was not the style of Horace DeVer Cole When they arrived back in London, most of the exhausted group returned to their respective homes to wash off their makeup Pole on the other hand went directly to his Uppercrust social club, where he started drinking and loudly bragging about the day's exploit The secret of the Hoax was almost immediately blown Within a few days All of the details were in the London papers. Let's pause here And when we come back, we'll look at how the British public reacted to the Dreadnot hoax and how it has been remembered since. Today's episode of Our Fake History is being brought to you by Shopify Picture this, it's late at night and you're scrolling through your feeds when all of a sudden you see it, that one product that you've been looking for Click the link, addd to cart, maybe even shop around a little more before finally hitting cheheckout As you're filling in your address, you realize you don't have your card anywhere near you That's when you see it, that purple pay button that has all of your information saved, making checking out as simple as a tap on your screen. Shopify is the commerce platform behind millions of businesses around the world and ten percent of all e commerce in the United States, from household names like Mattel and Gymshark to brands just getting started With Shopify, you can get the word out like you have a marketing team behind you. 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It only took a few days for the story of the Dreadnought Hoax to leak to the London papers possible that the story was provided to the press by one of Horace Cole's clubmates most people think that Cole likely planted the story himself The paper that broke the story was London's Express Their article was headlined Sham Abyssinian princes visit the Dreadnought Soon, other articles appeared in the Daily Mail and the Daily Mirror, which featured photographs of the group in full costumes. Many of the myths associated with the Dreadnot Hoax can be traced to the very first newspaper report about the escapade in the Express First The Express was very focused on black face of it all notot in a critical way The already outrageous costumes worn by the hoaxers were further exaggerated by the Express this paper already racially fraught prank and somehow made it more racist As Martin Downer has pointed out, quote The description of the Abyssinian costumes and makeup was sensationalized and so outlandish that it could have only been written to satisfy Edwardian racial stereotypes end quote. For instance, the article claimed that the hoaxers wore coarse minstrel style wigs and offensive false lips. The expxpress also included the detail that, quote The princes were shown everything and at every fresh sight they murmured in chorus Bunger, bunger. which was interpreted to mean Isn't it lovely Now It is deeply unclear where the Express got the story about the imposters saying Bunger bunger every time they saw something impressive on the dreadnought None of the participants in the hoax claimed that any of them had used this ridiculous exclamation. According to Adrianne and Virginia The group had cobbled together a fake language that used Latin, Greek, and some hastily learned swahili. None of the hoaxers knew enough about the people they were impersonating to know that Ethiopian royals spoke Amharic. While on the Dreadnot, they had kept their voices low and conversed quietly in this fake language so as not to bring too much attention to it. They definitely did not shout out bunga bunga every time they saw something interesting The writers at the Express seem to have either made up Bunga bunga or printed a rumor that had come from a source who had heard the story secondhand predictably Bunga bunga was the thing that everyone remembered from this article. became a bit of a catchphrase for the Dreadnought hoax. Soon, children on the streets of London were yelling it at sailors or anyone they saw in a naval uniform Admiral May himself was allegedly heckled with calls of bunga bunga while he was out walking Within a week, the hoax, which had been so obviously inspired by music hall minstrelsy, was now itself inspiring songs and sketches being performed in London's music halls One song performed in nineteen ten went quote When I went aboard the Dreadnot ship, I looked like a costermonger They said I was an Abyssinian prince because I shouted Bunger bunger For those unfamiliar, a costermonger is someone who sells things from a cart The joke is that the costumes were cheap looking, and yet they still managed to fool the Navy. The coverage in the Express and other papers both reveled in and exaggerated the racial stereotypes which had been part of the hoax The Express made the whole thing into an unambiguous minstrel show, complete with a catchphrase meant to mock African languages For her book, The Girl Prince, the historian Danelle Jones went through dozens of newspaper reports to get the full scope of how the Dreadnot Hoax was reported on by both international and British papers She's pointed out that none of the news reports she found had anything critical to say about the hoaxer's choice to use black face makeup can be easy to get the impression in nineteen ten No one really had a problem with Backface That is not the case Denll Jones reminds us that as soon as you start looking for the perspectives of black people from this period, you very quickly find critical voices For instance, the American abolitionist Frederick Douglas had been condemning Backface Minstrelsy in the pages of his newspaper The North Star since the eighteen forties He was unequivocal in his belief that the practice contributed to the oppression of black people But of course, that was in the American context How did black people living in Edwardian England feel? Well, we can get a sense of that from the writings of Augustus Merriman Labor one of England's first few African born lawyers, originally from Sierra Leone In nineteen oh nine, he published a satirical book of observations about England from the perspective of an African travelller was meant as a send up of the travelogues written by Europeans about Africa, which he found to be condescending used the same gawking and bewildered tone to describe the sights on the streets of Edwardy and London. In that book, he takes time to describe British Back face performers And he doesn't mince his words He writes, quote The minstrel is the worst sinner of the lot I wish that all these fiends and their friends rascals who are made black as the result of their profession or who make themselves black for the purpose of their profession shall someday find it very black and warm with Belzebubs. In case you were confused by Merriman's play on words, he was basically saying that everyone who does blackface can go to hell The point is that in nineteen ten Not everyone thought that Backface was harmless fun peopleeople with African ancestry. We're condemning it Unfortunately, their voices were pushed to the margins and were often ignored Interestingly, the American papers that covered the hoax tended to be more fascinated by the fact that a woman in drag had been one of the pranksters The Washington Post ran the headline Girl hoaxes the British Navy Dorchester Mail couldn't resist the pun. that a woman quote had stepped into the breach and the breaches The American press clearly liked the idea that the mighty Royal Navy had been humiliated by a woman In case it wasn't clear, this wasn't out of some deep feminist sympathies. This was more like haha, you got beaten by a girl As I mentioned earlier, some Virginia Wolf scholars have tried to use this element of the prank to reframe it as secretly progressive anti imperialist and feminist For example, in nineteen ninety six, the English scholar Jean E. Kennard argued that quote The Dreadnought Hoax was indeed a power game. in which the traditional emblems of superiority, masculinity, and whiteness were the counters It was played through costume participants were dressing up and were also cross dressed, four of them in terms of race and one in terms of gender. On the simplest level Abyssinian costumes parodied the fancy dress aspect of the naval uniforms and thus feminized the officers Tennard's article demonstrates that if one looks at this stunt from exactly the right perspective You could see it as twweaking the nose of the patriarchy But to come to that conclusion You need to ignore the stated intentions of the pranksters There doesn't seem to be any evidence that Virginia Wolf or any of the other hoaxers were trying to parody or feminize the naval officers on the Dreadnot The hoaxers seem to have regarded the stunt as a political and symbolically neutral. Quite something when you consider the inherent symbolism of the Dreadnought Virginia Wolf was drawn to the prank because it seemed anti imperialist or subtly feminist. She never once mentioned it. Even years later in nineteen forty, When she reminisced about this prank in her talk to the Women's Institute, She presented the Dreadnought Hoax as just a daring bit of fun. She said nothing about any potential social critiques suggested by the hoax as I already mentioned, A the Dreadnot Hoax was successful many of the pranksters felt guilty about targeting the Navy They actually had No real gripes with it as an institution I'm sure you're wondering What were the consequences for the hoaxers Well, They were helped by the fact that much of the British public seems to have thought that the hoax was hilarious According to the albeit spotty recollection of Virginia Wolf, The hoax actually managed to get a big laugh in Parliament She would remember that after seeing the stories in the papers, a member of Parliament rose in the House of Commons and asked, quote whether hisis Majesty's government were aware that a party of irresponsible and foolish people had dressed themselves up as Abyssinians and gone on board the Dreadnought There were roars of laughter. The speaker went on to point out that it was a very serious matter He said that it reflected upon the credit of the Navy. He said that it showed that anybody, however foolish, had only to send a forged telegram and he would take in the admiral of the Channel fleet He said that we might have been German spies. He said that we had been shown secret instruments, and quote The point was made that the whole thing represented a potentially serious security breach Eespecially considering that one of the hoaxers had openly pretended to be German and it had raised no eyebrows. For his part, Admiral May was furious and loudly called for the hoaxers to be prosecuted However, the only law that had technically been broken was the forgery of the telegram. none of the known hoaxers had signed that fraudulent piece of correspondence If the Navy was going to press charges, they would only be able to arrest a bit player in the prank They were technically unable to prosecute Horace DeVre Cole any of the pranksters who actually set foot on the Dreadnod. going after the telegram man seemed petty and counterproductive to many in the Admiralty. I find it pretty incredible that the only law broken in this incident was telegram forgery. Such was the nature of British law in nineteen ten Eventually Much like the Zanzibar hoax, the concerned authorities decided to drop the whole thing Admiral May was eventually convinced by other members of the Admiralty that pursuing prosecutions in the matter would only serve to keep the incident in the papers and further embarrass the Navy. Horace Deveer Cole and Adrian Stephven also presented themselves to the admiralty after the hoax was over take responsibility This apparently only further annoyed the admirals who simply wanted the incident to go away The conspirators understood that they had been shown a considerable amount of grace by the Navy And so an unspoken gentleman's agreement came to pass that Horace and the other conspirators would not speak about the hoax publicly ever again Ple would honor this for the rest of his life The other conspirators only started reminiscing about the exploit some thirty years later well after Cole's death The only real repercussion that resulted from this stunt was an act of petty revenge carried out by Commander William Fisher there was anyone more aggrieved by the stunt than Admiral May It was Cousin Willy especially when he learned that Adrian and Virginia had been behind it According to Virginia Wolf, the embarrassment of the hoax inspired kind of bloodlust in her cousin. She remembered that once it became clear that the admiralty were not going to press charges against the hoaxers Cousin Willie appeared angrily at the Stevens door When they let him in, he started berating Adrian, screaming, quote Do you realize that all the little boys ran after Admiral Mae in the street calling out Bunga Bunga? Do you realize that you owe your lives to the British Navy? Do you realize that you are impertinent and idiotic Do you realize that you ought to be whipped through the streets? Do you realize that if you had been discovered, you would have been stripped naked and thrown into the sea and quote From there, he told his cousin that he would like to personally thrash him But He was held back by an obscure naval regulation which forbade officers from fighting family members Instead, he intimidated Adrianne Stehen into giving him the addresses of the other conspirators. And in a particularly cowardly moment, Adrian gave in From there, Willie Fisher got together a goon squad of tough looking sailors and headed out to find the conspirators and give them each a paddle would apparently avenge the Navy's wounded pride. The first hoaxer they caught up with was Duncan Grant, who was kidnapped off his porch wearing his pajamas and housecoat They then drove him across town to a private place where they could do the paddling Apparently, Grant was so sincerely apologetic and so willing to take his licks that the sailors felt ridiculous about the whole thing. onlyn gave him a few gentle pats on the backside before deciding that the wrong had been righted They even offered to drive Grant home, but he refused, pointing out that they were near a tube station hop a train back to his house. Weirdly Duncan Grant and his PJs came out of the whole thing seeming more mature than the Vengeful saailors Next, Willie and his gang track down Horace DeVre Cole It's a little unclear exactly what went on between Cole and Commander Fisher. Horace Cole would eventually claim that the two men argued about the nature of his punishment in his drawing room, Before Horace proposed that he would only allow himself to be paddled if he could paddle William first Amazingly, we're told that Commander Fisher agreed to this and a ridiculous scene of mutual bum smacking played out Now, this story doesn't make much sense and seems very unlikely probably cooked up by Cole to further embarrass the commander is another story out there that the group of sailors gave Horace a fairly sound beating while William Fisher looked on A that. The Dreadnot hoax was officially over Pranksters got off incredibly lightly peaks to the completely different culture around national security that existed before World War I that the Dreadnot hoax was barely illegal tells us volumes By nineteen fourteen with the outbreak of the Great War, this type of hoax would have been perceived very differently Even in nineteen ten I can't help but think that one of the big reasons why the Dreadnot Hoax was laughed off had to do with who perpetrated it Horace DeVer Cole was firmly upper class, and in Edwardian England That matters. As historian Mira Marsh has pointed out, quote In Edwardian, England, upper class pranksters were allowed even expected to indulge in licentious play that would have been labeled hooliganism The perpetrators were from the lower classes One wonders what the reaction to the hoax would have been if the hoaxers were discovered to have been working class Britons or real African people My suspicion is that both the Amiralty and British law enforcement may have been less indulgent This is part of the reason why the prank was not perceived as being especially subversive or politically charged at the time The Navy's officer class were being poked at by an aristocrat and his upper middle class compatriots The elite Cambridge University set were making a friendly jab at the elite military set In terms of the British class system These folks were moreore or less partart of the same club for the Stehvens This was literally about embarrassing a family member It's my opinion that the most surprising thing about the Dreadnot Hoax was how truly meaningless The whole thing was This is one of those historical episodes that feels like it should mean something I can understand why so many scholars have combed through this event looking for political or social critiques implied by the prank The profound symbolism of the Dreadnought and the loaded choice of the pranksters to dress as Ethiopian royalty bined to give this stunt The veneer of satire I truly believe that nothing was actually being satirized The Dreadnought was not targeted because of what it represented about British militarism, imperialism or patriarchy For Horace DeVer Cole, it was simply the highest tower to climb and the biggest bell to ring attempts by scholars to present the Dreadnot Hoax as a profound anti authoritarian piece of theater or either missing or ignoring the intentions of the pranksters themselves I believe that the instinct to give the Dreadnot Hoax a veneer of intellectual respectability comes from a desire to defend or explain the choices of the young Virginia Wolf I think we have to accept that as a young woman, she very impulsively got involved in a stunt that involved blackface simimply for the adventure of it I understand why some have tried to place the Dreadnot Hoax within the context of her later anti imperialist politics Honestly do not think it's a good fit There's no doubting that Wolf would go on to be a brilliant author and an important feminist thinker. does not mean that everything she did was necessarily well thought out or loaded. politically progressive meanings As I said at the outset This story is about the cavalier way that degrading stereotypes are deployed by people not giving them much thought As much as it might be hard for some scholars to admit Virginia Wolf. was one of those people Okay, that's all for this week. Join us in just one week's time when I will be answering questions about the last Three episodes So if you have questions about the Dreadnought Hoax, the Curse of Macbeth, or my interview about Roman slavery, please either email them to me at ourfakehistory at gmail d. com or if you are a patron, go to the chat area and put your questions in the appropriate chat section I always go to the Patreon chat first when looking for questions for the bonus episodes. So that's just another perk of being a patron Speaking of patrons, I've got a whole lot of shout outs to give this week Big ups to, Matt Ambrogi To Janna Bichert T Wade Qatar T Duncan Ljeni. Tw Brian Bastita to Kaylin Conroy to Emily Astro To Henry, to Chop. to Tabsy T Jen Mueller. Two Christopher Hyde T Scott Roy to Sean and Dash Williams. To Mom Chill Georgiev Tw. Rob Fisher T Jonas Zimmerman to Matt S to Tyler Montasa Tw Michael Moore S, Terry Cook. Tw. Dilid LLC