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The African Queen
This book is set before and during WWI in Africa. Rose and her priest brother are sent to Christianize the natives. At the time, central Africa was occupied by the Germans, of which Rose and Samuel highly detested. Samuel dies early on in the book and Rose is devastated. Through her brother’s death Rose becomes highly patriotic and wants to help with her blow for the British Empire. Allnutt comes along and helps her bury him. To get her away from her brother’s grave he invites her on his boat the African Queen. The boat is very rickety and full of high explosives, mainly blasting gelatin. Allnutt tells her of the Kцigin Luise (Louisa), a police steamer which the German government maintains. Rose suddenly gets the idea of torpedoing it. With all the explosives, she figures, they could create torpedoes. Allnutt says it’s crazy and tells her of rapids and other dangers that they could come upon. She persuades him to go and he agrees reluctantly. He thinks that once she sees a real rapid she will change her mind. He shows her how to steer the boat. Allnutt remembers about Shona, a German camp that they would have to pass through, and he decides that they won’t go on. To pay him back, while he is sleeping, Rose dumps out every bottle in every case of gin on the boat. She also stops talking to him, which in turn drives him crazy. He eventually gives in to Rose and decides to go down the river. They pass by Shona and are shot at. The German captain tells everyone to stop shooting thinking that everyone in the launch is already dead. He thinks that no one in his or her right mind would voluntarily go through that area. He decides not to tell his superior, Von Hanneken. They traveled along and reached the rapids. Miraculously, they survive. Allnutt gets a splinter and Rose removes it. This seems to break the barrio between them. Then they kiss and make love. She asks him his real name and he says that his name is Charlie. They encounter cataracts that cause a lot of damage to the boat. The shaft is twisted and the propeller lost a blade. Rose brings up the idea of welding the shaft back into place using charcoal and making a new blade out of iron scraps. Allnutt laughs at this thinking that it’s a crazy idea. He ends up doing it and it works. They arrive at a place where the Ulanga River changes its name and becomes the Bora. There the river was half mud and half water and the heat was colossal. Insects attacked every exposed part of skin. They didn’t know what was worse the heat or the bugs. Night fell and the bugs left. Rose and Charlie contemplate their newfound love for each other before they fall asleep. They continue to look for the delta. The delta empties into the lake on which the Louisa [next page]