The Dreadnought Hoax
February 7th 1910, but the origins dated back to 1905, when Adrian Stephen and Horace Cole were attending Cambridge University and, out of boredom, decided to play a little prank on the Mayor of Cambridge. The sultan of Zanzibar was in England at that time, so the duo decided to impersonate him, and have a state visit to Cambridge. But since pictures of the Sultan were present, and neither of them looked like him, they went with the plan of going as an imaginary uncle. So they took the train to London, got a full make-up and costumes, and went back to Cambridge by train, but not before sending a telegram to the Mayor warning him of the pending royal visit. Once in Cambridge, they were formally received by the Mayor and even accompanied him on a visit to a charity bazaar.
The hoax was a great success, so great that a journal ran an article about it, which inevitably sent an investigator on their tails. Their names were exposed after a while, and Stephen & Cole narrowly avoided expulsion from University.
5 years later, a friend of Cole who was in the Navy, and wanted to make a point of its honour, wanted to pull a prank on a friend of his, who happened to be the cousin of Stephen, and the Chief Command Officer of HMS Dreadnought, then the flagship of the Channel Fleet, under command of Sir William Wordsworth Fisher. A plan was hatched, and that plan was quite familiar.
A group of hoaxers consisting of Cole & Stephen, together with Anthony Buxton (British soldier and author), Duncan Grant (painter and textile designer), Cecil Guy Ridley (barrister) and Virginia Woolf, who would later become a famous writer, would would present themselves as the "Emperor of Abyssinia" (currently Ethiopia) and his posse and pay a royal visit to inspect the battleship. Buxton would be the Emperor, Stephen would act as interpreter, Cole as someone from Foreign Office, and the rest as the Emperor's posse.
And so they did the same as 5 years before: they sent the Admiral a telegram to announce the visit. Cole with his entourage went to London's Paddington station where Cole claimed that he was "Herbert Cholmondeley" of the Foreign Office and demanded a special train to Weymouth; the stationmaster arranged a VIP coach. They went on a train and set off to Portland Harbour (Dorset). On the train, Cole tried to teach Stephen a few words of Swahili (which wasn't spoken in Abyssinia), but Stephen could just remember 2 words. Newspapers later reported that "the group spoke fluent Abyssinian". Once they got off the train, they were greeted by a naval officer in full uniform, and the hoax was now in full swing. To show their appreciation, they asked for prayer mats and attempted to bestow fake military honours on some of the officers.
There were dangers of being exposed, and one of them came apparent quite quickly: Stephen knew the Captain, as they both were members of a small group that used to go on country walks, and they have spend several whole days together. But thanks to the naval officers’ proverbial tact and cordiality, Stephen wasn't examined thoroughly enough, so the inspection of the ship could proceed as planned.
Then the Admiral asked Stephen if he could translate something for the "Emperor" regarding the use of the Fleet. Stephen was paralysed for a second, but quickly recovered and started to speak gibberish fluently: "Tahli bussor ahbat tahl aesque miss. Erraema, fleet use…". Buxton learned this form of gibberish also quite fast, and used it in his replies during the entire inspection of the ship.
A third problem arose when the officers insisted the party would stay over for lunch, which would compromise their already deteriorating makeup (the moustache of Duncan was also starting to move away), so a quick solution had to be fixed, which was found in stating that " the royal family can only touch food prepared in certain ways". When it started to rain (which would smear the makeup), Stephen made a remark about the "African heat versus the English cold", after which the Captain immediately sent the party below decks.
The party remained on the ship for the rest of the day, and while still in the middle of the hoax, they knew what was off-limits and what wasn't. When the Admiral insisted on firing a salute with the 12" guns, the "Emperor" declined because they knew it would be a huge task to clean the guns afterwards.
When the visit was over, the party went back on the train, and had dinner in their costumes... And had a picture taken. But the story wasn't over yet...
A few weeks later, Cole & Stephen were walking in the streets, when they encountered the Captain of HMS Dreadnought and his wife. They saw him, and he saw them... And his face took on a petrified expression and acted like he wanted to call a policeman... After a few moments he began to laugh, and did take the entire affair in good spirits...
Not all did though, a few weeks later on a Sunday, the cousin of Stephen (the one who wanted to pull the prank in the first place) showed up with a grim face at Stephens place, saying "that questions had been asked in Parliament, demanding that Stephen and his co-conspirators apologize, and asking for the names of the others". Stephen did so. The cousin wasn't really concerned with the Parliament, but more with the word on the street, as the story now as gone viral, and everybody was talking about it. In an interview with a person who claimed to have seen the "Abyssinian Party" said they used the expression "Bunga Bunga". And now everybody was using that expression, it appeared in songs and in the mouths of little boys in the streets of the town, who would shout “Bunga Bunga” as a mockery, to the cousin's great distress.
The Navy wanted revenge on the hoaxers, and did so in the same fashion, as Cole received a visit from the cousin and another naval officer. As recalled by Stephen: Cole received them in his sitting room, and they announced that they had come to avenge the honour of the Navy. They proposed to achieve this by beating him with a cane. In ordinary circumstances there would probably have been a free fight, and as Cole was pretty formidable, and as his manservant had scented trouble and was waiting outside the door in case he was needed, there is no telling who would have won. There was one thing which complicated matters, though. Cole was only just recovering from an illness which would have made violent exercise rather a serious danger. This was pointed out to the officers, and it put them in a dilemma. This was the third week-end, they said, that they had journeyed up to London to avenge the Navy, and they could not be foiled again. Eventually Cole made a proposal: he would agree to be beaten if he was allowed to reply in kind. This was agreed to, and the whole party adjourned to a quiet back street [where] six ceremonial taps were administered to Cole’s hindquarters, and six ceremonial taps were administer by him in return.
After this the Navy’s honour was at least partly cleared, and the two sides shook hands and parted
The Navy later demanded that Cole be arrested. However, Cole and his compatriots had not broken any law.
5 years later, HMS Dreadnought deliberately rammed a German submarine. Among the telegrams the ship received to compliment the heroic action, there was one that just said: "Bunga Bunga".
Link to photo:
https://i2.wp.com/www.brainpickings.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/dreadnoughthoax5.jpg?w=680&ssl=1