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During World War I, Charles McGuinness fought for the English in South
Africa. Initially in the Cameroon region. Then in 1916, he
hears of the rebellion taking place in Ireland for independence and
deserts. At this point he joins the forces of the Afrikaners
against the
 British.
Shortly there after, he is captured by the Germans, and being the
Irishman he is, convinces the Germans that he's really on their side,
and so fights with them for a time in the East African Campaign in the
jungles of east central Africa. In late 1917, he abandons the
war to return home to Ireland. He embarques on the Vasco Da Gama, a
Portuguese steamer which wrecks and sinks at the mouth of Delagoa Bay in Mozambique.
All hands but one are lost!
Charley McGuinness was the sole survivor! Having gone into heavily
shark infested waters in this inlet of Indian Ocean, he make it to shore
safe.
 
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Delagoa Bay
(Portuguese name: Baía de Lourenço Marques)
Now
known as Maputo Bay, an inlet
of the Indian Ocean, It's approximately.55 miles (90 km) long and 20 miles
(30 km) wide, located in southern Mozambique, in south eastern Africa;
Maputo, the capital and chief port of
Mozambique, is on the bay. Maputo Bay is a large deepwater harbor, with
numerous quays to handle oceangoing vessels; and railroads leading into
the interior.
The first
Westerner to visit (1502) the bay was António do Campo, one of Vasco da
Gama’s captains.; the area was later explored in 1544 by Lourenço Marques,
the Portuguese trader. In the 1700s, Dutch and Austrian trading companies
tried to establish posts on the bay; both were driven out by malaria and
the Portuguese. In 1787, Portugal built a fort there, around which the
town of Lourenço Marques (Maputo) grew.
In the
mid-1800s, Portugal’s claim to the area was challenged by Great Britain
and by the Transvaal when it was realized that the bay provided a major
access route to the Kimberley diamond mines. The Transvaal recognized
Portugal’s sovereignty in 1869, and in 1875 France, acting as arbiter,
awarded the area to Portugal.
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Delagoa Bay 1917
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  Vasco
da Gama (c. 1460-1524)
Da Gama (after
whom the lost ship was named) was a Portuguese explorer who first
reached India in 1498 by sailing around the southern tip of Africa at
the Cape of Good Hope, continuing up the eastern shores of Africa, and
crossing the Indian ocean from (modern-day) Kenya to Calicut in India.
He sailed for
India a second time in 1502 at the head of a fleet of 20 ships that was
charged with punishing the Zamorin (Muslim ruler) of Calicut for having
massacred the Portuguese left behind in India by another Portuguese
explorer, Pedro Alvares Cabral. Treaties were
concluded with neighboring Hindu enemies of the Zamorin and an effort of
an Arab fleet to drive away da Gama was defeated. In early 1503 da Gama
returned with his fleet to Portugal.
In 1524 he was
sent by King John III to be the Portuguese viceroy in India. He
established an administrative center at Goa and immediately began the
process of strengthening the Portuguese commercial position in India.
But he became sick and died before the year was out. |
