This is far from a complete history, many sources and books are still to be consulted. Perhaps you can help me with additional information? Do not hesitate to email me if you have any comments or suggestions, please.

It is not entirely correct to claim that the Belgians were the first to introduce steamships on the Zaire river, in fact the first steam powered "boat" was literally carried in by H.M.Stanley's team who was exploring this vast Central African country on behalf of H.M. Leopold II, King of Belgium. On November 24th, 1878 the Belgian King who actually owned Congo (bought it from his personal fortune) decided to organise an exploratory voyage through the Congo basin, starting from the West Coast. It was his aim to build settlements and colonial stations along the way. The river Zaire or Congo river is navigable for seagoing ships up to Matadi, but beyond no navigation is possible due to the formidable rapids. Upstreams from these rapids the vast Congolese inland is best reached by way of the magnificent Congo river.

Stanley had his boats carried with him. Stanley actually arrived on 14 August, 1879 at Banana . His fellow explorers arrived with the steamer BARGA which also carried 4 little steam pinnacles, 3 of which were built by John Cockerill in Antwerp to Stanley's specifications. They were nothing but small steam powered pinnacles which could not carry much cargo, but were used for exploration of the river and her many creeks.

The smallest of the 4 boats was the ROYAL, a wooden steamyacht owned by King Leopold II himself. He insisted the boat was engaged in the colonial exploration. The ROYAL was a propeller boat built from acajou and with copper sheething. She had been built by Samuel White in Cowes in 1872. With her 9 m. length and measuring but 8 tons she could travel at 8,5 knots. In fact the boat was tested by Stanley in Ostend in January 1879.
The second steamer was the BELGIQUE. She was a small steamer of 19,50 m long able to carry some cargo.
The third boat was the ESPERANCE of 13,50 m long.
And last but not least the EN AVANT of 12,20 m with a shallow draft of 0,28 m only and a tonnage of 9 t. She had side paddles instead of a propeller and her 6 HP engine could drive her at 8 knots. The EN AVANT had a little tent to protect the occupants from the trpoical sun and could set a small sail in case wood was runing short for the boiler. All of the 3 steamers built by Cockerill were transported in sections and could easily be reconstructed on site. The first to be finished was the ROYAL.


On 21 August 1879 all vessels were assembled and tested and the little fleet left Banana for Boma, preceded by the SS ALBION which carried Stanley. They moved on to Vivi, the ultimate place before the cataracts started. The BELGIQUE and the ESPERANCE were used for transport of goods on the so-called Bas-Fleuve, downstreams from Vivi. The EN AVANT and ROYAL were stationed at Vivi.
The EN AVANT and the BELGIQUE were very much trouble prone. The EN AVANT always lagged behind and was more lile an "en arrière". The BELGIQUE had problems with the boiler. Stanley was not amused and complained about the lack of suitable testing in Europe before sending the material to Congo.
Now Vivi was the starting point for the further exploration of the in land. Stanley, being a man of careful planning, first organised the base camp at Vivi and then went into the wilderness to find the best route to carry the disassembled boats by cart. Finally on 18 March 1880 a route is established to move on bypassing the rapids. Beginning of May the ROYAL is leaving Vivi over land. By the end of May the EN AVANT follows. The transport over land was a hellish enterprise. Some parts of the way had a downward slope of 25%. The carts with heavy pieces up to 5 tons was pulled and supported by hundreds of black porters. Stanley was under heavy pressure. Not only did many things go wrong along the way, he was followed suit by a French explorer, P.Savorgnan de Brazza, who was there to claim part of the Congo basin for the French.




On 21 February 1881, the EN AVANT and the ROYAL are launched in the Congo River. One year of unbearable toil and mishaps, accidents and casualties, to travel 87 kms. Now the boats can steam up river for a while but another 153 kms over land is awaiting the expedition. It is on 3 December 1881 that the EN AVANT is launched again on a spot which will become Leopoldville, now Kinshasa.

On March 16, 1881 a new steamer is ordered for service on the Haut-Congo: the Association Internationale Africaine or A.I.A.
The vessel is not built at Cockerill, but by the French yard Société des Forges et Chantiers de la Méditerranée in Le Havre. She was not a sidewheeler, but a propeller driven boat of 12 m. long and 2,15 m. wide. She had a 12 HP engine.
In October 1881 the A.I.A. arrives in Banana. The A.I.A. only arrives in Leopoldville in November 1882. Almost one year later. During the same period of time an English protestant mission sent a boat for exploration purposes to the region. It was a small whaleboat named PLYMOUTH.They carried the boat to its destination in only 4 months compared to almost 12 months for the A.I.A. The explanation is simple.
The British recruited their porters locally which saved them lots of time and the boat was divided in smaller sections, most of which could be carried by the porters and not on heavy carts. As the sail assisted boat was easy to assemble they could use more often on navigable stretches of the river before arriving at Leopoldville.

7 or 8 years later the ROYAL was found abandonned and wrecked along the river, the EN AVANT's fate is unknown.

The A.I.A. was decades later returned to Belgium and displayed in Ostend. In fact this is a story on it's own. In 1935 the A.I.A. was to be seen at the entrance of the commercial lock Demey in Ostend. Most people didn't even know what glorious little ship this had been. The boat was described as being rather lacking elegance and with a curious steam engine and an enormous tiller. The name A.I.A. only enhanced the mystery surrounding this iron boat. A.I.A. stands for Association Internationale Africaine, created by H.M.Leopold II. When Stanley returned to Belgium (in fact he arrived in Ostend aboard the KINSEMBO) after his adventures of 1879 and 1882, in order to report to his principal King Leopold II, he abandonned the little fleet: EN AVANT, ROYAL and A.I.A. in Leopoldville. Until 1927 the A.I.A. remained in Congo, in a more or less sorry state. A certain Mr. Honoré Borgers, president of the Coloniale du Littoral (Colonial museum in Ostend) suddenly remembers the little ship and tries hard to return the ship to Europe if possible to...Ostend. The grand Colonial museum in Tervuren (still existing and certainly worth a visit!) was also interested in the boat. A dispute erupted between both honorable institutions and only the intervention of the Minister of Colonies, Mr.Jaspar settled the matter. The A.I.A. was donated to the city of Ostend. It seems that in the correspondence with the Ministry there were even comparisons made with the VICTORY of Admiral Nelson... a little bit of overstatement for a good cause I should think. On July 1, 1927 the A.I.A. was discharged in Antwerp from the steamer STANLEYVILLE (coincidence?). The A.I.A. was a total wreck. Ostend not willing to lose face spent an enormous amount on the restoration of the little ship. It became clear by then that no museum or display hall in Ostend could house a 12 meter boat.


The A.I.A. next to the Demey lock in 1935.


But no sweat! An African-style shed was built in a parc in the middle of Ostend. The A.I.A. was consequently displayed in he middle of a lawn. A little bit odd for most of the Ostend population and again the boat was moved a few weeks later to the Demey lock. Later the hull of the A.I.A. was moved to the Royal Central African Museum in Tervuren, but in 1956 it was returned to Congo.

Oddly enough I received an interesting mail from Mrs. Saskia Kolff who found a small steamer, or what is left of it, in Kinshasa on the premises of the Travaux Publiques. She kindly took a number of photographs, but the identity of the ship is still in doubt. It looks very much like the old A.I.A. but a local historian claims it is the EN AVANT.
I doubt this however as the EN AVANT was longer and with sidewheel propulsion. The hulk in Kinshasa clearly shows a propeller and has the finer lines of a single propeller ship. The mystery around the A.I.A. is still not cleared, but it is surprising to find the probable remains of the old A.I.A. in today's Congo! Some photographs are printed below with kind permission of Mrs.S.Kolff.


The stern section of the A.I.A. today.



The A.I.A. with the dismantled statue of Henry Morton Stanley on top.










The first real cargo-carrying steamer which was to be used upstreams of the rapids on this grand river, is the appropriately named sternwheeler STANLEY(some sources refer to her as LE STANLEY). This 24.00 x 4.80 x 0.80 meter steel ship was built by Yarrow and Co Ltd.in 1884 in 9 selfbuoyant sections. In this fashion the ship was actually rivetted together in the water and not on a slipway or yard, because there was none available till 1887.
This steamer had a locomotive engine installed driving a sternwheel, a type of propulsion which will prove to be successful even decades after.

As it became necessary to slip the STANLEY for repairs, a very primitive wooden slipway was built on the site where later a thriving shipbuilding and construction activity will develop. There was no railway connection yet from the rivermouth till Leopoldville, so every piece of machinery and the heavy ship's sections were carried by man and animal to it's destination. The STANLEY was a most peculiar ship in this respect that she was to be taken apart whenever deemed necessary and each part should be able to be transported over land. On each section a 2 pairs of wheels could be fitted which turned the seperate sections into carts. In 1887 the first steamer was entirely re- assembled in Leopoldville and launched from a slipway.

In the mean time the English protestant missionaries continued their christening duties in the Upper-Congo. A second vessel next to the sailing/rowing PLYMOUTH was ordered at Thornycroft in Chiswick in March 1882, the PEACE.
The Belgian King Leopold II was very interested in the new ship and dispatched an envoy to observe the trials on the Thames on 8 september 1882. Again a difficult and laborious voyage awaits the British expedition. The PEACE arrives at Stanley-Pool off Leopoldville on July 27,1883. But several unfortunate conditions does hamper the construction of the PEACE. The PEACE re-assemby started on March 20,1884.
According to the Belgian observers at Leopoldville, the PEACE was a handsome little ship, measuring 70 feet by 11 1/2 feet wide. She drew less than a foot.





She can steam at a leisurely 4 knots and more if necessary. The hull and engine weigh 6 tonnes. She consists of 7 watertight compartments, built in Bessemer steel with zinc plating. The zinc plating also absorbs much of the force when hitting obstructions. The PEACE has 2 propellers of 16" , but they revolve in closed tunnels. Manholes above the propellers allow easy repairs and cleaning without having to lift the boat out of the water. The vessel was also able to draw a kind of iron curtains which protected the crew and passengers from arrows and other projectiles. In fact the PEACE is the first ship on the Congo with this particular kind of tunnel propulsion invented by Buchanan in 1856 and used before on the Nile by Thornycroft.


Another steamer which is referred to is the HENRY REED. The little sternwheeler was owned by the American mission of M.Bellington. It was sometimes chartered by the Belgian government as there was a shortage of boats. The ROYAL was nothinhg but a wreck and the A.I.A. was immobilized due to a shortage of spare parts. We are talking about August 1886 now.


A considerably larger vessel was the VILLE DE BRUXELLES. Ordered at Cockerill she was designed by Engineer Delcourt, who was responsible also for the EN AVANT, A.I.A. and the STANLEY. The VILLE DE BRUXELLES however was first intended as a wooden hulled boat. The reason for this was the abundant availability of wood in the Congo, the advantages of repairing the ship without need of specialised yards and the reduced weight for the bearers which rendered transport over land much cheaper. However there was a lot of opposition too...
With her draft of 3 feet and a cargo capacity of 35 tons, the VILLE DE BRUXELLES was the largest ship so far to be used on the Congo River. Like the STANLEY she was a sternwheeler. On 31 December 1886 she conducted trials on the River Scheldt.
On 15 March 1888 she could finally be reconstructed in Leopoldville. She was launched on 5 July 1888. However the VILLE DE BRUXELLES suffered several mishaps from the very start. Due to inadequate isolation between the boiler and the wooden deck she almost burned down. Soon she was adapted and repaired and on 7 January 1889 she started her first trip.

The first years of the vessel were a disaster. The planking started to rot (as predicted by the opponents), the caulking loosened and she started making water. In April 1890 the boat was slipped for two months. On 27 June 1890 she was re-launched but on 18 July 1890 she grounded and remained immobile for a considerable time. By February 1892 the bulwarks were badly affected by white ants who ate away most of the wood. After 7 months of repairs she suffered fire on 12 October 1892, probably arson.
The superstructure was destroyed. In December 1893 it was decided to re-build the VILLE DE BRUXELLES with a steel hull. In 1894 she finally starts a new life. During the 66 months she had a wooden hull, she had been out of use 20 months for repairs.

The ROI DES BELGES was a 35 ton ship similar to the STANLEY which was built first by John Cockerill for the Compagnie du Congo pour le Commerce et l'Industrie (CCCI). The CCCI was a private enterprise founded in Brussels in 1887. In 1888 she formed two subsidiaries: Compagnie des Magazins Généraux and the Societé Anonyme Belge pour le Commerce du Haut Congo (SAB).

Every section was carried to Leopoldville between July 2, and July 15, 1887. The heavy engine and boiler arrived 15 days later. The ROI DES BELGES was finished on September 30, 1887 and made her maiden trip on March 17, 1888. The ROI DES BELGES was the steamer commanded by Joseph Conrad for a while for a trip from Stanley Falls to Leopoldville. This experience was used in his book Heart of Darkness in which some dark and truly horrifying aspects of Belgian colonialism are described.

The SAB needed new ships, fast really. They acquired two ships from Sanford, the FLORIDA and the NEW YORK plus two smaller steam launches: GENERAL SANFORD and BARON WEBER.

The FLORIDA was a small steamer of 15 tons with a single propeller. She entered service for the Sanford Exploration Expedition in 1887 but had been used before by Stanley as a barge. The NEW YORK was a whale-boat of 3 tons with side paddles. In 1891 she was converted into a barge awaiting the arrival of better engines. The GENERAL SANFORD and BARON WEBER of 6 tons each were twin propeller ships.
The ROI DES BELGES was transferred to the SAB. But they needed more and two more ships were ordered with Cockerill in Belgium: ARCHIDUCHESSE STEPHANIE and PRINCESSE CLEMENTINE. Two smaller units of 6 tons, the BARON LAMBERMONT and the AUGUSTE BEERNAERT were ordered at Forrest & Sons Shipyard in England.






When the railway to Leopoldville was finished March 16, 1898 larger ships became necessary to carry the goods upstream. In 1897 three 150 ton steamers, the BRABANT, HAINAUT and FLANDRE (45.00 x 9.00 x 1.50 meters) were introduced. Soon a more comprehensive quay, slipway or drydock, storage sheds, etc became necessary in Leopoldville. Here we enter the 20th century. The shipyard expanded and was used extensively up to the independence of Zaire in 1960. The series of photographs show the yard how it looked much later during the 1930's. Large barges were still pushed sideways into the river with the help of some 75 to 100 shipyard workers pushing on the side while a sternwheeler is pulling from the river. The location of the yard is exactly the spot Stanley picked out to build his settlement.

to be continued...

"BACK TO MAINPAGE"