What do you think?
Rate this book
Congo: The Miserable Expeditions and Dreadful Death of Lt. Emory Taunt, USN
Lauded for his ability to tell compelling, true adventure stories, award-winning author Andrew C.A. Jampoler has turned his attention this time to a young American naval officer on a mission up the Congo River in May 1885. Lt. Emory Taunt was ordered to explore as much of the river as possible and report on opportunities for Americans in the potentially rich African marketplace. A little more than five years later, Taunt, 39, was buried near the place he had first come ashore in Africa. His personal demons and the Congo's lethal fevers had killed him. In 2011, to better understand what happened, Jampoler retraced Taunt's expedition in an outboard motorboat. Striking photographs from the author's trip are included to lend a visual dimension to the original journey.
Readers join Taunt in his exploration of some 1400 miles of river and follow him on two additional assignments. A commercial venture to collect elephant ivory in the river's great basin and an appointment as the U.S. State Department's first resident diplomat in Boma, capital of King Leopold II's Congo Free State, are filled with promise. But instead of becoming rich and famous, he died alone, bankrupt, and disgraced. Jampoler's account of what went so dreadfully wrong is both thrilling and tragic. He provides not only a fascinating look at Taunt's brief and extraordinary life, but also a glimpse of the role the United States played in the birth of the Congo nation, and the increasingly awkward position Washington found itself as stories of atrocities against the natives began to leak out.
Readers join Taunt in his exploration of some 1400 miles of river and follow him on two additional assignments. A commercial venture to collect elephant ivory in the river's great basin and an appointment as the U.S. State Department's first resident diplomat in Boma, capital of King Leopold II's Congo Free State, are filled with promise. But instead of becoming rich and famous, he died alone, bankrupt, and disgraced. Jampoler's account of what went so dreadfully wrong is both thrilling and tragic. He provides not only a fascinating look at Taunt's brief and extraordinary life, but also a glimpse of the role the United States played in the birth of the Congo nation, and the increasingly awkward position Washington found itself as stories of atrocities against the natives began to leak out.
- GenresHistory
272 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2013
1 person is currently reading
15 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
September 11, 2021
Andrew Jampoler, the author of Congo: The miserable expeditions and dreadful death of Lt. Emory Taunt, USN, obviously did extensive research. Jampoler gathered numerous naval and other records from the late 19th century to tell a (true) story of an often neglected part of history.
Sadly, the storytelling is often wanting. There are far too many digressions and extraneous details. Moreover, there are numerous quotes from the 19th century. For a reader of the 21st century, 19th-century writing is archaic and prone to verbiage. The reader is often left wondering, what was the person trying to say?
Jampoler did include several pictures which help tell the story. One old picture depicts the steamer Florida, a steamer roughly akin to The African Queen in the movie of the same name. Jampoler also included a few old maps, but such maps are hard to read. As most readers are not familiar with the geography of central Africa, at least one modern map would have been helpful.
The most readable part of Congo is the epilogue. In the epilogue recounts the author and his son's travels down the Congo River. However, it is unclear what the epilogue is meant to convey, other than air service by local African airlines is not particularly safe.
For its thorough research, history buffs might believe Jampoler’s Congo deserves a four-star rating. However, for the general reader, the narrative is too jumbled. There are also a couple of typographical errors.
Despite the very occasional error, Jampoler obviously put a lot of effort and heart into writing the story of Lt. Taunt, and the life and times of Lt. Taunt are interesting, but this reviewer, reluctantly, gives an unfavorable recommendation.
Sadly, the storytelling is often wanting. There are far too many digressions and extraneous details. Moreover, there are numerous quotes from the 19th century. For a reader of the 21st century, 19th-century writing is archaic and prone to verbiage. The reader is often left wondering, what was the person trying to say?
Jampoler did include several pictures which help tell the story. One old picture depicts the steamer Florida, a steamer roughly akin to The African Queen in the movie of the same name. Jampoler also included a few old maps, but such maps are hard to read. As most readers are not familiar with the geography of central Africa, at least one modern map would have been helpful.
The most readable part of Congo is the epilogue. In the epilogue recounts the author and his son's travels down the Congo River. However, it is unclear what the epilogue is meant to convey, other than air service by local African airlines is not particularly safe.
For its thorough research, history buffs might believe Jampoler’s Congo deserves a four-star rating. However, for the general reader, the narrative is too jumbled. There are also a couple of typographical errors.
Despite the very occasional error, Jampoler obviously put a lot of effort and heart into writing the story of Lt. Taunt, and the life and times of Lt. Taunt are interesting, but this reviewer, reluctantly, gives an unfavorable recommendation.
Displaying 1 of 1 review