'Steer for your life, Mahomed!' (facing p. 64): lithograph by Maurice Greiffenhagen, engraved by Charles H. M. Kerr, in H. Rider Haggard's "SHE:" A History of Adventure, 3 ½ by 4 ¼ inches (8.6 cm high by 10.7 cm wide), framed. Scanned image, caption, and commentary by Philip V. Allingham. [You may use this image without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the person who scanned the image, and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one. Click on the image to enlarge it.]
Passage Realised: Mahomed steers the Adventurers' Dhow Passed the Headland
“Take the tiller, Mahomed!” I roared in Arabic. “We must try and shoot them.” At the same moment I seized an oar, and got it out, motioning to Job to do likewise.
Mahomed clambered aft, and got hold of the tiller, and with some difficulty Job, who had sometimes pulled a tub upon the homely Cam, got out his oar. In another minute the boat’s head was straight on to the ever-nearing foam, towards which she plunged and tore with the speed of a racehorse. Just in front of us the first line of breakers seemed a little thinner than to the right or left — there was a cap of rather deeper water. I turned and pointed to it.
“Steer for your life, Mahomed!” I yelled. He was a skilful steersman, and well acquainted with the dangers of this most perilous coast, and I saw him grip the tiller, bend his heavy frame forward, and stare at the foaming terror till his big round eyes looked as though they would start out of his head. The send of the sea was driving the boat’s head round to starboard. If we struck the line of breakers fifty yards to starboard of the gap we must sink. It was a great field of twisting, spouting waves. Mahomed planted his foot against the seat before him, and, glancing at him, I saw his brown toes spread out like a hand with the weight he put upon them as he took the strain of the tiller. She came round a bit, but not enough. I roared to Job to back water, whilst I dragged and laboured at my oar. She answered now, and none too soon. [Chapter IV, "The Squall," pp. 63-64]
Commentary: Action and Suspense rather than Exotic Scenery
Undoubtedly Greiffenhagen had had the opportunity to study Johnson's highly atmospheric “The top of the peak, which was about eighty feet by one hundred and fifty thick at its base, was shaped like a negro’s head and face.” in The Graphic instalment for 16 October 1886. Johnson's tranquil, almost dreamy scene of the thirty-foot Dundee whaleboat's drifting past the strangely-shaped East African headland follows the miraculous survival of the helmsman Mahomed and his European passengers, after their escaping the squall and passing through two lines of breakers. However, with only a small-scale lithograph to compose, the volume illustrator has chosen a more dramatic moment for realisation that relies less on exotic background details and atmospheric effect for its appeal.
And certainly the moment realised is quite dramatic. The sudden squall has sunk the Arab dhow, and drowned the eighteen Arab crew; miraculously, Leo has survived being swept overboard, and has been washed into the whaleboat that the dhow had been towing. In the nick of time, the steersman, Holly, and Job (Holly's attendant from Cambridge) had jumped into the smaller boat, which, with its water-tight storage compartments, has survived both the sudden gale and both lines of breakers. In Greiffenhagen's small-scale lithograph, Mahomed pulls hard at the tiller to negotiate the breakers (right) while Leo, exhausted from his ordeal, lies unconscious at the helmsman's feet. Meanwhile, both Holly (centre) and Job (nearest the viewer) use their oars to back-water. The lithograph is all the more effective for being juxtaposed to the very passage describing the harrowing adventure.
Bibliography
Haggard, H. Rider. "SHE:" A History of Adventure. Illustrated by E. K. Johnson. The Graphic Magazine, Vols. XXXIV and XXXV. 2 October 1886 to 8 January 1887.
Haggard. H. Rider. SHE: A History of Adventure. Illustrated by E. K. Johnson. New York: Harper & Bros., 1887.
Haggard, H. Rider. SHE: A History of Adventure. Illustrated by Maurice Greiffenhagen and Charles H. M. Kerr. London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1888, rpt. 1927.
Created 5 May 2025