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Ships Coming to Anchor, South Africa

Enticing amateur snapshot of South Africa before the outbreak of the Boer War.

Amateur film 1898 1 mins Silent

Overview

Amateur filmmaker Robert A. Mitchell’s record of South Africa before the outbreak of the Boer War consists of many enticing fragments, among which are a gang of labourers and an ox-train. This film, however, has more in common with the other subject Mitchell is known to have favoured: boats of all kinds. Purporting to be a ship coming to anchor in South Africa, it can be taken, along with 'The ‘Bluff’ Durban,' as the opening chapter of Mitchell’s idiosyncratic document of the country in 1898.