Episode #251 - What Was the Dreadnought Hoax?
Our Fake History
PodcastOne
4.7 • 3.7K Ratings
🗓️ 20 May 2026
⏱️ 83 minutes
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Summary
When the HMS Dreadnought was launched in 1906 it completely revolutionized naval warfare. It made all previous ships obsolete and helped spur an arms race between Britain and Germany. For many the Dreadnought was symbol of the militarism that was sweeping Europe before World War One. Then in 1910 the ship was targeted by pranksters, who managed to get access to Dreadnought by impersonating Abyssinian (Ethiopian) royalty. The pranksters wore gaudy theatre costumes and blackface make-up. Despite this, they still somehow managed to fool the Dreadnought's officers. In the years since the prank many have debated it's significance. Some have argued that the prank was anti-authoritarian and anti-imperialist, but does that give the pranksters too much credit? Was the Dreadnought Hoax little more than a racist stunt meant to build the clout of England's most infamous hoaxer? Tune-in and find out how Virginia Woolf, Dreadnought Operettas, and Beelzebub all play a role in the story.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Racist attitudes can be baked into the cake of our history. |
| 0:11.7 | When we go back and try to understand a moment from the past, |
| 0:15.9 | the unexamined prejudices and biases of historical actors can sometimes go unnoticed, and then sometimes |
| 0:24.7 | they hit you square in the nose. |
| 0:28.6 | The story I want to tell you today deals with the type of ambient racism that can pervade a society. |
| 0:36.5 | It deals with prejudices that are entirely taken for granted, |
| 0:41.5 | and the cavalier way that degrading stereotypes are deployed by people not giving them much thought. |
| 0:50.5 | On Thursday, March 2nd, 1905, the mayor of Cambridge, England, received a very exciting telegram. |
| 1:00.5 | The message had been sent from London's luxurious Hotel Cecil by one Henry Lucas, presumably some official from the British Foreign Office. |
| 1:11.2 | The telegram read, quote, |
| 1:13.3 | To the mayor of Cambridge, the Sultan of Zanzibar, |
| 1:16.9 | will arrive today at Cambridge at 427 for a short visit. |
| 1:22.1 | Could you arrange to show him buildings of interest and send a carriage? |
| 1:26.6 | End quote. |
| 1:28.2 | The mayor eagerly and politely responded in the affirmative. |
| 1:32.9 | Cambridge was, of course, home to the world-famous university of the same name. |
| 1:38.5 | It was not entirely unusual for foreign dignitaries to tour England's prestigious educational |
| 1:44.0 | institutions, but this type of tour seems to have been a first for foreign dignitaries to tour England's prestigious educational institutions. |
| 1:45.5 | But this type of tour seems to have been a first for Mayor Campkin, who until recently |
| 1:51.4 | had been a local pharmacist. A few hours later, a second telegram arrived, informing the |
| 1:58.1 | mayor that there had been a slight change of plans. The visitor would |
| 2:02.1 | actually be the sultan's uncle, Prince Mukasa Ali, and the time of his arrival would be a touch |
... |
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