CAPSTICK

[Walt]

I just re-read a Peter Hathaway Capstick book called "Death in the Long Grass", one of several of his books I bought decades ago. In recent years some have disparaged Capstick's work, saying he was a drunk who hung out in Nairobi bars listening to hunters talk about their adventures and then borrowing from those stories to develop his own.
I don't know whether that's true or not but regardless, in my view he was a superbly entertaining writer who was also a decent biologist and anthropologist.

[GunnyMack]

He was a drunk but he was also a hunter, probably saw stuff that would make a normal person drink !
I remember him and a model 12 chasing black mambas living in the roof of his thatched hut. I'm a snake lover but not mambas!!

[jeepnik]

I just re-read a Peter Hathaway Capstick book called "Death in the Long Grass", one of several of his books I bought decades ago. In recent years some have disparaged Capstick's work, saying he was a drunk who hung out in Nairobi bars listening to hunters talk about their adventures and then borrowing from those stories to develop his own.
I don't know whether that's true or not but regardless, in my view he was a superbly entertaining writer who was also a decent biologist and anthropologist.

I think they said the same sort of thing about Hemingway during the Spanish Revolution. I always have to wonder how much of that type of stuff is fact and how much is sour grapes.

[Ray]

As much as I like reading of the dark continent I confess to never reading capstick. There are quite a number of public domain works by the great hunters that are free. Search for baker and baldwin and finaughty and oswell and selous, et. al...... for fiction there is henry haggard and edgar wallace's humorous "sanders" African novels

"There is a vestibule in my house in England. On all the four walls of this vestibule were placed pairs of horns -- about a hundred pairs altogether, all of which I had shot myself. They are beautiful specimens, as I never keep any horns which are not in every way perfect, unless it may be now and again on account of the associations connected with them. In the centre of the room, however, over the wide fireplace, there was a clear space left on which I had fixed up all my rifles. Some of them I have had for forty years, old muzzle-loaders that nobody would look at nowadays. One was an elephant gun with strips of rimpi, or green hide, lashed round the stock and locks, such as used to be owned by the Dutchmen -- a 'roer' they call it. That gun, the Boer I bought it from many years ago told me, had been used by his father at the battle of the Blood River, just after Dingaan swept into Natal and slaughtered six hundred men, women, and children, so that the Boers named the place where they died 'Weenen', or the 'Place of Weeping'; and so it is called to this day, and always will be called. And many an elephant have I shot with that old gun. She always took a handful of black powder and a three-ounce ball, and kicked like the very deuce."

The character Allan Quartermain from the 1887 novel of the same name by Henry Haggard.

[Ray]

and selous....

"We were most kindly treated by Mr, William Williams, a trader, who had only the preceding year returned from a hunting and trading trip in the Matabele country. He gave me much information about Matabele Land, and showed me the large-bore elephant guns which are universally used by the professional Dutch and native elephant-hunters. I eventually bought two of these very unprepossessing looking weapons, which I will here describe. They were smooth-bore duck guns of the very commonest description, taking a round bullet of four ounces, the guns themselves weighing only 12 lbs. They were made by Isaac Hollis of Birmingham, and what they must have cost originally I am afraid to say, for I bought them from Mr. Williams after they had been transported by bullock waggons over 600 miles up country from Cape Town for 6 # apiece. With these two guns, and another similar but weighing 2 lbs. heavier, which I bought the following year from a Dutch hunter for 7 # 10 s.., and using nothing but the common trade powder that is sold to the Kafirs in 5-lb. bags, I killed in three seasons seventy-eight elephants, all but one of which I shot on foot. Since then I have shot with very expensive large-bore breech-loaders and Curtis and Harvey's best powder, but I have never used or seen used a rifle which drove better than these common-made old muzzle-loaders. However, they were so light that, when loaded as they were by the hand from a leather bag of powder slung at my side (I find that an ordinary handful of powder is over twenty drachms), they kicked most frightfully, and in my case the punishment I received from these guns has affected my nerves to such an extent as to have materially influenced my shooting."

F.C. Selous, 1878.....

[GunnyMack]

I believe it was Selous that hunted from horse back, while chasing an elephant he took a tree branch in the eye at a gallop. He was only minorly wounded. A few years later he was back in England, walking with a friend and he sneezed into his handkerchief, there was part of that tree branch that stuck him.

I also remember one of the early hunters with a 275 Rigby that was left a foot, a group of pachyderms came in to stamp out his camp fire. He pulled the soft point bullets out with his teeth, swapped them around and killed the elephants.

Guts, determination and grit they had in spades!

[2ndovc]

My favorite of Capstick's is a book called "Warrior" . It's the Biography of Col. Richard Mienertzhagen, of the British army. In the Tower of London's Museum of the Royal Fusiliers, there is Col Minertzhagen's knobkerry. When I saw, what looked like a oddly shaped wooden club in a glass case, I was very interested in what it was. Wrote down the Colonel's name and looked him up when I got home. What an incredible life that man had.
Definitely worth the read!

jb

[yooper2]

I've heard all of the stories about Capstick stealing others stories, may well be true for all I know but I do own some videos he made in which he does some incredible shooting with his 470 Nitro. No one argue that the man wasn't one heck of a good writer too.



Eric

[GunnyMack]

That reminds me, they developed the 470 Capstick in honor of his feats.

[Ray]

I think sometimes in the past I have had the surnames capstick and ruark confused and or conflated.

William Baldwin who referred to hippopotami as "sea cows" and the nile crocodile as "alligators" wrote in 1863 of 1852:

" I tried a lot of iron bullets I brought out with me; however, they did not answer at all, and I eventually threw them all away, as they rapidly rusted despite the buck grease and were much too light and flew high, though they penetrated to a great depth."

11305792786_5d1a26ccbe_b_kindlephoto-27961606.jpg

Baldwin, 1854 slaying a giraffe for trade fat, camp meat for the boys, heart and marrow bones for the whites.....

[Ray]

More baldwin.....

"July 1st. I started early for the Pongola, with three or four Amatongas. In going through the bush I saw a great number of pitfalls, about nine feet deep, and very narrow at the bottom. They are made by the natives to entrap all sorts of game. After walking several miles, the Kaffirs cried out "Nance inthovu!" (see elephant), and I beheld, about three quarters of a mile off, a huge monster napping his enormous ears just at the edge of the bush. I was in great excitement, filled my bandolier with about twentyfour bullets, refilled two powder-flasks, took an infinity of caps, and two guns, which most unfortunately happened to contain but small charges of powder (three and a half drachms), as I had not expected elephants, and had no means of drawing the bullets without firing, which would have started them instantly. Oh, for a breech-loader! In this dilemma, I determined on firing at his knee, if I could not get a side-shot between the ear and the eye. When all was in readiness, I looked up again, and saw about fifteen elephants, one apparently with long white teeth, which I set my mind on securing. I kept well below the wind, and came within 100 yards of them, when my Amatonga guide declined proceeding farther. It was rather nervous work going up alone, as I saw them breaking off huge boughs of trees, which crashed all around. I went up stealthily, however, within thirty yards of a large cow, but, not liking her teeth, was proceeding with the utmost caution to inspect some of the others, and endeavor to find the one I had seen at a distance, with the long white tusks, when, to my horror and mortification, I heard Fly barking in the middle of the troop. In a moment they were off, smashing every thing before them, in a great state of alarm. I ran about six miles after them, through the bush, and came up with three of them. I gave one a shot behind the shoulder, but they all made off, and I saw no more of them; and, though I instantly rushed in, a calf and the stern of a retreating old cow was all the chance of a shot I got. In the excitement of the moment, I had forgotten all about the dog, and felt much mortified at the mischief she was the cause of; for I was perfectly cool and collected at these, my first elephants, and should most undoubtedly have got a good shot, even if I had not disabled, and eventually, perhaps, bagged one of the best of them. I never hailed any thing with more joy than the Pongola: I was half dead from thirst, never having touched a drop of water all day; and the river was as cold, clear, and beautiful as any I ever saw. It is at this point about 100 yards wide, and its banks on both sides are covered with the wild fig-tree, which grows to an enormous size."

And finally successes with hippos when he had failed at elephants.....

"A man with a thrifty housewife need not starve in this country, for I killed to-day about five tons of delicious meat with unlimited fat."

[Sarge]

Whatever Capstick was or wasn't, I have certainly enjoyed his writing along with Hemmingway, Askins and others. We are imperfect creatures as anyone who knows me can attest.

[ndcowboy]

I've got an autographed copy of death in the long grass. One of my all-time favorites.

[CowboyTutt]

I have at least two of his books. Wish I had such a thing as a signed copy!!!! He may have embellished but as any trial lawyer would tell you, there was so much detail in his writing, that it lends credibility. He certainly had to have hunted in Africa, that is for sure.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Hathaway_Capstick

-Tutt

P.S. Personally, I think there was more truth than fiction to what he wrote. Who gives up a career on Wall Street for this kind of stuff, only to falsify it? It's possible, but I doubt
it. The naysayers, I bet you to the last of them, also say Elmer Keith is a liar as well. Your opinion will vary and God Bless the 1st Amendment and our Founding Fathers!

-Tutt

[Ray]

You all have worn me down. I am perusing the used book sites in search of capstick titles. It looks like I'll have to actually pay for a book(s) and they are sure proud of them ! Jack Benny will be ashamed of me.....

[Walt]

You're right of course, Tutt.

The age of the internet has brought the naysayers out of the woodwork due to their anonimity. Yeah, I'm convinced that Capstick hunted as skillfully as he wrote.

[6pt-sika]

I suspect all of the old boy writers by todays standards would be called drunks . But in their time it was socially accepted to get sloshed or close to sloshed the night before as long as you were ready for work on time the next day . And I also suspect a PH in that time period had enough experiences to make heavy drinking almost a necessity . Just my opinion based on nothing

[765x53]

I have five of his books: "Death in the Long Grass", Death in the Dark Continent", "Death in the Silent Places", "The African Adventurers", and "Maneaters". The African Adventurers and Death in the Silent Places are reprises of the lives and writings of the nineteenth and early twentieth century adventurers. All of his books are great reading.

[ollogger]

I have all of the books Capstick wrote & most all from The Capstick library
plus a few of his videos, if its not based on fact, then he is the worlds best story teller
along with a twin brother that is a ace shot, some people can handle booze, i for one can not
took me many years to figure that out, if i wouldnt have i never would of got this old


ollogger

[piller]

Tink Nathan, of Tinks doe pee deer scent, has stated that Capstick was the friend who helped him get his guide license for bow hunting in South Africa. He staunchly defends Capstick. Take it as you wish.