"Portuguese gunboat: 'Mareschal McMahon'" Topic

Gents,

Does any one have any information about the Portuguese gunboat of the 1890s called the 'Mareschal McMahon'? This vessel has also been described as a 'government customs ship' and operated off Portuguese East Africa (modern day Mozambique) in the early 1890s.
If any one can give me some specs / info on armanent etc, or point me in the direction of suitable websites, I would be most grateful.

Customs service rather than navy. Spelling is probably "Marechal MacMahon" or "Marechal Mac Mahon" – doubtless named after the former French president, since it was his arbitration which settled Mozambique as Portuguese. From "The Making Of Rhodesia" –

She proved to be the Marechal MacMahon, a customs boat, and apparently had no guns…

I'd surmise a machine gun or two might not be out of the question, but no more than that; she seized the Countess Of Carnarvon, but as the latter was a small unarmed steamer that's not a great feat, and the subsequent diplomacy appears to have been embarrassing all round….

Dom.

Thanks Dom

Like you, I came across the name in several similar books about the early days of Rhodesia, but cannot find anny more details on it.

I couldn't find any info but you could try this forum:

link

Thanks – lets see what comes back from there.

If any one else is interested, this is what one fellow posted on the forum mentioned above:

Construída em Inglaterra, esta canhoneira serviu na Armada em Moçambique, entre 1889 e 1894, ano em que se perdeu na barra do Limpopo.

DESLOCAMENTO 304 tons.
DIMENSÕES 37,79 * 6,40 * 2,23 metros
ARMAMENTO 1 peça
PROPULSÃO 2 máquinas de T.E. de 350 H.P. – 2 veios = 11 nós
GUARNIÇÃO 25 homens

This chap posted in Portuguese, but I think the information is pretty self-explanatory. According to an online translation site I used, a 'peça' means a 'piece'.