Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Africa Ed's 1950 Safari - Conclusion - Dealing with Trophies

This ends the account of Ed's 1950 safari. I have enjoyed serializing it, especially as I had not previously been aware of an African safari other than the 1951 one which I had serialized earlier. (I wonder if the Mau Mau Emergency prevented Ed from embarking on any subsequent trips to Africa.) If anyone who missed that (as it was in the general forum) and wants to read about it, use the search function and just look up Ed's. That should take you to it. It also will provide some background on Ed himself. Thanks to all for their interest.

"Inasmuch as we now had 25 nice trophies and two weeks had almost elapsed, we were ready to start back toward Nairobi, arriving there on March 8.

Having completed our hunting Safari, we were faced with the problem of taking care of our trophies, which involved a considerable amount of red tape. There is a firm in Nairobi that makes it a business to mount the various trophies, or prepare them for shipment. Inasmuch as the mounted trophies are subject to 100 per cent duty, we decided to have them shipped to New York for mounting. Before the trophies could be shipped, they had to be dried and then dipped in strychnine solution, after which they had to be inspected by the game warden. After this was all done, there had to be a number of forms filled out before the trophies could be shipped to the United States.

As an example of how one can get involved in the endless amount of red tape, I made the mistake of paying the firm that prepared my trophies for shipment in East African shillings. Then, after I arrived home, I learned that one could not take out merchandise from East Africa which had been purchased with East African shillings. Such materials or merchandise can only be taken when purchased with money originating outside of East Africa, so I had to get an affidavit from Safariland Limited, the people who took us on Safari, to the effect that I had paid for my portion of the Safari expense with U.S. money; in fact that I had over-paid, so some of this money was returned me when we returned from the hunting trip. Than I had to furnish an affidavit to the effect that I used this money, which was returned to me by Safariland Limited to pay the company that prepared my trophies for shipment, and I also had to get an affidavit from the Bank in Nairobi, verifying that I had paid Safariland Limited by a check drawn on my bank in the United States. With all of these affidavits, I was able to satisfy the Customs that everything was in order so that shipment of the trophies could be made."

On March 13, at 12:05 P.M., I left Nairobi by East African Airlines plane."

And I've enjoyed reading them. Thanks for taking the effort.




Likely on a DC-3 as that was their most modern equipment at the time - Wonder where he flew to? Going in it looks like they went from Astruda, Ruandi Urindi (since 1962 Republic of Rwanda and Kingdom of Burundi) to Nairobi and I'm sure they didn't go back that way. The travel then was a whole different world!

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

Thanks for your interest!

Out-going: train to Chicago, plane to New York, New York to Boston on a TWA DC-4, then to Gander, Newfoundland, to the Azores, to Lisbon, Portugal, to Madrid, Spain, to Algiers, Algeria, bus to Bou Sadda, Algeria, by bus to Biskra, Algeria, train to Constantine, by train to Tunis, by train to Carthage, to Cairo by TWA plane, Air France plane to Nairobi.

They did some more traveling after the safari: refueling stop at Khartoum, Egypt, then to Lydda, Israel: "... during this part of the trip, we were entertained by a 2 1/2 hour sound moving picture while the plane was in flight, which was something new which had been recently added." by airline bus to Tel Aviv, then by taxi to Jerusalem - then to Athens, Greece, then to Rome, Italy and Vatican City, then to Geneva, Switzerland by way of the Dutch Airline, then to Interlaken and Jungfraujoch by cog rail train, then to Paris, France by train, to London by plane, Pan American Clipper to Gander, Newfoundland, to New York.

Going back to your first post - Ed Sundholm was from my hometown. He started a factory making a grease gun of his design and did quite well. In 1951, he took his wife and two adult-age daughters on a 4-month trip around the world.

He sounds like a pretty successful self-made industrialist. Can you imagine that a similar leader could take this 4-month trip today? (yes, the quote was from the 51 trip but this 50 one was clearly a few weeks a least) He could have written letters while he was gone and the occasional telegram but he must have developed and empowered a very capable leadership team to be able to take a trip like this without fearing the ruin of his company. Laudable indeed.

Superior Manufacturing had no sales staff and never advertised, yet sold in all 48 (at the time) states, 7 provinces of Canada, and 46 other foreign countries. (1957 data - foreign sales were only begun in 1950)

(From 1957) "... in the last 4 or 5 years an order for 500 (grease guns) was considered rather small, because they were getting orders for carload and truckload lots. In 1956, along with their many carload and truckload orders they received 4 orders, each for 25,000 grease guns, and already this year, even though it is only January 15, they have received 2 orders for 25,000 each..."

"Superior products are guaranteed forever, and they make no charge for repairs or replacements. They have found that this act is the best form of advertising to be had. A sheet listing that which is produced at the plant is the only literature packed with Superior products.

Thanks so much for serializing this safari. Great reading!

RS