Dervish Gunboats

Not much is known about the gunboats that the Dervish used during both Sudan campaigns, other than the fact that they did have several. During the first Sudan campaign they captured several Egyptian steamers and these were used in limited operations around the Khartoum area. There is little information on the subject and no battles with Gordon's steamers were recorded as far as I have been able to tell.

During the late Sudan campaign the British gunboat flotilla was hoping for a showdown with the Dervish gunboats, but it never materialized. Whether this was because they had broken down after years of neglect, no imagination or planning for gunboat operations, or no desire to slug it out with the more powerful British ships will probably never be known. One Dervish gunboat was put out of action by French forces near Fashoda.

I have built these three gunboats(and I'm planning to do a few more) based upon that they would probably be converted Egyptian river steamers. This would mean armor in the form of boards nailed to the hull and sandbags around the gun emplacements. The Dervishes had quite a sizeable arsenal(courtesy of the defeated Egyptian forces) of smoothbore cannon and early machine guns.