الرحلة الأولى للمعمل العائم في النيل الأبيض

Floating laboratory maiden journey

The Sudan Government built the vessel for the legendary floating laboratory in the Khartoum shipyards and supplied a towing launch named Culex, Henry Wellcome fitted and equipped the barge at his expense, and WTRLK and the London School of Tropical Medicine jointly staffed its laboratory and planned the medical research. The laboratory was a two-decked barge that was completely furnished, fitted, and equipped for the full range of tropical research. Living accommodations were on the upper deck and the laboratory was below.

Culex was required to sail the Nile diagnosing cases, collecting specimens, making observations on the diseases of humans and animals, on disease vectors, and gathering information on the lives, customs and traditional practices of the peoples along the Nile.

The boat left Khartoum on its maiden journey on April 15, 1907, bound for Taufikia in the Sudd area of the White Nile, under the command of Dr Charles Morley Wenyon, protozoologist to the London School of Tropical Medicine. Wenyon’s return journey commenced on February 17, 1908 and after a few days stay in Khartoum, he left for home, reaching London on March 22, 1908 after an absence of one year and twenty-two days.