On February 7, 1910, the officers of HMS Dreadnought—the flagship of the Royal Navy's Home Fleet and the ultimate symbol of British naval supremacy—received an urgent telegram. The message, supposedly sent by the Foreign Office, announced that a delegation of princes from Abyssinia (modern-day Ethiopia) would be visiting Weymouth and requested an official tour of the vessel. In reality, the entire event was a brilliant prank engineered by legendary aristocratic eccentric Horace de Vere Cole.
Cole recruited a group of friends, including a young writer named Virginia Stephen (later Virginia Woolf), dressed them in elaborate robes, and hired an expert theatrical makeup artist to darken their skin and apply fake beards. Acting as a fake Foreign Office translator, Cole escorted the 'royal party' onto the battleship. The Royal Navy rolled out the red carpet, presenting an honor guard and playing national anthems (substituting the anthem of Zanzibar because they couldn't find Abyssinia's score).
As the officers showed off the ship's secret weaponry, the pranksters expressed amazed gratitude by repeatedly exclaiming 'Bunga, bunga!' —a nonsensical phrase that quickly became a national sensation. To avoid revealing their smudged makeup, the impostors refused all food and drink offered by their generous naval hosts.
The group successfully departed without raising suspicion. A few days later, Cole sent a group photograph of the disguised hoaxers to the national press, utterly humiliating the Admiralty and making 'Bunga, bunga!' a ubiquitous catchphrase across London.