Ripon Falls Ripon Falls Ripon Falls at the northern end of Lake Victoria in Uganda was formerly considered the source of the river Nile. In 1862–3 John Hanning Speke was the first European to follow the course of the Nile downstream after discovering the falls that his intuition had marked as the source of the Nile. The water from Ripon Falls falls into a narrow opening and that is where some people believe the River Nile starts. He named the falls after George Robinson, 1st Marquess of Ripon. The Falls functioned as a natural outlet for Lake Victoria, until in 1954 the
PS Speke "Speke" and her barges were used mainly to carry cotton for export from nearby plantations. When the railway operator's successor, the East African Railways and Harbours Corporation (EARH), completed its northern Uganda extension from Tororo to Pakwach it superseded the Victoria Nile ferry service. EARH withdrew "Speke", "Stanley" and "Grant" from service in 1962 and offered "Speke" for sale in September of that year. The track of the Busoga Railway was lifted in 1964. PS Speke PS "Speke" was a British stern wheel paddle steamer in Uganda. She was built for the Uganda Railway in 1910 to operate on Lake