MV Liemba |
|
| Career | |
|---|---|
| Name: | Graf von Götzen (1913-1916) Liemba (1927-present) |
| Operator: | Marine Services Company Limited (since 1997) |
| Port of registry: | Kaiserliche Marine (1913-1916) Tanganyika Territory (1924-1961) Tanzania (1961-present) |
| Builder: | Jos. L. Meyer, Papenburg, Germany |
| Laid down: | 1913 |
| Launched: | 1914 |
| Homeport: | Kigoma, Tanzania |
| Status: | in active service, as of 2012[update] |
| General characteristics | |
| Displacement: | 1,575 t |
| Length: | 232 ft (70.71 m) |
| Beam: | 33 ft 10 in (10.31 m) |
| Installed power: | 500 ihp (370 kW) |
| Propulsion: | Triple expansion steam engine, (until 1970, replaced with Diesel): 2 screws |
| Speed: | 9 knots (17 km/h) |
| Complement: | 18 1st class 16 2nd class 350 3rd class |
| Armament: | one 105mm autocannon & two 37mm revolver guns from SMS Königsberg (removed 1916) |
The MV Liemba, formerly the Graf von Götzen, is a passenger and cargo ferry that runs along the eastern shore of Lake Tanganyika. She is operated by the Marine Services Company Limited of Tanzania[1] and operates between the ports of Kigoma, Tanzania and Mpulungu, Zambia with numerous stops to pick up and set down passengers in between.
Graf von Götzen was built in 1913 in Germany, and was one of three vessels operated by the German Empire to control Lake Tanganyika during the early part of the First World War. Her master had her scuttled on 26 July 1916 off the mouth of the Malagarasi River during the German retreat from the town of Kigoma. In 1924 a British Royal Navy salvage team raised her and in 1927 she was recommissioned as the Liemba.
The ship was the inspiration for the German gunboat Luisa in C. S. Forester's 1935 novel The African Queen, and John Huston's subsequent film version. Giles Foden later retold the story of her sinking in his book Mimi and Toutou Go Forth: The Bizarre Battle for Lake Tanganyika.[2] In 1992 the ship featured in the BBC Television travel series Pole to Pole and Michael Palin stayed in one of her cabins. A feature documentary film on the ship Liemba, narrated by Chiwoniso Maraire, was released in 2010 by Breadbox Productions in the US.
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The Graf von Götzen was built in 1913 at the Meyer-Werft Shipyard in Papenburg, Germany, and named after Count Gustav Adolf Graf von Götzen, the former governor of German East Africa. After a preliminary assembly she was taken apart and shipped in parts to East Africa to serve as a passenger and cargo ferry in conjunction with the Ostafrikanische Eisenbahngesellschaft ("East African Railway Company"). She arrived first in Dar es Salaam and was then taken on the Central Line to Kigoma, on Lake Tanganyika. She was rebuilt there in 1914 and launched in June 1915.
With the aid of the Götzen which had been additionally armed with a 105 mm (4.1 in) autocannon from the SMS Königsberg, the Germans had complete supremacy of the lake in the early stages of the war. The ship was used both to ferry cargo and personnel across the lake, and as a base from which to launch surprise attacks on Allied troops. It therefore became essential for the Allied forces to gain control of the lake themselves. Under the command of Geoffrey Spicer-Simson and the Royal Navy they achieved the monumental task of bringing two armed motor boats Mimi and Toutou from England to the lake by rail, road and river to Kalemie on the western shore of Lake Tanganyika. The two boats waited until December 1915, then mounted a surprise attack on the Germans, capturing the gunboat Kingani - renamed HMS Fifi. Another German vessel, the Hedwig von Wissman, was sunk in February 1916, leaving the Götzen as the only German vessel remaining on the lake.
As a result of their strengthened position on the lake, the Allies advanced towards Kigoma by land, and the Belgians established an airbase on the western shore at Albertville. From there in June 1916 they launched a bombing raid on German positions in and around Kigoma. It is not clear whether the Götzen was hit (the Belgians claimed to have hit her but the Germans denied it), but German morale suffered and she was subsequently stripped of her gun since it was needed elsewhere.
The war on the lake had reached a stalemate by this stage, with both sides declining to mount attacks. However, the war on land was progressing, largely to the advantage of the Allies, who cut off the railway link in July 1916 and threatened to isolate Kigoma completely. This led the German naval commander on the lake, Gustav Zimmer, to abandon the town and head south. In order to avoid his ship falling into Allied hands, Zimmer ordered that Götzen be scuttled. The task was given to the three engineers from Meyer Werft who had travelled with the dismantled ship to Lake Tanganyika in order to supervise its assembly. They decided on their own that they would try to enable a later salvage; they loaded the ship with sand and covered all engines with a thick layer of grease before sinking her carefully on 26 July off the mouth of the Malagarasi River.
The Götzen remained on the bottom of Lake Tanganyika until 1924 when the British Royal Navy salvaged her to aid transport around the lake in the new protectorate of Tanganyika. They found that the engines and boilers were still usable and the ship returned to service in May 1927 as a passenger and cargo ferry under the new title MV Liemba.[3]
The Liemba has been operating almost non-stop since that date. In 1948 East African Railways and Harbours Corporation took over running the ferry, allowing it to link services with the Central Line from Kigoma to Dar es Salaam. In 1970 the ship was overhauled, the original steam engines were replaced with twin diesels and the accommodation was increased from 430 to 600 passengers.
In 1977 EARH was dissolved and the new Tanzania Railways Corporation took over operation of Liemba. In 1993 TRC gave Liemba an overhaul managed by a Danish shipyard, Karstensen Shipyard of northern Jutland and sponsored by the Danish International Development Agency.
In 1997 the UNHCR used Liemba and MV Mwongozo to transport more than 75,000 refugees, who had fled Zaire during the First Congo War, back to their homeland following the overthrow of longtime dictator Mobutu Sese Seko. Liemba made a total of 22 trips between Kigoma and Uvira during this five month operation.
In 1997 TRC's inland shipping division became a separate company, the Marine Services Company Ltd.[4]
In 2011, TRC wrote to the Federal Government of Germany, requesting assistance in either renovating or replacing the vessel. A study was undertaken by German authorities, which it is though concludes that it would be cheaper to build a new ship than renovate Liemba. The final request for financial help has fallen between the governments of Lower Saxony, in which the ship was built, and the federal government in Berlin, with the President of Germany Christian Wulff stating that the vessel had a "singular history" and performed an "indispensable service" to the people of East Africa.[5]
The original version of The African Queen written by C. S. Forester and serialised in the News Chronicle in 1934 was very different from the one associated with the film. In this Rose and Allnut are planning to attack a German cruiser named Dortmund (loosely based on the SMS Königsberg), with the launch sailing down the river to attack it in the river delta.
In the book the The German gunboat Königin Luisa (referred to by hero Charlie Allnutt as the Louisa) is based on the Kingani, a German gunboat sunk on Lake Tanganyika and to a certain extent the events portrayed in the film are based on the dramatic naval operation carried out by the Royal Navy, but the events described in the book bear little resemblance to the true historical events.[6]
The book was subsequently made into a film, the 1951 classic The African Queen, starring Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn. The gunboat used in the filming was played by the steam-tug Buganda on Lake Victoria, which was used for the long shots. The film brought a certain notoriety to the Götzen or Liemba. Like its real life counterpart, the Luisa ended up at the bottom of Lake Tanganyika, following a collision with the torpedo-rigged bow of the partially submerged African Queen near the end of the film.
Liemba runs once every two weeks in each direction, running from Kigoma to Mpulungu Wednesday to Friday, and back again from Friday to Sunday. Accommodation ranges from 1st class (luxury cabin) to 3rd class (seating only).
There are docks at Kigoma, Mpulungu and Kasanga but at all other stops passengers must travel between ship and shore by way of a smaller boat. Notable stops along the route include: Lagosa (for Mahale Mountains National Park), Karema (for Mpanda) and Kipili or Kasanga (for Sumbawanga).