MV Liemba
MV Liemba, formerly Graf Goetzen or Graf von Goetzen, is a passenger and cargo ferry that runs along the eastern shore of Lake Tanganyika. The Marine Services Company Limited of Tanzania sails her, with numerous stops to pick up and set down passengers, between the ports of Kigoma, Tanzania and Mpulungu, Zambia.
MV Liemba | |
| History | |
|---|---|
| German Empire | |
| Name | Graf von Goetzen |
| Namesake | Gustav Adolf von Götzen |
| Builder | Meyer Werft |
| Laid down | 1913 |
| Launched | 5 February 1915 |
| In service | 9 June 1915 |
| Fate | Scuttled on 26 July 1916 |
| Tanganyika Territory | |
| Renamed | SS Liemba |
| Reinstated | 16 May 1927 |
| Tanzania | |
| Name | MV Liemba |
| Operator | Marine Services Company Limited |
| Homeport | Kigoma, Tanzania in active service |
| General characteristics | |
| Displacement | 1,575 t |
| Length | 71.4 m (234.25 ft) |
| Beam | 9.9 m (32.48 ft) |
| Draught | 3 m (9.84 ft) |
| Installed power |
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| Propulsion | Triple-expansion steam engine, (until 1970, replaced with Diesel): 2 screws |
| Speed | 11 knots (20 km/h) |
| Armament |
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Graf von Goetzen was built in 1913 in Germany, and was one of three vessels the German Empire used to control Lake Tanganyika during the early part of the First World War. Her captain had her scuttled on 26 July 1916 in Katabe Bay during the German retreat from Kigoma. In 1924, a British Royal Navy salvage team raised her and in 1927 she returned to service as Liemba. Liemba is the last vessel of the German Imperial Navy still actively sailing anywhere in the world.
Liemba is believed to be the inspiration for the German gunboat Luisa in C. S. Forester's 1935 novel The African Queen, and John Huston's 1951 film version. The ship featured in the 1992 BBC Television travel series Pole to Pole. Indican Pictures and Breadbox Productions released a documentary on the ship in 2010, Liemba.