Hedwig von Wissmann
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The Hedwig von Wissmann was a German mail ship, later a gunboat , that operated on Lake Tanganyika .
history
Before the war
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The Hedwig von Wissmann , named after the wife of Hermann von Wissmanns , was designed in Hamburg by Schiffswerfte & Maschinenfabrik AG and built in 1897 with construction number 360. It was shipped in individual parts in 1898, brought to Kigoma and assembled there. Otto Schloifer was significantly involved . This was financed through a lottery . The approximately 22-meter-long wood-fired mail steamer was put into service in 1900.
In 1897 the geographer Rudolf Fitzner (* 1864) published his writing Ein deutscher Dampfer für den Tanganyikaee , in which he reported on the planned shipbuilding: “The Tanganyika steamer will be 20 m long between the stems and a width of 4.20 m and have a depth of 2.38 m from the upper edge of the keel to the deck. With full equipment, 20 cbm of fuel and around 100 people on board, its draft will be 1.76 m. The hull with external plating and iron keel is to be made of the best shipbuilding steel [...] Five main rooms are formed in the ship by 4 iron transverse bulkheads [...] "
The foremost room was to be used as a cable store, the second as a transverse bunker for fuel, the third to accommodate the machine, the boiler and two longitudinal bunkers, the fourth, above which a high iron access hatch should be, another transverse bunker, and the rearmost room serve to "stow ammunition, weapons and provisions for Europeans". This last room should have a shallow access hatch. The teak deck should be surrounded by a 75 cm high steel bulwark. A teak deckhouse with a length of 4.6 m and a width of 2.7 m was planned on the foredeck. A living room with three leather-upholstered benches, a table, cupboards and shelves was planned in the front part; a bathroom, pantry and toilet were to be connected on the port side, and the kitchen on the starboard side. The control unit should be on the deckhouse. Awnings should be able to be stretched over the entire deck. The wooden signal mast should be constructed so that it can be dismantled and be equipped with a stay sail . The engine should have 65 to 70 horsepower and give the ship a speed of about eight knots. The cylinders of the machine should have a diameter of 220 and 340 mm and a piston stroke of 250 mm. The two iron horizontal tubular boilers were to be made from "the best German boiler material". Because the Hedwig von Wissmann was to be transported in a disassembled state, most of the individual parts could not exceed a weight of 30 kg, the normal load for a carrier. Only a few parts that were to be transported by trolley were allowed to weigh up to 120 kg.
Even at the time this report was being written, it was planned to have this transport carried out by Prime Lieutenant Schloifer. Schloifer had qualified for it through his participation in an expedition of the anti-slavery committee in 1891/92. The dismantled steamer should first be brought to the East African Chinde and from there transported by the African Lakes Corporation to Fort Johnson on Lake Nyassa . From there the steamer Hermann von Wissmann was supposed to bring him to the northern end of the lake to the Langenburg station. From there a carrier caravan and a few carts were supposed to transport the individual parts on Stevenson Road to Lake Tanganyika, at the southern end of which the Hedwig von Wissmann was then to be assembled.
There were two machine guns on the ship for self-defense, one at the bow and one at the stern. In addition to the Hedwig von Wissmann, the German customs cruiser Kingani and from 1915 the Goetzen and from 1916 the Wami operated on the lake . In addition to these German ships, at least the Belgian steamer Alexandre Delcommune and a British steamboat sailed the lake before the First World War, and later other British and Belgian ships were added.
First World War
On August 12, 1914, three 3.7 cm caliber revolver cannons were assembled from the Möwe survey ship , which sunk itself on the coast of the Indian Ocean. The seagull's crews were also taken over. Now converted to a gunboat , the Hedwig von Wissmann severely damaged the Alexandre Delcommune in a naval battle off Mpala on August 23, 1914 under the orders of Corvette Captain Gustav Zimmer . On December 3, 1915, Hedwig von Wissmann went on a reconnaissance trip against Lukuga . On December 26th the battle of Lukuga followed. The Kingani fell into British hands. The British Admiralty ordered the speedboats Mimi and Toutou , which Geoffrey Basil Spicer Simson had equipped, and the Alexandre Delcommune was put back into service as Vengeur after being repaired . The formerly German ship Kingani , now renamed Fifi , was now in action against the Hedwig von Wissmann .
The battle in front of Cape Kungwe
On February 8, 1916, Hedwig von Wissmann was sent under Oberleutnant zur See Job Odebrecht towards Kungwestock to collect information about the whereabouts of the Kingani . She was supposed to meet the Goetzen again at Lukuga the following day . But that didn't happen: at around 7.45 a.m. on February 9, 1916, Hedwig von Wissmann spotted the Fifi , the Mimi , the Belgian Dix Tonne and another boat. Odebrecht initially headed for these enemy vehicles before turning around around 9.30 a.m. - perhaps to lure the enemy ships within range of the gods . The Hedwig von Wissmann , whose guns had a much shorter range, was shot at from a distance of about 8,000 meters . The Fifi commanded by Spicer Simson and the faster Mimi pursued the German ship. When they were only three kilometers away, Odebrecht opened fire, whereupon Mimi turned off again. The two British ships now stayed at a distance of six kilometers from the Hedwig von Wissmann and continued to fire at the ship. At 11.30 a.m. Hedwig von Wissmann was met for the first time. Shortly thereafter, in the battle off Cape Kungwe , she received a hit in the boiler room, which set her on fire and was unable to maneuver. The crew now gave up the ship. Local crew members tried to get to safety by lifeboat, the Germans with life jackets. Odebrecht and his mate Mewes were the last to leave the burning ship, in which they left an explosive device to make it unsuitable as prey.
Seven people - two Germans and five local crew members - died in the sinking of the Hedwig von Wissmann , three people were injured. The survivors were rescued by the British and Belgian boats after about an hour. With the loss of the Kingani and Hedwig von Wissmann, Captain Gustav Zimmer saw the German supremacy on Lake Tanganyika shaken. This defeat was followed by more on land.
The Hedwig von Wissmann in the literature
The acts of war on Lake Tanganyika were dealt with by Alex Capus in his novel A Question of Time ; Giles Foden had previously worked on the subject in his work The True Story of the “ African Queen ” .
literature
- Rudolf Fitzner: A German steamer for the Tanganyika. In: From all parts of the world. Vol. 28, 1897, ZDB -ID 130145-7 , pp. 265-274, (As special print: (= Collection of geographical and colonial- political writings. No. 5, ZDB -ID 842935-2 ). H. Paetel, Berlin 1897) .
- Otto Schloifer: Bana Uleia , Verlag Dietrich Reimer / Andrews Steiner, Berlin 1943.
- Albert Röhr, Otto Mielke : War and Peace on Lake Tanganyika. Steamer "Hedwig von Wissmann" (= SOS - Fates of German Ships . No. 158, ZDB -ID 1468387-8 ). Moewig, Munich 1958.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b The ship Africa . In: Der Spiegel . No. 16 , 2010 ( online ).
- ↑ Kopfwelten.org (PDF; 2.2 MB)
- ↑ jaduland.de ( Memento of the original from October 14, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ a b c d Rudolf Fitzner: A German steamer for the Tanganyika. 1897.
- ^ Albert Röhr: German marine chronicle. Verlag Gerhard Stalling, Oldenburg / Hamburg 1974, ISBN 3-7979-1845-3 , p. 195 f.
- ↑ netzwerk-politische-bildung.de ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ rc-modellbau-schiffe.de , cf. traditionsverband.de (PDF; 6.3 MB). The chronology of the two sources is - also in itself - contradicting itself; February 1915 is given as the sinking date, although there is still talk of the ship's actions in the following winter, so that it can be assumed that February 1916 is meant. It can be read here and in the other sources as well.
- ↑ oocities.com
