Hermann von Wissmann (ship)
 The Hermann von Wissmann
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The Hermann von Wissmann (later King George , then Mlonda ) was an armed German government steamer and was used on Lake Nyassa for the colonial government of German East Africa from 1893 to 1914 . The ship was initially procured to combat the slave trade on the lake. His main task was to connect the coastal towns and stations on the eastern shore of the lake, which was not accessible by land, and which belonged to the German colony. It was first made unusable by British troops at the beginning of World War I in 1914 and more severely destroyed by a British landing corps in 1915. It was later repaired by the British and served first as a gunboat , then as a cargo ship.
Financing and Manufacturing
Hermann von Wissmann was known towards the end of the 19th century as an explorer in Africa and a writer, first commander of the protection force for German East Africa and later also governor of German East Africa . During a stay in Germany in 1889/1890, he appeared in Cologne at a mass meeting of German anti-slavery associations and promoted the plan to fight the slave trade with a ship on Lake Victoria. He then raised 250,000 gold marks and commissioned the construction of a ship.
Special design features
Since the steamer was to be used on inner African lakes and was therefore designed to be relatively small, a separate crossing to East Africa was ruled out from the outset, especially since there was no waterway connection from the coast to the inland. It was therefore designed to be dismantled.
The size of the individual parts was calculated to be 30 kg; the usual load that an East African porter could carry on his head. However, over 20 components weighed between 350 and 400 kg . Their own two-wheeled carts were designed for them.
The fuel consumption of the ship was 1 m 3 of wood per hour of travel. Two steel dinghies were carried as dinghies. The electric lighting with headlights was worth mentioning as a special feature . The armament consisted of a 3.7 cm revolver cannon .
The steamer was not assembled at the shipyard, but the individual parts were packed and transported to Saadani (north of Daresalaam ) on the steamers Bundesrath and Reichstag of the German East Africa Line .
Transport to East Africa
The Hermann von Wissmann was initially intended for service on Lake Victoria . When they arrived in Saadani , the protection force for German East Africa had just suffered its first defeat in the attack on the still independent Wahehe , so that the transport route to Lake Victoria was too unsafe. The transport to Lake Tanganyika, which was also considered, also appeared unsafe and very expensive. On the advice of Wissmann, the anti-slavery committee decided to use the steamer on Lake Nyassa.
For this purpose, the individual parts were transported on the coastal steamer Peters and the tug Pfeil along the East African coast to Chinde on the Zambezi estuary in Portuguese East Africa (now Mozambique ).
In Chinde 140 were Askaris recruited and the components on four Light reloaded. On July 14, 1892, the first transport left Chinde under the direction of Wissmann.
With the help of the two British river cannon boats Herald and Musquito , the barges were towed via Misongue at the mouth of the Shire and then up the Shire to Port Herald (today: Nsanje ) in southern Nyassaland.
On the further transport from Port Herald, due to the low water level, some of the cargo had to be carried alongside the barges to the waterfalls of the Shire; Everything was carried over the waterfalls again and finally the hull was put together in Mponda from the end of December 1892.
A landing site was found on the north-eastern shore of Lake Nyassa on German territory in Rumwira Bay , where the Langenburg station was established and the final assembly of the steamer was carried out. The British gunboat Dove had towed the hull of Hermann von Wissmann there.
On September 22, 1893, the Hermann von Wissmann was put into service in Langenburg.
Use on Lake Nyassa
From 1893 to 1914 the Hermann von Wissmann was used for the police and customs service and as a transporter.
The end
On August 13, 1914, the British armed steamer Gwendolin (other spellings: Gwendolen or Gwendolyn ) launched a landing corps in Sphinxhafen , which captured the captain and the machinist of Hermann von Wissmann , who had not yet heard of the outbreak of war. The Hermann von Wissmann was rendered unusable by removing and taking away important machine parts. The British also dismantled the revolver gun and took it for themselves.
During a second landing by British troops in Sphinxhafen on May 30, 1915, the steamer was more severely damaged. In 1916 the area was occupied by British troops. The steamer was repaired in 1919 and served as HMS King George until 1920 . From 1920 the steamer was used as a cargo ship under the name Mlonda and was broken up in 1950.
Remarks
- ↑ Hermann von Wissmann - Doubtful "Colonial Greatness" - celebrated in Cologne (local historical website of generally doubtful historical value but with local data) (PDF; 2.2 MB)
- ↑ On the initiative of Wissmann, the construction of another ship resulted, the Dr. Carl Peters . This was built in 1892 with funds from the Anti-Slavery Committee ( Golf Dornseif, DOA and the Koblenz Anti-Slavery Lottery ( Memento of the original from September 24, 2015 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 note .; PDF; 1.9 MB) and intended for service on Lake Victoria, but never put into service after the transport to Africa because the committee had the funds for the transport Ran out of land. The machine was sold to an ice cream factory, and the hull was converted into a coal schooner that was used in the Indian Ocean.
- ^ Langenburg became the administrative seat for the district of the same name, which encompassed the southwest of the colony; later the administrative headquarters were moved from this very remote place to Neu-Langenburg, today's Tukuyu .
- ^ Charles M. Good, The Steamer Parish: The Rise and Fall of Missionary Medicine on an African Frontier, 146
literature
- Max Prager: The German steamer expedition to Lake Nyassa , Kiel [1901]. 435 pp.
- Erich Gröner : The German Warships 1815-1945 , Vol. 7: Landing ferries, landing support vehicles, transporters; Ships and boats of the army, ships and boats of the sea pilots / air force, colonial vehicles , Koblenz 1990, p. 220f.
- Without author: On German East Africa's lakes. "HERRMANN VON WISSMANN" steamer. - " HEDWIG VON WISSMANN " steamer . SOS fates of German ships , No. 71, Rastatt July 1978.
- Albert Röhr / Otto Mielke : On the lakes of German East Africa. "Hermann von Wissmann" steamer . SOS fates of German ships , No. 155, Munich 1958.
- Ulrich Schäfer: "Hermann v. Wissmann". A steamer for Lake Nyassa , in: In: Schiff & Zeit , Vol. 35 (1992), pp. 11-16.
Web links
- Illustration of Hermann von Wissmann ; Time and place of recording unknown
