''Hedwig von Wissmann'' was a German

steamboat A steamboat is a boat that is marine propulsion, propelled primarily by marine steam engine, steam power, typically driving propellers or Paddle steamer, paddlewheels. The term ''steamboat'' is used to refer to small steam-powered vessels worki ...

Lake Tanganyika Lake Tanganyika ( ; ) is an African Great Lakes, African Great Lake. It is the world's List of lakes by volume, second-largest freshwater lake by volume and the List of lakes by depth, second deepest, in both cases after Lake Baikal in Siberia. ...

, which became a feature in the story behind the film ''The African Queen''. She was sister vessel to the larger on

Lake Nyasa Lake Malawi, also known as Lake Nyasa in Tanzania and Lago Niassa in Mozambique, () is an African Great Lake and the southernmost lake in the East African Rift system, located between Malawi, Mozambique and Tanzania. It is the fourth largest ...

, and like that vessel originally used as a gunboat against slavers. The ship was named for Hedwig von Wissmann, the wife of the German explorer and colonial administrator

Hermann von Wissmann Hermann von Wissmann may refer to: * Hermann Wissmann Hermann Wilhelm Leopold Ludwig Wissmann, after 1890 Hermann von Wissmann (4 September 1853 – 15 June 1905), was a German explorer and administrator in Africa. Biography Born in Frankfurt ...

who had raised funds for both boats. On 12 August 1914 the vessel was drafted for guard service on Lake Tanganyika. She was sunk by an Anglo-Belgian flotilla of small boats under Geoffrey Spicer-Simson on 9 February 1916 at 11h50 in the Battle for Lake Tanganyika including and . German casualties were an engineer and two African stokers killed in the engine room; a warrant officer and some African crew members killed and a European stoker and an African seaman slightly wounded when two of the ships boats were hit by shells. Twelve Europeans, including the captain Job Odebrecht, and eight Africans were captured by the British.National Geographic October 1922 .pp.362-363
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References

{{February 1916 shipwrecks Steamships of Germany 1897 ships World War I auxiliary ships of Germany Lake Tanganyika Maritime incidents in 1916 World War I shipwrecks Shipwrecks of Africa