Name Hedwig von Wissmann In service 20 September 1900 Type Steam ship Draft 1.25 m Builder Hamburg | Launched 1897, 6 November 1900 Fate Sunk, 9 February 1916 Length 20 m Beam 4.26 m | |
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Displacement 60 metric tons (59 long tons; 66 short tons) | ||
The Hedwig von Wissmann was a German steamboat on Lake Tanganyika, which became a feature in the story behind the film The African Queen. She was sister vessel to the larger Hermann von Wissmann on Lake Nyasa, and like that vessel originally used as a gunboat against slavers. Hedwig von Wissmann was the wife of the German explorer and colonial administrator Hermann von Wissmann who had raised funds for both boats.
On 12 August 1914 she was drafted for guard service on Lake Tanganyika. She was sunk by an Anglo-Belgian flotilla of small boats under Geoffrey Spicer-Simson in on 9 February 1916 at 11h50 in the Battle for Lake Tanganyika including HMS Fifi and HMS Mimi.
German casualties were engineer and two native stokers killed in the engine room; a warrant officer and some natives killed and a European stoker and native seaman slightly wounded when two of the ships boats were hit by shells. Twelve Europeans, including the captain, and eight natives were captured by the British.