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Hermann von Wissmann (steamship)

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Name
  
Hermann von Wissmann

In service
  
22 September 1893

Type
  
Steam ship

Length
  
26 m

Draft
  
1.25 m

Namesake
  
Hermann von Wissmann

Fate
  
Scrapped, 1950

Launched
  
1890

Tonnage
  
90,720 kg

Hermann von Wissmann (steamship) httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommonsthu

Builder
  
Janssen & Schmilinsky, Hamburg

Hermann von Wissmann was a German steamer on Lake Nyasa named after the German explorer Hermann von Wissmann who had raised funds for the vessel to be built in 1890 as an anti-slavery gunboat.

The attack of the British lake-steamer Gwendolen on Hermann von Wissmann while it was on a slipway at Sphinxhafen, in English Liuli, was the first naval action of World War I. The British disabled the vessel briefly in 1914, then in 1915 completely put the vessel out of action.

Hermann von Wissmann had a smaller sister vessel, named after Wissmann's wife, Hedwig von Wissmann, on Lake Tanganyika. This smaller vessel was involved in the exploits of Geoffrey Spicer-Simson which were the basis of The African Queen, a 1935 novel by C. S. Forester and the 1951 film of the same name starring Humphrey Bogart.

From 1916-1920 the boat served as HMS King George, then from 1920 as the cargo steamer Mlonda until it was scrapped in 1950.

References

Hermann von Wissmann (steamship) Wikipedia