BBC Swahili’s Zuhura Yunis visited Tanzania, Africa for a BBC series, World War One Beyond The Trenches. There she boarded the German Warship which is more than 100 years old. This warship being indestructible serves as a connecter between two different periods. Here the anchor focuses on the impact created by the massive warship during the First World War.
In 1913 Germany sent an indestructible warship to East Africa. There at the time of the First World War the warship protected the German colony from the Allied forces. The warship was named Goetzen after the name of the governor of German East Africa, Gustav Adolf Graf Von Goetzen, the BBC News reports.
The Lake Tanganyika of East Africa was dominated by this massive German warship. The ship did not spare any single boat of the Allied force on the lake. Because of the ship the Germans gained full access over the lake. The ship was fitted with four guns which could able to destroy targets seven miles far from it.
Though the Germans were dominating on the lake but they were struggling on the land to protect their colony. Therefore soldiers equipped with guns came out of the ship and they drowned the ship into the lake. However, after eight years the ship was recovered from the lakebed.
At present the warship’s name has been changed from Goetzen to MV Liemba. The ship is now serving as a ferry and has now become a source of livelihood for many people of East Africa. In fact this is world’s oldest passenger ferry since the First World War.