German warship that was dragged across part of Africa...

[L. Kafka]

I'm thinking World War One incident took place in east Africa, maybe present day Mozambique. Something about a German warship that was moved across land, maybe to a lake or from a lake to sea. Anyone know the story?

[TimoWr]

In fiction: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0075214/

he story of the film was inspired by one of the most spectacular and adventurous event that took place during WWI, in German East Africa, later Tanganyika, later Tanzania, in late 1914 - early 1915, known as Battle of Rufiji Delta, in which the German light cruiser SMS Königsberg was blockaded and finally sunk by various British units.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMS_K%C3%B ... %281905%29

Königsberg was suffering from machinery problems, which prevented the journey.[20] The long cruises, the intermittent high speed dashes, and the lack of dockyard attention, had all taken their toll on the ship’s boilers.[21] Instead, Looff returned to the Rufiji and proceeded to the town of Salele. There the ship was heavily camouflaged and defensive arrangements, including landing soldiers and field guns along with the network of coast watchers and telegraph lines, were effected.[18] The engineering staff began to disassemble the affected boilers and Looff had these heavy parts dragged on wooden sledges to the workshops at Dar es Salaam 100 miles (160 km) away.

[fridgeman]

There is also the "Graf von Goetzen", which was build in 1913, disassembled and moved in parts
via ship to German East Africa (modern Tanzania) and then via railway to Lake Tanganyika,
where it was built up again. The ship is used until today as ferry, even if the germans
scuttled it 1916 and it was lifted up by the british not before 1924. German quality steel
Modern name of the ship is "MS Liemba".

Check:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MV_Liemba
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_for_Lake_Tanganyika

[TJK06]

I read an article on this in a magazine in the late 80' or early 90's. I think it was in Smithsonean or Invent or Invention magazine. It was about a German battleship. The engine was taken out and dragged across land for repairs. Parts were flown in from Germany by zeppelin. It was repaired then destroyed by the British, I think on a river in east Africa.