The British made several attempts to sink Königsberg including one to slip a shallow-draught torpedo boat (with escorts) within range, an operation easily repulsed by the force in the delta.

[1] A civilian pilot named Cutler was hired to bring his Curtiss seaplane for reconnaissance; his plane was shot down, although the presence of the elusive cruiser was verified.

[2] A pair of Royal Naval Air Service Sopwith seaplanes were brought up with the intention of scouting and even bombing the ship, but they soon fell apart in the tropical conditions.

Alongside aerial reconnaissance, part of the Navy's strategy for locating and planning the destruction of the Königsberg was extensive shore-based reconnaissance and survey work in the German-occupied delta, which included close observation of the ship's position and its useable armaments (guns, torpedoes), the determination of channels in the delta navigable by the target vessel and proposed attacking monitors, and a month-long monitoring of tidal water depths at a key sea location for Goliath just offshore.

This work was led by P J Pretorius, a noted tracker and big game hunter with previous exposure to the delta, who was recruited by the Navy from his rural home in Transvaal (now Limpopo Province).

[6] Two shallow-draught monitors, HMS Mersey and Severn, were towed to the Rufiji from Malta by the Red Sea, reaching the delta in June 1915.

Aided by a squadron of four land aircraft, two Caudrons and two Henry Farmans,[7] based at Mafia Island to spot the fall of shells, they engaged in a long-range duel with Königsberg, which was assisted by shore-based spotters.

Three of Königsberg's 105-mm guns survived; one is on display outside Fort Jesus, Mombasa, Kenya, another outside the Union Building in Pretoria, South Africa and the third at Jinja Barracks in Uganda.