Graf von Goetzen was built in 1913 in Germany, and was one of three vessels the German Empire used to control Lake Tanganyika during the early part of the First World War.

Liemba is believed to be the inspiration for the German gunboat Luisa in C. S. Forester's 1935 novel The African Queen, and John Huston's 1951 film version.

[6] The Meyer-Werft Shipyard in Papenburg, Germany, built Goetzen in 1913 and named her after Count Gustav Adolf Graf von Götzen, the former governor of German East Africa.

[7][8][9][10] Goetzen was designed to serve as a passenger and cargo ferry in conjunction with the Ostafrikanische Eisenbahngesellschaft (East African Railway Company).

After preliminary assembly Goetzen was taken apart and shipped in 5000 boxes loaded on three cargo vessels to Dar es Salaam in German East Africa (modern day Burundi, Rwanda and Tanganyika (the mainland part of present Tanzania)).

They gave her a 10.5 cm (4 in) gun from the light cruiser SMS Königsberg, a ship no longer operational and which her crew later scuttled in the mouth of the Rufiji River.

Lastly, the survey ship SMS Möwe contributed two 37 mm Hotchkiss revolver guns to Goetzen's armament.

Geoffrey Spicer-Simson and the Royal Navy succeeded in the monumental task of bringing two armed motor boats, Mimi and Toutou, from England and via the Belgian Congo to the lake by rail, road and river.

The two boats waited until December 1915, then mounted a surprise attack on the Germans, capturing the gunboat Kingani – renamed HMS Fifi.

As a result of their strengthened position on the lake, the Allies advanced towards Kigoma by land, and the Belgians established an airbase on the western shore at Albertville.

However, the war on land was progressing, largely to the advantage of the Allies, who cut off the railway link in July 1916 and threatened to isolate Kigoma completely.

This led the German naval commander on the lake, Gustav Zimmer, to abandon the town and head south.

The task was given to the three engineers from Meyer Werft who had travelled with the disassembled ship to Lake Tanganyika in order to supervise its re-assembly.

The engineers decided on their own that they would try to facilitate a later salvage;[7] they loaded the ship with sand and covered all engines with a thick layer of grease before sinking her carefully on 26 July, in a depth of 20 metres (66 ft) near the banks of the Katabe Bay (Belgian designation: Baie de l’éléphant; British designation: Bangwe Bay) at the position 4°54′5″S 29°36′12″E / 4.90139°S 29.60333°E / -4.90139; 29.60333.

Then he filled the holds with empty barrels and passed cables under the ship to two 375 t barges that the "Compagnie des Chemins de fer du Congo Supérieur aux Grands Lacs Africains" had purpose-built for the task and positioned on each side of the wreck.

In 1948 the East African Railways and Harbours Corporation (EAR&H) took over running the ferry, allowing it to link services with the Central Line from Kigoma to Dar es Salaam.

[38] In 1997 TRC's inland shipping division became a separate company, the Marine Services Company Ltd.[39] In 1997 the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees used Liemba and MV Mwongozo to repatriate more than 75,000 refugees who had fled Zaire during the First Congo War, following the overthrow of longtime dictator Mobutu Sese Seko.

[2]: 266 The book was subsequently made into the 1951 classic film The African Queen, starring Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn.

Notable stops along the route include: Lagosa (for Mahale Mountains National Park), Karema (for Mpanda) and Kipili or Kasanga (for Sumbawanga).