The campaign in German East Africa also featured the unusual situation of 1 naval gun being fitted to 3 different ships that fought in that campaign. A British 6 pdr captured from the CITY OF WESTMINSTER by the KONIGSBERG was fitted in the KINGANI, after the sinking of the KONIGSBERG. After the KINGANI was captured by the British and renamed the FIFI, the 6 pdr was then transferred to the Belgian ship VENGEUR. The KINGANI was also the first German warship to be captured and used by the Royal Navy. http://www.navyhistory.org.au/lake-tang ... erman-sea/
Annie - a few brief notes about the Kingani, later HMS Fifi. She was built in 1894 by Meyer of Papenburg. Length 17m Beam 4.5m, Engine 160hp, 45 gross tonnes, speed 8 Knots. The Kingani was used by the Germans as a Government ship until World War I broke out. She then had guns mounted and was involved in the famous action between Mimi and Toutou and the German Ships Hewig Von Wissman and the Kingani. During the action in the waters off Kalemie, the Hewig Von Wissman was sunk when Mimi scored a direct hit. The Kingani was holed and surrendered, the British towed her to shore at Kilemie. She was repaired and put back into service as the HMS Fifi. The Belgians had bought some seaplanes to Lake Tanganyika and this together with Mimi, Toutou and the newly acquired HMS Fifi, gave the British and their Belgian allies control of Lake Tanganyika for the rest of the war as the Graf Von Goetzen the largest ship on the lake was bombed from the air and effectively blockaded into Kigoma. The Germans scuttled the Von Goetzen. She was refloated and put back into service by the British in 1924 as the Liemba. HMS Fifi was, at the end of the war, becoming very old and creaky and was given a warriors burial at sea. She was sailed out into the Lake and sunk with her colours flying. She constitutes the third of Zambia’s War wrecks and the second one lying underwater. Her exact whereabouts are unknown to this day... Pictures of the Kingani or HMS Fifi as she later became are very hard to come by at all - but in order to give an idea of what she looked like I show her here but the picture is not up to the usual quality that I like to provide...
