SMS Königsberg

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Career

Ordered:	1903/4
Laid down:	12 January 1905
Launched:	12 December 1905
Commissioned:	4 June 1906
Fate:	Scuttled 11 July 1915
General characteristics
Displacement:	3,400 tons, 3,814 tons full load
Length:	115.3 m
Beam:	13.2 m
Draft:	5.29 m
Propulsion:	2 shaft triple expansion engines, 13,200 ihp
Speed:	24.1 kt
Complement:	322
Armament:	10 Quick Firing 10.5 cm (4.1") L/35, 10 Quick Firing 5.2 cm (2"), 2 45 cm Torpedo Tubes

SMS Königsberg was a light cruiser of the Kaiserliche Marine (sisterships were SMS Nürnberg, SMS Stuttgart and SMS Stettin), stationed in German East Africa at the start of World War I. After leaving Dar es Salaam on 31 July 1914, she had a brief career as a commerce raider intercepting the British ship City of Winchester, later sunk off the coast of Oman. The collier Somali followed the raider around the Indian Ocean, but eventually a shortage of coal forced Königsberg to take shelter in the Rufiji Delta and await supplies from Dar es Salaam.

On 20 September 1914 she destroyed HMS Pegasus, an elderly cruiser sent to hunt her, in Zanzibar harbor. An engine failure forced Königsberg to abandon plans to return to Germany and to retreat once more into the Rufiji Delta with Somali to carry out repairs. There she was discovered by the Royal Navy cruiser HMS Chatham at the end of October, and Somali was destroyed by shell fire.

Two additional cruisers, HMS Dartmouth and HMS Weymouth, arrived to assist with the blockade, forcing Königsberg further up the river. A blockship, the Newbridge, was sunk by the British across one of the delta mouths to prevent her escape. A civilian Curtiss flying boat and later Royal Naval Air Service Sopwith and Short seaplanes were used to locate Königsberg.

Attempts to use the 12 inch guns of the old battleship HMS Goliath to sink the cruiser were unsuccessful, because the shallow waters prevented the battleship from travelling up river. In 1915 two shallow draft monitors, HMS Mersey and HMS Severn, were towed to the Rufiji from Malta. Aided by two land planes based at Mafia Island to spot the fall of shells, their 6 inch guns seriously damaged Königsberg on 11 July 1915 and her commander, Captain Max Looff, scuttled her. The guns and all other useful equipment and material were removed from the wreck and, together with the ship's crew, went on to see service in the East African land campaign under General Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck until 1918. The wreck lay in the river for fifty years and eventually disappeared into the mud in 1965.