SMS Königsberg ( 1905 ) SMS " Königsberg " was the lead ship of her class of light cruiser s built by the Imperial German Navy . She was laid down in early 1905 , launched in December 1905 , and completed by June 1906 . Her sisters included , , and . The ship was armed with a main battery of ten guns and had a top speed of . After her commissioning , " Königsberg " escorted Kaiser Wilhelm II on a state visit to Britain . In April 1914 , the ship was sent on what was to have been a two - year deployment to German East Africa , but this was interrupted by the outbreak of World War I in August of that year . " Königsberg " initially attempted to raid British and French commercial traffic in the region , but only destroyed one merchant ship in the course of her career . Coal shortages hampered her ability to attack shipping . On 20 September 1914 , she surprised and sank the British protected cruiser in the Battle of Zanzibar . She then retreated into the Rufiji River to repair her engines . Before the repairs could be completed , British cruisers located " Königsberg " , and , unable to steam into the river to destroy her , set up a blockade . After several attempts to sink the ship , the British sent two monitor s , and , to destroy the German cruiser . On 11 July 1915 , the two monitors got close enough to severely damage " Königsberg " , forcing her crew to scuttle the ship . The surviving crew salvaged all ten of her main guns and joined Lieutenant Colonel Paul von Lettow - Vorbeck ' s guerrilla campaign . The rusting remains of the wreck disappeared into the river bed in 1966 . Construction . " Königsberg " was ordered under the contract name " " Ersatz " " and was laid down at the Imperial Dockyard in Kiel in 1905 . She was launched on 12 December 1905 , after which fitting - out work commenced . She was commissioned into the High Seas Fleet on 6 April 1907 . The ship was long overall and had a beam of and a draft of forward . She displaced at full combat load . Her propulsion system consisted of two 3 - cylinder triple expansion engines powered by eleven coal - fired Marine - type boilers . These provided a top speed of and a range of approximately at . " Königsberg " had a crew of 14 officers and 308 enlisted men . The ship was armed with ten 10 . 5 cm SK L / 45 guns in single pedestal mounts . Two were placed side by side forward on the forecastle , six were located amidships , three on either side , and two were side by side aft . The guns had a maximum elevation of 30 degrees , which allowed them to engage targets out to . They were supplied with 1 , 500 rounds of ammunition , for 150 shells per gun . A pair of guns were later installed . She was also equipped with a pair of torpedo tube s with five torpedo es submerged in the hull on the broadside . The ship was protected by an armored deck that was thick amidships . The conning tower had thick sides . Service history . Shortly after her commissioning in 1906 , " Königsberg " was tasked with escorting Kaiser Wilhelm II ' s yacht " Hohenzollern " during a state visit to Britain . Later the ship would visit Spain and Ireland and in April 1911 visited England for the coronation of King George V . In June that year the ship underwent a tropical refit and in June 1913 was laid up at Kiel . In 1913 the colony of German East Africa requested a replacement for the aging unprotected cruiser then stationed in Dar es Salaam . The German admiralty selected " Konigsberg " and on 1 April 1914 " Fregattenkapitän " Max Looff took command of the ship . Three and a half weeks later , on 25 April , the ship left Kiel for a two - year deployment to German East Africa . She steamed through the Mediterranean Sea and stopped in Spanish and Italian ports before transiting the Suez Canal , and stopping at Aden . " Königsberg " arrived in Dar es Salaam on 6 June to a tumultuous welcome from colonists and natives alike . The African colonial subjects considered the ship to be extremely impressive . Most notable were her three funnels , as the Africans equated funnels with naval power , and three was an unprecedented number . The ship acquired the nickname " Manowari na bomba tatu " , or " the man of war with three pipes . " Looff spent the next few weeks showing the flag at Bagamoyo , Lindi , and Tanga as well as honing the ships gunnery skills . With an unsettling political situation and the possibility of war in Europe , " Konigsberg " was instructed to coal and head to sea on 31 July . While outbound from Dar es Salaam the ship was intercepted by the three Royal Navy cruisers of the Cape Squadron , , and . Since the countries were not at war they could only follow behind . Looff used a rain squall and his ship ' s superior speed to break contact with his British pursuers that evening and steamed up the Somaliland coast towards Aden . On 4 August , a signal from Dar es Salaam gave word of the outbreak of hostilities between Britain and Germany and advised Looff he was now a raider . The following day in Dar es Salaam , the collier " Somalia " was stocked with coal to resupply " Königsberg " and left port shortly before British warships arrived on 8 August . World War I . At the outbreak of World War I , " Königsberg " was ordered to attack British commerce around the entrance to the Red Sea . A lack of coal hampered Looff ' s efforts ; the British prevented his collier " Koenig " from leaving Dar es Salaam and purchased all of the coal in Portuguese East Africa to deny it to " Königsberg " . She intercepted a then - neutral Japanese liner whose captain was convinced his ship , manifest and cargo had been examined by a British cruiser , then stopped the German steamers " Zieten " and " Hansa " from heading to the Suez Canal where they would be confiscated . " Königsberg " chased after the German freighter " Goldenfels " whose officers also mistook the ship for a British cruiser . On 6 August , " Königsberg " found a British ship off the coast of Oman , the freighter " City of Winchester " . A boarding party discovered that " City of Winchester " carried poor quality Indian coal ( " Bombay dust " ) and Captain Looff did not want to foul his boilers with this inferior coal . A demolition team therefore placed charges in the boiler and engine room and " Königsberg " s main battery got in some firing practice before the ship was sunk . By the time Looff rendezvoused with " Somalia " later that day , his ship was down at a mere 14 tons of coal . " Somalia " transferred some 850 tons of coal to the cruiser , which permitted a sweep to Madagascar . No British or French ships were found , however , and so " Königsberg " met " Somalia " again on 23 August and took on coal for four days of cruising . In the meantime , British warships bombarded Dar es Salaam and destroyed the German wireless station there . " Somalia " s captain , a knowledgeable local pilot , suggested the Rufiji Delta as a hiding place ; he had been part of a survey team and had charted that area of the colony and found the river unexpectedly deep . The Navy activated the " Somalia " captain ' s reserve commission and he was appointed " Königsberg " s pilot . On 3 September 1914 at high tide , " Königsberg " passed over the bar at the mouth of the Rufiji and slowly made her way up the river . Coast watchers were stationed at the mouth of the river and telegraph lines were run to ensure the Germans would not be surprised by British ships searching for them . When , on 19 September 1914 , Captain Looff learned from the coast watchers that a 2 - funnel warship had entered the harbor of Zanzibar , he assumed that it was either " Astraea " or " Pegasus " ; it was in fact the latter . " Pegasus " had put into Zanzibar to repair problems with its engines . " Königsberg " had again full bunkers thanks to transports from Dar es Salaam and Looff decided to act immediately . With the afternoon tide the ship left the delta and started her run north to Zanzibar . At dawn the next day " Königsberg " fired salvos for 20 minutes into the stationary " Pegasus " in what came to be known as the Battle of Zanzibar . " Pegasus " had been hit some 200 times , and had suffered 31 fatalities and 55 injuries . While leaving the harbor , " Königsberg " spotted the picket ship " Helmut " and damaged her machinery . Battle of Rufiji Delta . Captain Looff had chosen as his next target the shipping lanes off South Africa , hoping to get at sufficient coal to eventually make the long journey up the Atlantic to reach Germany . " Königsberg " was suffering from machinery problems , which prevented the journey . The long cruises , the intermittent high speed dashes , and the lack of dockyard attention , had all taken their toll on the ship ’ s boilers . 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 . 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 away . An improvised minefield was also laid in the Delta to keep the British ships from entering the river . During this time , the British reinforced the ships tasked with tracking down the elusive German raider , and placed the ships under the command of Captain Sidney R . Drury - Lowe . On 19 October , the cruiser found the German East Africa Line ship " Präsident " at Lindi . A boarding party searched the ship and discovered documents indicating she had supplied " Königsberg " with coal the previous month . On 30 October , the cruiser located " Königsberg " and " Somalia " in the Delta . " Chatham " , " Dartmouth " , and blockaded the Rufiji Delta to ensure " Königsberg " could not escape . " Königsberg " was protected by the thick mangrove swamps , which concealed the ship and offered a degree of cover from British shellfire , especially while the British ships remained outside of the river . A collier , " Newbridge " , was converted into a blockship to be sunk in the main channel of the delta to prevent " Königsberg " s escape . Despite heavy German fire from both sides of the river , the British successfully sank " Newbridge " across one of the delta mouths . The German raider could still put to sea via other channels , and so dummy mines were laid in some of these alternates , but they were considered a doubtful deterrent . Looff decided to move his ship as far up the river as possible , to make it more difficult for the British to destroy her . In doing so , his ship would occupy a disproportionate number of British vessels that could otherwise be employed elsewhere . A civilian pilot , Denis Cutler of Durban , South Africa , was commissioned into the Royal Navy and convinced to make his private Curtiss seaplane available for the British Empire . Lieutenant Cutler and the mechanic he hired on the ship transporting the aircraft , arrived at Niororo Island on 15 November 1914 to report to the captain of " Chatham " . On 19 November Cutler flew his first reconnaissance mission and was able to verify the presence of the elusive cruiser . A pair of Royal Naval Air Service Sopwith s were brought up with the intention of scouting and even bombing the ship . They soon fell apart in the tropical conditions . A trio of Short seaplanes fared a little better , managing to take photographs of the ship before they were grounded by the glue - melting tropical heat and German fire . In November , the British sought to use the guns of the old battleship to sink the cruiser . The attempt was unsuccessful , once again because the shallow waters prevented the battleship from getting within range . In December , Lieutenant Colonel Paul von Lettow - Vorbeck requested as many crew members from the ship as possible for his guerrilla campaign ; a total of 220 men were left aboard to keep the ship in fighting condition . This was not enough , however , to permit the ship to go to sea . On 23 December , the British used a pair of shallow - draft ships to sail up the delta . They hit " Somalia " once before German defensive fire forced them to retreat . In the meantime , conditions were deteriorating on " Königsberg " . There were shortages of coal , ammunition , food , and medical supplies . Although safe from the British , the crew was ravaged by malaria and other tropical ailments . Generally cut off from the outside world , the morale of the sailors fell . However , the situation was marginally improved with a scheme to resupply the ship and give her a fighting chance to return home . A captured British merchant ship , " Rubens " , was renamed " Kronborg " . It was given a Danish flag , papers , and a crew of German sailors selected for their ability to speak Danish . It was then packed with coal , field guns , ammunition , fresh water , and the like . After successfully infiltrating the waters of East Africa , it was intercepted by the alerted , which chased it to Manza Bay . The trapped ship was beached and set on fire by the crew . After the departure of the crew returned and put the fire out and upon investigation much of her cargo was deemed salvageable , and was used by Lieutenant Colonel Paul von Lettow - Vorbeck in the land campaign . Finally , in April 1915 , the British Admiralty agreed to a plan submitted by Drury - Lowe the previous November , which envisioned attacking the German cruiser with shallow - draft monitor s , capable of navigating the Rufiji River . Two of the warships , and , armed with a pair of guns each , were brought from Britain . On 6 July 1915 , the two monitors crossed the outer sandbar and steamed up the river , despite heavy fire from German positions on the river banks . They stopped at a point they thought to be from " Königsberg " , which would be in range of their own guns but farther than the smaller German guns could reply . Aircraft were used to spot the fall of shot . The monitors ' navigation was faulty , however , and after opening fire , found themselves to be within range of " Königsberg " s guns as well . In the span of three hours , " Königsberg " had forced both British ships to withdraw . They returned again on 11 July , after having repaired the damage sustained in the first attempt . The two monitors conducted a five - hour bombardment that destroyed the cruiser . By 13 : 30 , " Königsberg " was down to two operational guns , each with two rounds left . One of these last rounds was shrapnel and the gunners hit the British spotter plane , causing it to crash in the river . With fires burning below decks , Captain Looff , now wounded along with many of his crew , ordered the ship scuttled . A torpedo was rigged with fuses to blow out the ship ’ s bottom . With the British still firing , the charges went off and with cheers from the crew for their ship , the Kaiser , and the Fatherland , " Königsberg " settled into the river just after 14 : 00 , her flag still flying . The next day 33 German sailors were buried by the 188 remaining crewmen . A plaque was placed near the graves , reading " " Beim Untergang S . M . S . Königsberg am 11 . 7 . 15 gefallen . . . " " ( " fallen during the sinking of SMS " Königsberg " on 11 July 1915 . . . " ) followed by a list of the dead . The armament 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 Lieutenant Colonel Paul Emil von Lettow - Vorbeck . " Königsberg " s 10 . 5 cm guns played especially prominent roles for the Germans for the rest of the war , acting as the theater ' s heaviest field artillery , used in harbor fortifications , and even remounted on the converted ferry " Götzen " , the German " capital ship " of the inland Lake Tanganyika fleet . The surviving sailors , organized as the " Königsberg - Abteilung " , eventually surrendered on 26 November 1917 and were interned in British Egypt . In 1919 , after the war , the men took part in a parade through the Brandenburg Gate to celebrate them and their ship . The wreck of " Königsberg " was sold in 1923 to Commander John Ingles and large quantities of non ferrous material removed from the wreck . The wreck eventually rolled over on its starboard side and disappeared into the river bed in 1966 . This is recorded in the Dar es Salaam Archives in Tanzania .