Kigoma is a small town on the edge of Lake Tanganyika, over a thousand kilometers west of Dar-es-Salaam. It's the gateway to Burundi and D.R.Congo across the Lake as well as to Gombe Stream and Mahale National Park the home to Ape. Special attractions to Kigoma are: - Mv. Liemba; This is a wonderful Ship, the vessel used in World War I as armed transport and then scuttled for around 8 years at the bottom of the lake, which is still in use today. After making progress with the central railway line, the Germans in 1910 began to consider further consolidation of their present. A ship was ordered in 1913 from the shipbuilder JOS L. MEYER at Papenburg, the first steamer was Gotzen. In November 1913 the ship was completed and was sent in three different consignments to Dar es Salaam. It was later taken by railway to Kigoma where it was re-assembled. Due to slight delay in 1914 all the peaces of Gotzen were arrived in

Kigoma and the first trial runs took place in June 1915 and an average speed of eight knots was reached. The steamer was flagship of German on Lake Tanganyika and was used during World War I as armed transport, particularly to carry troops down the lake from Kigoma to Kisanga. The Gotzen was the largest ship on the lake at this time and could carry about 900 armed men in a quarter of the time it took the dhows to do the same journey. In June 1916 Belgian airplanes attached Gotzen and in July the same year, when the railway to Kigoma was captured, the German scuttled Gotzen by filling it with cement and sank off the mouth of Malagarasi River.

After the war, when the Belgians were in-charge of the lake province, they raised the Gotzen and towed her to mooring at Kigoma harbor. This exercise was not successful and she sank again in deep water.

In March 1921 the British took over Kigoma from the Belgians and a decision was made to attempt and raise the vessel again. Initially the cost of salvaging was estimated at USD 10,000 but the operation took much longer and more cost than the estimation. This include the money that the Belgians had spent in their attempt, and compare with the German cost of building, transporting and reconstructing the steamer in the first place which came to around USD 50,000.

The Ship was to be renamed and various suggestions were put forward, some suggested calling Livingston because of his connection with Kigoma. The decision was finally made to name the steamer LIEMBA as this was the name by which Lake Tanganyika had original been known to the people. The vessel was renamed on 16 th May 1927, the trail average speed was maintained at 8.5knots, which is not too bad for the Ship that spent her 8 years the bottom of the lake and is still operating.