SMS Cormoran (1909)

SMS ''Cormoran'' or SMS ''Cormoran II'' was a German armed merchant raider that was originally a German-built Russian merchant vessel named ''Ryazan''. The ship was active in the Pacific Ocean during World War I. Built in 1909, she was captured by the German light cruiser on 4 August 1914 and converted into a raider at the German colony Kiautschou. She was forced to seek port at Apra Harbor on the U.S. territory of Guam on 10 December 1914. The United States, then declared neutral in the war, refused to supply provisions sufficient for ''Cormoran'' to make a German port. After the U.S. declaration of war on April 6, 1917, the Naval Governor of Guam informed ''Cormoran'' that she would be seized as a hostile combatant, prompting her crew to scuttle her.

History

''Ryazan'' was built at the Schichau shipyard in Elbing, Imperial Germany in 1909 for the Russian merchant fleet (Rjasan or Rjäsan, from the Russian town of Ryazan). She was used by imperial Russia as a combination passenger, cargo and mail carrier on North Pacific routes.

German capture

The ''Ryazan'' was captured southeast of the Korean peninsula by the German light cruiser on 4 August 1914 as the first prize of World War I from the Russian empire. She was taken to Tsingtao in the German colony Kiautschou, where she was converted to an armed merchant raider. The new ''Cormoran'' replaced the original SMS ''Cormoran'', a small shallow draft cruiser that had a long Imperial Navy career in the Pacific, having taken part in the events that brought Kiautschou into the German colonial empire in 1897–98. The old ''Cormoran'' was laid up at Tsingtao with serious maintenance issues and unable to go to sea, and her armaments were transferred to the captured merchant ship.

On 10 August 1914, the new ''Cormoran'' (or ''Cormoran II'') left Tsingtao harbor and sailed through the South Pacific region. After Japan declared war on the German Empire, her warships discovered and pursued the ''Cormoran'', forcing her to seek refuge in Apra Harbor, in the U.S. Territory of Guam, on 14 December. Having expended most of her fuel raiding commerce, her crew burned much of her woodwork in the boilers in order to make port. With only of coal remaining in her bunkers, her captain requested provisions and of coal in order to reach German ports in East Africa.

Due to strained diplomatic relations between the United States and Germany, plus the limited amount of coal stored at Guam, Governor William John Maxwell refused to supply ''Cormoran'' with more than a token amount of coal. He ordered the ship to leave within 24 hours or submit to detention. This created a standoff between the German crew and the Americans that lasted nearly two years, until Governor Maxwell was involuntarily placed on the sick list and replaced by his subordinate, William P. Cronan, who decided the German crew should be treated as guests of the United States. The ''Cormoran'' was not allowed to leave the harbor, but the crew were treated as friends, achieving a minor celebrity status on the island.

Scuttling

On the morning of April 7, 1917 word reached Guam by telegraph cable that the U.S. Congress had declared war on Germany. The Naval Governor of Guam, Roy Campbell Smith, sent two officers to inform the ''Cormoran'' that a state of war existed between the two countries, that the crew were now prisoners of war, and that the ship must be surrendered. Meanwhile, the USS ''Supply'' blocked the entrance to Apra Harbor to prevent any attempt to flee. In a separate boat, the two officers were accompanied by a barge commanded by Lt. W.A. Hall, who was designated prize master, and had brought 18 sailors and 15 Marines from the barracks at Sumay. Seeing a launch from ''Cormoran'' hauling a barge of supplies back shore, Hall ordered shots fired across the bow of the launch until it hove to. Meanwhile, the two officers reached ''Cormoran'' and informed Captain Adalbert Zuckschwerdt of the situation. Zuckschwerdt agreed to surrender his crew but refused to turn over the ship. The U.S. officers informed Zuckschwerdt that the ''Cormoran'' would be treated as an enemy combatant and left to inform Governor Smith of the situation. Unbeknownst to the Americans, the Germans had secreted an explosive device in the ship's coal bunker. Minutes after the Americans left, an explosion aboard ''Cormoran'' hurled debris across the harbor and her crew began abandoning ship. The two American boats and USS ''Supply'' immediately began to recover German sailors from the water, saving all but seven of the roughly 370 ''Cormoran'' crew. This incident, including the warning shots against the launch, accounted for the first violent action of the United States in World War I, first shots fired by the U.S. against Germany in World War I, the first German prisoners of war captured by the U.S., and the first Germans killed in action by the U.S. in World War I. The shots ordered fired by Teófilo Marxuach against the SS ''Odenwald'' in San Juan Bay on March 21, 1915 predate the U.S. declaration of war against Germany.

The dead crew were buried with full military honors in the naval cemetery at Hagåtña. After the American sailors rescued and made prisoners the surviving Germans, Governor Cronan congratulated Captain Zuckschwerdt for the bravery of his men. The U.S. Navy later conducted a limited salvage operation and the ship's bell was recovered. It is exhibited at the U.S. Naval Academy Museum at Annapolis, Maryland. Other artifacts have been removed by divers over the years.

As the crew waited to be sent to a POW camp on the mainland, they were given permission to erect an obelisk next to their buried dead. Capt. Zuckschwerd was allowed to speak at a ceremony honoring their dead. The obelisk reads, "Den Toten von S.M.S. Cormoran, 7 IV 1917," meaning "To the dead of the S.M.S. Cormoran, 7 April 1917."

The German crew was initially imprisoned in Fort Douglas, Utah. In April 1918, all remaining prisoners of war from ''Cormoran'' and were transferred from Fort Douglas to Fort McPherson, Georgia. All returned home on 7 October 1919, almost a year after the war's end.

Wreck and commemorations

The wreck of the ''Cormoran II'' rests below the surface on her starboard side. A Japanese cargo ship, the '' Tokai Maru'', sunk by the submarine USS ''Snapper'' on August 27, 1943, leans against her screw. The wreck is one of the few places where a World War I shipwreck lies next to a ship from World War II.

In 1974, the Cormoran monument in the Naval Cemetery was listed in the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP). In 1975, the wreck itself was placed on the NRHP because of her association with World War I. The National Park Service conducted surveys in 1983 of the SMS ''Cormoran'' and ''Tokai Maru'', publishing maps of the two ships' positions. In 1988, a mooring buoy was attached to the Tokai Maru to allow easier access by divers. It is, according to the National Park Service, "probably the most popular wreck diving site on Guam." Over one thousand divers annually visit the wrecks.

The 90th anniversary of the ''Cormoran's'' scuttling in 2007 was marked by wreath-laying ceremonies and exhibits and lectures as War in the Pacific National Historic Park. The centenary commemoration of the ships sinking was attended by a representative of the German embassy to Manila. Divers laid wreaths on the wreck and then a memorial ceremony was held at the Naval Cemetery.

Partial list of crew members

Kurt Moraht.jpg
Henry Bock (Leutnant Bock's was the first German naval officer sword surrendered in the Pacific) 3Herman Berka (Cormoran's chief engineer) 4Wilhelm Hermann Grallert, Lindenau, Kreis Landeshut, Niederschlesien, Prussia
Fritz August Hermann Kutz, Labes, Kreis Regenwalde, Pommern, Prussia
Jakob Runck, Landau, Pfalz, Bavaria
Emil Bischoff, Unterschefflenz, Baden, Germany
Ernest Max Adolf, Freiburg/Br, Germany
Johannes Heinrich Dammann, Nutteln, Schleswig-Holstein
Kurt Moraht

Notes

Bibliography

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See also

* Underwater diving on Guam

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cormoran
Ships built in Elbing
Ships built by Schichau
1909 ships
World War I merchant ships of Russia
Auxiliary cruisers of the Imperial German Navy
World War I cruisers of Germany
World War I commerce raiders
Maritime incidents in 1917
Scuttled vessels
Apra Harbor
World War I shipwrecks in the Pacific Ocean
Shipwrecks on the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places in Guam
Wreck diving sites
Underwater diving sites in Guam