.jpg) SMSCormoran | |
| History | |
|---|---|
 Russian Empire | |
| Name | Ryazan |
| Namesake | Ryazan |
| Builder | Schichau Yard atElbing |
| Launched | 1909 |
| Out of service | 4 August 1914 |
| Fate | Captured bySMS Emden |
 German Empire | |
| Name | SMSCormoran aka SMSCormoran II |
| Namesake | SMSCormoran I |
| Acquired | 4 August 1914 |
| Commissioned | 10 August 1914 as SMSCormoran II |
| Fate | Scuttled atApra Harbor,Guam on 7 April 1917 |
| General characteristics | |
| Displacement | 3,500 t (3,400long tons) |
| Speed | 17 kn (31 km/h; 20 mph) |
| Armament | 8 ×10.5 cm (4.1 in) SK L/35 quick-firing guns |
SMS Cormoran | |
  | |
| Location | Apra Harbor |
| Nearest city | Piti, Guam[2] |
| Coordinates | 13°27′33″N144°39′15″E / 13.45917°N 144.65417°E /13.45917; 144.65417 |
| Area | 0.1 acres (0.040 ha) |
| Built | 1909[2] |
| NRHP reference No. | 75002156[1] |
| Added to NRHP | April 4, 1975 |
| Wreck of SMS Cormoran | |
|---|---|
 National Park Service illustration of the position of theCormoran andTokai Maru wrecks. The drive shaft ofCormoran lies closest to the bottom of the Tokai | |
| Dive type | Open-water,Deep,Wreck |
| Depth range | 80 to 120 ft (24 to 37 m) |
| Average visibility | 25 to 40 ft (7.6 to 12.2 m) |
| Entry type | Boat, very rarely shore |
| Bottom composition | Metal, silt |
| Nearby sites | Tokai Maru |
SMSCormoran orSMSCormoran II was a German armedmerchant raider that was originally a German-builtRussian merchant vessel namedRyazan. The ship was active in thePacific Ocean duringWorld War I. Built in 1909, she was captured by theGermanlight cruiserSMS Emden on 4 August 1914 and converted into a raider at the German colonyKiautschou. She was forced to seek port atApra Harbor on the US territory ofGuam on 10 December 1914. The United States, then declared neutral in the war, refused to supply provisions sufficient forCormoran to make a German port. After theUS declaration of war on April 6, 1917, the Naval Governor of Guam informedCormoran that she would be seized as a hostile combatant, prompting her crew to scuttle her.
Ryazan was built at theSchichau shipyard inElbing, Imperial Germany in 1909 for the Russian merchant fleet (Rjasan or Rjäsan, from the Russian town ofRyazan). She was used by imperial Russia as a combination passenger, cargo and mail carrier on North Pacific routes.
TheRyazan was captured southeast of the Korean peninsula by the Germanlight cruiserSMS Emden on 4 August 1914 as the first prize ofWorld War I from the Russian empire.[3] She was taken toQingdao in the German colonyKiautschou, where she was converted to an armedmerchant raider. The newCormoran replaced the originalSMS Cormoran, a small shallow draft cruiser that had a long Imperial Navy career in the Pacific, having taken part in the events that broughtKiautschou into the German colonial empire in 1897–98. The oldCormoran was laid up at Qingdao 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 newCormoran (orCormoran II) left Qingdao harbor and sailed through theSouth Pacific region.[citation needed] After Japan declared war on the German Empire, her warships discovered and pursued theCormoran, forcing her to seek refuge inApra Harbor, in the US Territory ofGuam, 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 50 t (55 short tons) of coal remaining in her bunkers, her captain requested provisions and 1,500 t (1,700 short tons) of coal in order to reach German ports in East Africa.[4]
Due to strained diplomatic relations between the United States and Germany, plus the limited amount of coal stored at Guam, GovernorWilliam John Maxwell refused to supplyCormoran with more than a token amount of coal. He ordered the ship to leave within 24 hours or submit to detention.[4] 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. TheCormoran was not allowed to leave the harbor, but the crew were treated as friends, achieving a minor celebrity status on the island.
On the morning of April 7, 1917, word reached Guam by telegraph cable that theUS Congress had declared war on Germany. The NavalGovernor of Guam,Roy Campbell Smith, sent two officers to inform theCormoran that a state of war existed between the two countries, that the crew were nowprisoners of war, and that the ship must be surrendered. Meanwhile, theUSSSupply 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 atSumay. Seeing a launch fromCormoran 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 reachedCormoran and informed CaptainAdalbert Zuckschwerdt of the situation. Zuckschwerdt agreed to surrender his crew but refused to turn over the ship. The US officers informed Zuckschwerdt that theCormoran 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 aboardCormoran hurled debris across the harbor and her crew began abandoning ship. The two American boats and USSSupply immediately began to recover German sailors from the water, saving all but seven of the roughly 370Cormoran crew. This incident, including the warning shots against the launch, accounted for the first violent action of theUnited States in World War I, first shots fired by the US against Germany in World War I, the first German prisoners of war captured by the US, and the first Germans killed in action by the US in World War I.[5][6][7][8] The shots ordered byTeófilo Marxuach against themerchant shipOdenwald inSan Juan Bay on March 21, 1915, predate the US declaration of war against Germany.
The dead crew were buried with full military honors in the naval cemetery atHagåtña. After the American sailors rescued and made prisoners the surviving Germans, Governor Cronan congratulated Captain Zuckschwerdt for the bravery of his men. The US Navy later conducted a limited salvage operation and the ship's bell was recovered. It is exhibited at the US Naval Academy Museum atAnnapolis, 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."[9]
The German crew was initially imprisoned inFort Douglas, Utah. In April 1918, all remainingprisoners of war fromCormoran andSMS Geier were transferred from Fort Douglas toFort McPherson,Georgia.[10] All returned home on 7 October 1919, almost a year after the war's end.[citation needed]
The wreck of theCormoran II rests 110 ft (34 m) below the surface on her starboard side. A Japanese cargo ship, theTokai Maru, sunk by the submarineUSSSnapper 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.[11]
In 1974, the Cormoran monument in the Naval Cemetery was listed in theNational Register of Historic Places (NRHP).[12] In 1975, the wreck itself was placed on the NRHP[1] because of her association with World War I.[13] The National Park Service conducted surveys in 1983 of the SMSCormoran andTokai Maru, publishing maps of the two ships' positions.[9] In 1988, a mooring buoy was attached to the Tokai Maru to allow easier access by divers.[14] It is, according to theNational Park Service, "probably the most popular wreck diving site on Guam."[15] Over one thousand divers annually visit the wrecks.[9]
The 90th anniversary of theCormoran's scuttling in 2007 was marked by wreath-laying ceremonies and exhibits and lectures asWar in the Pacific National Historic Park.[9] The centenary commemoration of the ships sinking was attended by a representative of the German embassy toManila. Divers laid wreaths on the wreck and then a memorial ceremony was held at the Naval Cemetery.[16]
Shipwrecks and maritime incidents in April 1917 | |
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| Shipwrecks |
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| Other incidents |
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