SMS Cormoran II - Guampedia

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SMS Cormoran Anchors at Apra Harbor, Guam

A German Naval ship, the SMS Cormoran II, sails into Apra Harbor in desperate need of fuel. As the US Navy refuses to give up their coal supply, the ship is marooned on Guam with its crew of 370 men. They were treated with hospitality and friendship.

SMS Cormoran: 90th Anniversary

In 2007, Guam commemorated the 90th anniversary of the scuttling of the SMS Cormoran II. The festivities included wreath-laying ceremonies at Apra Harbor and the US Naval Cemetery in Hagåtña, and a series of lectures and an exhibit. Surviving descendants of the original crew and other German representatives were invited to participate. Hosted by the Guam Visitors Bureau and the Department of Parks and Recreation, the week-long celebration was just one way to remember and celebrate the Cormoran and its crew.

SMS Cormoran I

The German cruiser that was scuttled in Apra Harbor in April 1917 at the start of World War I was actually the second vessel in the German fleet named Cormoran. The original SMS Cormoran visited Guam in 1913 for a crew holiday, before its engine was damaged beyond repair at the German base in Tsingtao, China later the following year. Below is a description of the original Comoran vessel.

Cormoran-Südseefahrer: SMS Cormoran Crew Annual Meetings

By 1920, after the end of World War I, the men of the SMS Cormoran II who had been taken as prisoners of war by the United States were returned to their home country of Germany. The experience of being interned In Guam and then in US POW camps bonded these men together in a significant and personal way. Even though they went their separate ways back to their families the men of the Cormoran met yearly for over 40 years to remember, share stories, mourn lost comrades and stay in touch.

Captain Adalbert Zuckschwerdt

Adalbert Zuckschwerdt (1874 – 1945) was the captain of the German raider SMS Cormoran and its successor SMS Cormoran II which sailed to Guam from Tsingtao (Qingdao), China in 1914 in the early months of World War I. For more than two years, Zuckschwerdt and his crew remained in Guam until the United States entered the conflict in April 1917, and the SMS Cormoran II was scuttled by the Germans in Apra Harbor.

Guam’s Role in World War I

In 1917 the United States declared war on Germany, and just by chance, a German cruiser, the SMS Cormoran II, was docked at Apra Harbor.

WWI

←Return to the Wars and Factors of Peace Category Entries Guam’s Role in World War I SMS Cormoran I SMS Cormoran II SMS Cormoran II Memorial SMS Cormoran II: Local Stories SMS Cormoran II: Non-German Crew Members SMS Cormoran II: Partial Crew List SMS Cormoran: 90th Anniversary The Journey of SMS Cormoran II The SMS […]