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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.
SMS Cormoran II
Details and description. The SS Rjasan (or Riasan) was a Russian passenger and mail carrier built by the German Schicau dockyard in Elbing in 1909. Named after the Russian town located southeast of Moscow, the Rjasan was built for the Russian Volunteer Fleet Association (known as the Dobroflot), founded in 1878.
SMS Cormoran II: Non-German Crew Members
When the SMS Cormoran II arrived in Guam in December 1914, among the hundreds of crew members were individuals who worked on the vessel but were not German. Twenty-nine men originally from German New Guinea in the South Pacific and four Chinese men from Tsingtao stayed on Guam along with their German counterparts for the duration of the Cormoran’s internment at Apra Harbor.
SMS Cormoran II Memorial
Located in East Hagåtña on the beachside of Marine Corps Drive is a small cemetery maintained by the United States Navy. There are 254 listed graves in this space, nestled between a local car dealership on one side and Padre Palomo Beach Park on the other. The earliest grave marker is dated 1902, and the most recent 1955. US military personnel, Chamorro service members, and civilians—even children—are buried in this hallowed ground. Among the neatly laid rows of cambered or arc-shaped grave markers closest to the beach is a small white obelisk dedicated to the SMS Cormoran II and the seven crew members who died in the first skirmish between the US and Germany in World War I.
The SMS Cormoran II Crew – Prisoners of War
After more than two years of internment on the United States territory of Guam, the German cruiser SMS Cormoran II was scuttled by its crew in Apra Harbor on 7 April 1917 to prevent it becoming a spoil of war between the US and Germany.
SMS Cormoran II: Partial Crew List
The partial list presented here that researcher James Oelke-Farley compiled for Guampedia, indicates only 108 crew members. The list was cross-checked with message traffic from the US State Department and prison records. However, Oelke-Farley explains that when the men arrived in the US they often were no longer referred to by the ship upon which they served as crew members (the crew of the SMS Geier which had been interned in Honolulu was combined with the Comoran’s crew on the way to the prisoner of war camp in Fort Douglas, Utah) but rather simply as “POWs” or “German Navy,” which has made an exact identification of every man difficult.
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.
Governor William John Maxwell
US Naval Captain William John Maxwell (1859 – 1934) was Governor of Guam from 28 March 1914 – 29 April 1916. Maxwell relieved Acting Governor Alfred Walton Hinds and continued previous Naval Government infrastructure projects. In addition, he reorganized government agencies, established financial institutions, petitioned the US Navy Department for Guam’s US citizenship and to open the port for commercial use.
US Naval Cemetery
The US Naval Cemetery, along side Marine Corps Drive in East Hagåtña, was first opened by the US Naval government in 1902 and is currently a part of the Hagåtña Heritage Walking Trail. In 2003, the Department of Parks and Recreation’s (DPR) Adopt-a-Park program formed a partnership between the US Navy and the community of Guam to maintain the site.