Scuttling of SMS Cormoran

Part of the Asian and Pacific theatre of World War I

SMS Cormoran

Date	April 7, 1917
Location	Apra Harbor, Guam, Pacific Ocean
Result	Germans scuttle SMS Cormoran.

Belligerents

United States

German Empire

Commanders and leaders

unknown

Adalbert Zuckschwerdt

Strength

Land:
3 artillery pieces
1 artillery battery
Sea:
1 auxiliary cruiser

1 auxiliary cruiser

Casualties and losses

none

9 killed
1 auxiliary cruiser scuttled

The Scuttling of SMS Cormoran off Guam on April 7, 1917 was the result of the United States entry into World War I and the internment of the German merchant raider SMS Cormoran. The incident was the only hostile encounter between United States and German military forces during the Pacific Ocean campaign of the war.

SMS Cormoran was originally a passenger and cargo ship, named SS Ryaezan and built by the Germans in 1909 for the Russian merchant fleet. When the war broke out, she was captured off Korea by SMS Emden and transformed into an auxiliary cruiser. Cormoran was armed with eight 10.5 cm (4.1 in) rapid fire guns from the original SMS Cormoran and commanded by Captain Adalbert Zuckschwerdt. The number of crew she had on board is unknown. Setting out from Tsingtao on August 10, 1914 for a commerce raiding cruise in the South Pacific, SMS Cormoran failed to sink any enemy shipping as she spent all of her time avoiding allied warships.

Captain Zuckschwerdt pulled into Apra Harbor, Guam on December 14 with the intention of receiving coal from the Americans on the island. The United States was a neutral power at this time so the Germans were refused the proper amount of coal needed to continue their voyage, there was little coal on the island for the Americans and Guamanians themselves. So the German sailors were interned and for about two years they lived among the Americans and Guamanians in friendship until the American entry into World War I.

When war was declared on April 7, 1917, the United States Marines and sailors on Guam were notified and set out from their base. They embarked the old screw schooner USS Supply with the goal of capturing the auxiliary cruiser, or destroying it. Not wanting to anger the Germans they had lived with for two years and not wanting to expose the Guamanians to needless harm; the Americans resorted to first requesting that the Germans surrender peacefully. In case anything went wrong, the artillery battery of three 7 inch guns on the western face of Mount Tenjo was also trained on the vessel. Before Captain Zuckschwerdt could refuse surrender a group of United States Navy sailors on the deck of USS Supply noticed that the Germans were preparing to scuttle their vessel instead of surrendering or attempting an escape.

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Wikipedia