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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.

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Historic Eras of Guam, People, People and Places, US Naval Era, Wars and Factors of Peace, WWI

SMS Cormoran II: Two Crew Member Profiles

Ernest Max Adolph. My father’s name was Ernest Max Adolf, perhaps he had already changed his last name to Adolph. He was born in 1891 and died in 1988, still being of sound mind at the age of 97.

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Guampedia Resources, Historic Eras of Guam, Interpretive Essays, Non-CHamoru Ethnicity, US Naval Era, Wars and Factors of Peace, WWI

SMS Cormoran II: Local Stories

From December 1914 to April 1917, Guam was the backdrop for one of the earliest stories of the United States’ participation in World War I. The first violent shots between the US and Germany were fired on Guam. The first German casualties and deaths occurred in the waters of Apra Harbor, Guam. The first POWs were imprisoned on Guam.

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Historic Eras of Guam, US Naval Era, Wars and Factors of Peace, WWI

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.

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Historic Eras of Guam, US Naval Era, Wars and Factors of Peace, WWI

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.

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Historic Eras of Guam, Non-CHamoru Ethnicity, People, People and Places, US Naval Era, Wars and Factors of Peace, WWI

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.

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Heritage Sites, Historic Eras of Guam, US Naval Era, Villages, Heritage Sites and Island Life, Wars and Factors of Peace, WWI

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.

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Historic Eras of Guam, US Naval Era, Wars and Factors of Peace, WWI

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.

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e-Publications, Guampedia Resources, Historic Eras of Guam, US Naval Era, Wars and Factors of Peace, WWI

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.

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e-Publications, Historic Eras of Guam, MARC, US Naval Era, Wars and Factors of Peace, WWI

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.

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