This special episode of the Great War is sponsored by the Guam Visitors Bureau.
The United States joined World War One April 6, 1917 and made preparations to face the
enemy, but the first shots fired by Americans against that enemy happened not in Europe,
but all the way around the world on the island of Guam.
I’m Indy Neidell; welcome to a Great War special episode about Guam and the Cormoran.
Okay, the Cormoran - what’s that?
Let me backtrack.
On July 31st, 1914, German Vice-Admiral Maximilian von Spee, Commander of the German East Asia
Squadron, received word that the German ultimatum to Russia was expiring and there would be
war.
He was aboard his flagship, the armored cruiser SMS Scharnhorst, near the small Pacific island
of Pohnpei.
Von Spee sent out the call for the German warships anchored at Tsingtao to join him;
Tsingtao being the administrative center for Germany’s Pacific colonies.
One of those ships was the battered cruiser Cormoran.
Built in 1893, it had seen its share of action in the Pacific over the years, in places like
Samoa and Pohnpei.
Thing is, the Cormoran had a damaged engine, so its commander Corvette Captain Adalbert
Zuckschwerdt was forced to stay behind at Tsingtao.
Then the light cruiser Emden, which we did a whole special about, captured the German
navy’s first prize of the war off the Korean Peninsula, the 3,500-ton Russian steamer Rjäsan,
as it made for Vladivostok.
That ship, built only five years earlier, was too valuable to scuttle so it was quickly
brought to Tsingtao and the guns, crew, and name of the Cormoran were transferred to the
former Rjäsan.
The old Cormoran was scuttled in the bay of Tsingtao, shortly before Japan, now one of
the Allies, attacked that port in October 1914.
The new Cormoran was ordered by von Spee to harass the enemy’s supply lines, practicing
what the Germans called Kreuzerkrieg - cruiser warfare.
But the journey of the Cormoran was not to be a series of legendary swashbuckling adventures
like that of the Emden.
No, its fate was one of flight and frustration.
The ship successfully crisscrossed the Pacific for a couple months, sure, but constant pursuit
by Japanese warships caused it to run dangerously low on coal.
Zuckschwerdt maintained radio silence and hid in Lamotrek Atoll, 560km east of Yap.
By now, there were now no safe German Pacific ports remaining.
New Zealand had captured German Western Samoa, the Australians occupied Melanesia, and Japan
had seized Germany’s possessions in Micronesia.
The only place left to go was Guam, which was part of the United States, and was thus
neutral.
With no other options and burning the last of its coal, the Cormoran approached Apra
Harbor December 14th, 1914.
Guam had only become part of the United States fairly recently.
It had been Spanish territory until the Spanish-American War of 1898, when the USS Charleston captured
the peaceful and undefended island.
It then became an American naval station.
In fact, until 1950, all governors of Guam were American naval officers.
William Maxwell was the governor in late 1914 when the Cormoran came into the harbor.
He at first refused to help the German ship, and insisted that it respect American neutrality
and leave, but Zuckschwerdt said that unless they could refuel, they weren’t going anywhere,
so it became something of a standoff.
Maxwell said he had only minimal coal available, but the Germans could stay and he would treat
them well if they were willing to be interned.
Zuckschwerdt had no real choice but to agree to this.
So that would seem to end the adventures of the Cormoran, but it didn’t.
Okay, the crew could keep their personal weapons on the ship, but the firing pins of the ship’s
eight 10.5cm guns were removed.
The crew actually eventually had the choice of living on the ship or moving to houses
on the island.
Now, that could be seen as a somewhat risky proposal, since the ship’s crew was 33 officers
and 308 enlisted men, which outnumbered the American Marines garrisoned on the island.
Though things were calm enough with the men, there was a bit of a personal war between
Maxwell and Zuckschwerdt.
It began over the Cormoran finances.
The German Embassy in Washington sent funds to Guam for the men through Maxwell, and Zuckschwerdt
did not understand or agree with Maxwell’s distribution of the funds.
Over the following months they disagreed over coded messages, curfews, international law,
human rights, and Maxwell even tried unsuccessfully to have the Cormoran transferred to San Francisco.
Eventually, he suffered a nervous breakdown and was replaced as governor in 1916 by William
Cronan and then Roy Smith.
Fears of conflict were put to rest as the German sailors moved freely about Guam without
incident and treated the native Chamorros with great respect.
The island became a mini melting pot of cultures, the German band played at parties and there
were even marriages between sailors and locals.
“Guam was like the setting of a comic opera.
American Naval officers in spotless white, Marine officers in white or khaki, German
officers from the Cormoran in meticulous uniform, native men with their shirt tails always hanging
out, lovely women of the island tightly swathed from waist down in their gaily colored trained
skirts, Franciscan monks in their brown cassocks, American women carrying bright Japanese parasols,
and German sailors on bicycles with ribbons dangling from their child-like straw hats.”
But nothing lasts forever.
On April 6, 1917, a coded telegram reached Governor Smith.
The US had just declared war on Germany.
The governor´s aide, , and a small group of marines, set out to demand the surrender
of the Cormoran when they saw a small launch racing towards the German ship.
When it ignored Bartlett’s orders to stop, he had the Marines fire two warning shots
across its bow.
Those shots, coming just two hours after the US declaration of war, were the first shots
fired by Americans against Germans of the First World War.
Bartlett boarded the Cormoran, but Zuckschwerdt refused to surrender.
Bartlett replied that as soon as he returned that reply to the Governor, the shore batteries
would open up on the Cormoran as an enemy combatant.
That didn’t happen, though, for once Bartlett was well away, a huge explosion rocked the
Cormoran.
The Germans had blown it up; they had hidden six drums of coal dust mixed with gasoline
and armed with blasting caps in the ship’s coalbunker.
The crewmen leapt overboard and swam to land, or were picked up.
Seven men drowned, though all but one body was found, and they were buried with military
honors at the US Naval Cemetery in Agana.
The rest of the crew were taken prisoner and eventually sent to the US mainland, and the
adventures of the Cormoran were now at an end.
Amazing how a small island in the Pacific, so far away from the main battles in Europe,
still became involved in a war its native people had absolutely nothing to do with.
Even they could not escape this war’s global consequences.
A militia was formed on Guam in 1917 with 920 Chamorros, US war bonds were sold, and
$70,000 was raised.
The island also could not escape another global tragedy of the period, the Spanish Flu.
It came aboard an American ship after the war, and 1,000 inhabitants of Guam perished
as a result.
Here’s a little side note - the speed with which the Japanese had taken the German possessions
in the Pacific did not only worry the Germans, but also Japan’s allies, notably Great Britain
and the US.
Already in 1914, the US Naval Board estimated that it would take at least 8,500 marines
to defend the island - and the mostly likely attacker in future would be the Japanese.
A bit prophetic there.
The SMS Cormoran now rests on her port side 34m (110 feet) underwater in Apra Harbor.
Leaning against her rests the Japanese cargo ship Tokai Maru, which was sunk during World
War 2 by an American submarine.
The shipwreck of the Cormoran was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in
1975.
Today, the site is a famous and unique diving ground and is accessible for tourists who
wish to explore the wrecks of the two ships so close together.
To commemorate Guam’s history during World War 1, the island offers specials diving tours
and lectures.
And on top of that you can of course also enjoy your vacation on some pretty amazing
beaches.
If you want to learn more about what Guam has to offer, check out the link in the description
of this video.
If you are curious about the endeavours of the German East Asia Squadron, definitely
check out our episodes about the SMS Emden and Maximilian von Spee.
And for some more background information about the Pacific Theatre of World War 1, like us
on Facebook and follow us on Instagram.
See you next time.