Ryazan was built at the
Schichau shipyard in
Elbing, Imperial Germany in 1909 for the Russian merchant fleet (Rjasan or Rjäsan, from the Russian town of
Ryazan). She was used by imperial Russia as a combination passenger, cargo and mail carrier on North Pacific routes.
German capture The
Ryazan was captured southeast of the Korean peninsula by the German
light cruiser on 4 August 1914 as the first prize of
World War I from the Russian empire. She was taken to
Qingdao in the German colony
Kiautschou, where she was converted to an armed
merchant raider. The new
Cormoran replaced the original , a small shallow draft cruiser that had a long Imperial Navy career in the Pacific, having taken part in the events that brought
Kiautschou into the German colonial empire in 1897–98. The old
Cormoran was laid up at Qingdao with serious maintenance issues and unable to go to sea, and her armaments were transferred to the captured merchant ship. On 10 August 1914, the new
Cormoran (or
Cormoran II) left Qingdao harbor and sailed through the
South Pacific region. After Japan declared war on the German Empire, her warships discovered and pursued the
Cormoran, forcing her to seek refuge in
Apra Harbor, in the US Territory of
Guam, on 14 December. Having expended most of her fuel raiding commerce, her crew burned much of her woodwork in the boilers in order to make port. With only of coal remaining in her bunkers, her captain requested provisions and of coal in order to reach German ports in East Africa. Due to strained diplomatic relations between the United States and Germany, plus the limited amount of coal stored at Guam, Governor
William John Maxwell refused to supply
Cormoran with more than a token amount of coal. He ordered the ship to leave within 24 hours or submit to detention. The shots ordered by
Teófilo Marxuach against the
merchant ship Odenwald in
San Juan Bay on March 21, 1915, predate the US declaration of war against Germany. The dead crew were buried with full military honors in the naval cemetery at
Hagåtña. After the American sailors rescued and made prisoners the surviving Germans, Governor Cronan congratulated Captain Zuckschwerdt for the bravery of his men. The US Navy later conducted a limited salvage operation and the ship's bell was recovered. It is exhibited at the US Naval Academy Museum at
Annapolis, Maryland. Other artifacts have been removed by divers over the years. As the crew waited to be sent to a POW camp on the mainland, they were given permission to erect an obelisk next to their buried dead. Capt. Zuckschwerd was allowed to speak at a ceremony honoring their dead. The obelisk reads, "Den Toten von S.M.S. Cormoran, 7 IV 1917," meaning "To the dead of the S.M.S. Cormoran, 7 April 1917." The German crew was initially imprisoned in
Fort Douglas, Utah. In April 1918, all remaining
prisoners of war from
Cormoran and were transferred from Fort Douglas to
Fort McPherson,
Georgia. All returned home on 7 October 1919, almost a year after the war's end.
Wreck and commemorations The wreck of the
Cormoran II rests below the surface on her starboard side. A Japanese cargo ship, the
Tokai Maru, sunk by the submarine
USS Snapper on August 27, 1943, leans against her screw. The wreck is one of the few places where a World War I shipwreck lies next to a ship from World War II. In 1974, the Cormoran monument in the Naval Cemetery was listed in the
National Register of Historic Places (NRHP). In 1975, the wreck itself was placed on the NRHP The National Park Service conducted surveys in 1983 of the SMS
Cormoran and
Tokai Maru, publishing maps of the two ships' positions. It is, according to the
National Park Service, "probably the most popular wreck diving site on Guam." Over one thousand divers annually visit the wrecks.
Partial list of crew members • Henry Bock (
Leutnant Bock's was the first German naval officer sword surrendered in the Pacific) • Herman Berka (
Cormoran's chief engineer) • Wilhelm Hermann Grallert, Lindenau, Kreis Landeshut, Niederschlesien, Prussia • Fritz August Hermann Kutz, Labes, Kreis Regenwalde, Pommern, Prussia • Jakob Runck, Landau, Pfalz, Bavaria • Emil Bischoff, Unterschefflenz, Baden, Germany • Ernest Max Adolf, Freiburg/Br, Germany • Johannes Heinrich Dammann, Nutteln, Schleswig-Holstein • Kurt Moraht == See also ==