SMS Cormoran (1909)
.jpg) SMS Cormoran in Guam
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SMS Cormoran was an auxiliary cruiser of the Imperial Navy , which was used at the beginning of the First World War . It was theRussian passenger, cargo and mail ship Rjäsan capturedby the small cruiser Emden in the first days of the war on Koreastrasse . Theship, builtby F. Schichau in1909, originally belonged to the Russian Volunteer Fleet (Dobrovolny Flot), like two sister ships also built by Schichau and two somewhat smaller, similar ships.
technology
The Rjäsan was a combined ship of 3,433 GRT . It had four hatches . The ship was 104 m long ( waterline 99.4 m) and 13.7 m wide. With a maximum displacement of 7,250 t, the draft was 5.8 m. The constructive displacement was 5,200 t. In the first class cabins 62 passengers , in the second class 20 passengers and in the third class 100 passengers could be carried. The crew consisted of 95 men.
For a possible war effort, set-up points for three 12 cm guns and the assembly of rails were prepared in order to be able to lay mines from the cargo holds over the stern. The interior should also allow the transport of up to 600 men landing troops.
The ship's machinery consisted of an upright, three-cylinder, triple expansion steam engine with an output of 4,750 PSi . The machine drove a four-winged screw with a diameter of 5.6 m. The steam required was supplied by four cylinder boilers that generated a steam pressure of 14.4 atmospheres . The propulsion system accelerated the Rjäsan to a top speed of 15 knots . The existing fuel supply of 2,500 tonnes of coal enabled a steam route of 13,500 nm at a cruising speed of 14 knots.
Equipment in Tsingtau
During equipment for auxiliary cruiser by the Tsingtauer shipyard in early August 1914, the ship received an armament of eight 10.5-cm L / 35 - rapid-fire guns . These came from the small cruiser Cormoran , which was no longer fit for war . 1,200 rounds of ammunition were carried for the guns. Since the Rjäsan was intended for use as an auxiliary cruiser since its construction, this work progressed quickly.
Mission history
The Rjäsan ran in March 1909 the Schichau shipyard in Elbing from the stack and was put into service on 30 November 1909th The freighter belonged to the Russian volunteer fleet and was used in the liner service between the Black Sea and the Russian Pacific coast. After the outbreak of the First World War, the Rjäsan became the first pinch of the trade war- waging Emden . Already on August 4, 1914, they put the Russian ship with 80 passengers on board in Koreastrasse and brought it to Tsingtau , where the war equipment took place.
German auxiliary cruiser
Already on August 7th, the ship was put into service by the crew of the former small cruiser Cormoran , reinforced by those of the polecat and the fatherland , under the commandant of the old Cormoran , Corvette Captain Adalbert Zuckschwerdt . The crew of the auxiliary cruiser, which took the name Cormoran , consisted of 22 officers and 334 men .
On August 10, the auxiliary cruiser left Tsingtau, initially accompanied by the S 90 torpedo boat as a reconnaissance aircraft. The Cormoran was able to leave the Chinese and Japanese waters unnoticed and reached Majuro with two coal steamers , where a meeting with the East Asia Squadron and the Reichspostdampfer Prinz Eitel Friedrich , also equipped as an auxiliary cruiser in Tsingtau, took place.
On August 27, the commander of the cruiser squadron, Vice Admiral Maximilian von Spee , released the two auxiliary cruisers for the trade war in Australian waters. Both ships first went to the area assigned to them and stayed mainly off New Guinea and in the Bismarck Archipelago . A constant problem for the Cormoran and to an even greater extent for the Prinz Eitel Friedrich was the supply of coal. This could only be insufficiently secured by the German ports in the protected area , and beyond that there was only the possibility of coal from German or captured merchant ships. On September 23, the Cormoran anchored in Alexishafen to await a coal steamer. A discovery by opposing armed forces who landed troops in Friedrich-Wilhelm-Hafen could be avoided.
By September 30, the auxiliary cruiser went to Yap to take the Planet's crew on board. In the period that followed, attempts were made to wage a trade war and to obtain coal, but both were unsuccessful. After the cormorant had been lying in front of the Caroline island of Lamutrik until December 12th , she called at Guam two days later to collect coal there. However, the auxiliary cruiser did not receive sufficient quantities to be able to call at the nearest neutral port. For this reason, the only option left for Corvette Captain Zuckschwerdt was to have his ship interned .
The Cormoran was unable to raise or sink any ships during its 127-day venture.
Whereabouts
After the United States entered the war , the US authorities demanded that the ship be surrendered. The crew then left the auxiliary cruiser and blew up the Cormoran , which went down within four minutes. Seven men of the crew died, 346 were taken prisoner of war . They were taken to the Fort Douglas POW camp in Utah .
The wreck is now a destination for divers.
literature
- Gröner, Erich / Dieter Jung / Martin Maass: The German warships 1815-1945 . tape 3 : U-boats, auxiliary cruisers, mine ships, net layers, barrier breakers . Bernard & Graefe, Koblenz 1985, ISBN 3-7637-4802-4 , pp. 150 f .
- Hildebrand, Hans H. / Albert Röhr / Hans-Otto Steinmetz: The German warships . Biographies - a mirror of naval history from 1815 to the present . tape 2 : Ship biographies from Baden to Eber . Mundus Verlag, Ratingen, S. 196 .
- Schmalenbach, Paul: The German auxiliary cruisers 1895-1945 . Gerhard Stalling AG, Oldenburg, Hamburg 1977, ISBN 3-7979-1877-1 .
Web links
- Golf Dornseif, SMS Cormoran - Guam Naval Station's last place of escape (PDF; 819 kB)
- Russian Volunteer Fleet (Dobrolyot) on theshipslist (accessed June 15, 2012)
Coordinates: 13 ° 24 ′ 0 ″ N , 144 ° 38 ′ 0 ″ E
Footnotes
- ^ Small conversation lexicon . 5th edition. tape 1 . Brockhaus, Leipzig 1911, p. 619 .
- ↑ In addition to the Rjäsan , Schichau also delivered the sister ships Orjol and Poltawa ( hull numbers 829 and 830), which from 1909 also served in regular services from Odessa on the Black Sea to the Russian ports in the Far East. In addition, the shipyard also built two smaller ships of 2,700 GRT each with the Simbirsk and the Pensa (hull numbers 832 and 833). These about 10 m shorter two chimneys had a passenger facility for 60 passengers 1st class, 30 2nd class and 120 3rd class. Class, ran 16 knots and were used in the liner service between Vladivostok , Japan and Shanghai . These ships were also prepared for use as auxiliary cruisers or troop transports .
- ↑ engl. Article about the camp ( Memento of December 18, 2012 in the Internet Archive )