The SMS Geier (later renamed USS Schurz) was built by the Imperial Dockyard in Whilhelmshaven, Germany and launched on October 18, 1894.  The SMS Geier was a 255-foot long, steel hulled cruiser of the Bussard class of the German Navy.  The Geier utilized both sail power and triple expansion steam engines for locomotion, and experimented with wood, iron and copper in its hull construction. The Geier was launched in 1894, but did not begin its overseas career until 1898 when it traveled to Haiti to suppress a local uprising.  Later that year the Geier participated in the Spanish-American War by evacuating German refugees from Havana, and spent the following two years steaming along Germany’s foreign naval stations on South America’s eastern and western coastlines.  From 1900-1905 the Geier was ordered to China to aid German forces during the Boxer Rebellion.  In 1911 the Geier participated in the Turkish-Italian War protecting German investments until 1913 when it was sent to Dar es Salaam, Germany’s East African Station in Tanganyika.  The Geier remained there until 1914 when hostilities between Germany and Great Britain had increased to a point the German High Command ordered the Geier to join Admiral Graf Spee’s East Asia Squadron out of Tsingtao, China as a reinforcement for the German colony. World War I broke out as the Geier was steaming towards Tsingtao and Admiral Graf Spee’s Squadron had already departed on a commerce-raiding mission in the Pacific.  Alone in the eastern Pacific, under gunned and underpowered, the Geier’s captain decided his ship’s best course of action would be to intern itself in a neutral port.  The Territory of Hawaii appeared to be the most benign area in the region, so the Geier made all possible speed to the port of Honolulu.  During its three-year internment in Honolulu, hostilities escalated between the United States and Germany until 1917 when the United States entered World War I.

Captured German sailors escorted to a detention center (Picture courtesy of Hawaii State Archives)

The United States seized the Geier at the outbreak of the war and discovered the Germans had not been idle during their stay in Honolulu.  The German officers and crew took part in a series of messages relayed between Berlin and Mexico and Canada, in which the Germans were attempting to lead the two nations into hostile action against the United States.  The messages were Germany’s final tactic to divert America’s resources away from the war in Europe, but failed when neither country responded to Berlin’s proposal.  The Geier became the property of the U.S. Navy, and underwent armament modifications to re-enter service as the USS Schurz.  Subsequently, the Schurz spent most of its active duty in the Atlantic where it sank with the loss of one life after colliding with the SS Florida on June 21, 1918, 32 miles off the North Carolina coast.