The Incredible True Story of America's First Shots Fired During WWI

On the evening of March 21, 1915, the German steamer ODENWALD attempted to quietly pull out of the harbor of San Juan, Puerto Rico, without customs clearance. As the ship was leaving the harbor, she was “met with a brisk machine gun fire from Morro Castle," said German Ambassador Count Johann von Bernstorff in an angry letter to Secretary of State Robert Lansing. A few minutes later, "a solid cannon shot struck the water a short distance in front of the ship's bow, raising a column of water from ten to twelve feet high. The engine was immediately stopped and backed at full speed. The forward motion of the ship ceased at once. In spite of which she was fired upon about three minutes longer. Marks of the bullets can be plainly seen in various places of the ship and hull. It was only through luck that no human life was lost in that onslaught."

This Caribbean tale of drama and conflict occurred just after Germany declared their policy of “unrestricted submarine warfare” in February of 1915, when they would sink any merchant ship heading to Great Britain without warning. This policy angered neutral countries, especially the United States. The tactic was only abandoned in September 1915, after the sinking of the LUSITANIA and ARABIC. But in the meanwhile, tensions were high. Germany desperately needed supplies. So, they ramped up their supply network through passenger ships of the Hamburg-America Line. The United States knew this, and knew that any ship that made it to Germany would prolong the war, prolong the agony. So, they disallowed Germany to make use of their neutral ports, among them, San Juan, Puerto Rico.

The Odenwald in San Juan harbor.

The ODENWALD was a German merchant freighter (a coal collier) that began to service the German Navy days after the beginning of the war. Her duty was to serve as support freighter for the cruiser SMS Karlsruhe whose mission was to patrol the eastern Atlantic in search of enemy merchant vessels to raid and sink. She sailed into San Juan harbor around August 6 1914, possibly seeking refuge from a British squadron of warships. Since the U.S. was neutral, it is possible that her crew claimed to be a merchant ship, but the U.S. authorities suspected otherwise.

On two thorough searches by harbor officials, the ODENWALD was refused permission to sail. Tensions were high among the sailors and harbor officials. “There was no ground upon which to decline to issue the papers,” insisted Bernstorff. “The reckless action of the harbor authorities in opening fire on the steamer without warning was not justified by the circumstances of the case.” Secretary of State Robert Lansing defended the action, saying that “in her endeavor to leave port, the ODENWALD “committed a willful breach of the navigation laws of the United States…which made it necessary to employ force to prevent her unauthorized departure.”

Were the port authorities justified?

When war broke out in August 1914, the United States tried to remain neutral. Still, American ships carried food, ammunition, and raw materials to Britain and Russia, which remained a thorn in the side of 

the Kaiser. In addition, German ships were subject to strict regulations as to how long they could remain in port, and what they were allowed to carry. When the ODENWALD tried to pull out with a shipload of supplies bound for U-boats in the Atlantic, her sister ship, the S.S. PRÄSIDENT was hovering nearby, waiting to see how far they could push American patience with their willful breaching of the navigation laws of the United States. The PRÄSIDENT was a German vessel that served as both passenger and cargo ship before the war. When the war broke out, she also began to serve in the German Navy as a support vessel to the cruiser Karlsruhe by providing radio communication and supplies. She arrived in Puerto Rico in December 1914 to take refuge from British and French cruisers that were hunting her and eventually was interned by the U.S. government.

Unfortunately for the Germans, the officer on duty was a determined military officer who was having none of it.

Col. Teófilo Marxuach (1877 – 1939)

Col. Teófilo Marxuach was a Puerto Rican military officer who took decisive action that would make him known as the person who ordered the first shots fired of World War I on behalf of the United States. Born in Puerto Rico under Spanish rule, he studied military engineering in Guadalajara, Spain and received a lieutenant's commission in the Spanish Army. After the Treaty of Paris (1898) transferred control of Puerto Rico to the United States, Marxuach resigned the Spanish Army and joined the Porto Rico Regiment of Infantry, commissioned with a rank of second lieutenant. In 1908, the U.S. Congress reorganized the regiment as part of the regular U.S. Army and Marxuach took an oath of U.S. citizenship along with his new officer’s oath. That same year, he was promoted to the rank of first lieutenant and stationed at El Morro Castle.

The Captain of the ODENWALD, C. S. Segebarth, requested clearance to sail back to Hamburg the next day and 5000 tons of coal for the trip. Suspicious of the request, the local authorities decided to consult with Washington, D.C. and, afraid that the vessel would leave without clearance, alerted the commanding officer at the fortress of El Morro. Washington approved the use of force if necessary and the German captain of the ODENWALD was warned several times. Despite the Germans’ assurances that they would not leave without clearance, the soldiers on the fort made preparations in case such a situation occurred. A machine gun platoon was placed on the Bastión de San Agustín, 500 feet from the Morro Castle commanded by Captain Wood, and the heavy guns of El Morro were readied under the command of Lt. Teófilo Marxuach.

On the day in question, the customs inspector visited the ODENWALD, but his visit was cut short when the ship started her engines around 3:00 pm and began moving on the main channel towards the mouth of the harbor without clearance. The customs collector was asked to leave in a small boat. As the ODENWALD passed the Bastion de San Agustin, Captain Wood, standing on the parapet of the sea wall, hailed the vessel several times without success. The ODENWALD stayed on course and Wood ordered Sgt. Encarnacion Correa to fire warning shots with his machine gun. Failing to stop the vessel, Lt. Marxuach fired a 4.7 inch cannon of the Santa Rosa battery in the upper platform of El Morro across the bow of the ship in what is considered to be the first shot of World War I fired by the regular armed forces of the United States against any ship flying the colors of the Central Powers. When the ODENWALD stopped and dropped anchor at the mouth of the harbor under the fortress, she was eventually moved back to the upper harbor with a pilot and its supplies were confiscated. An international incident broke out when the German government accused the United States of holding the ODENWALD illegally against its will without firing the customary warning shot as required by international law. The United States government responded that Lt. Col. Burnham, commander of the fortress of El Morro Castle, made it clear that only warning shots were made and that none were aimed at the ODENWALD. Eventually, the ODENWALD was refitted and renamed SS NEWPORT by the U.S. government and assigned to the U.S. Shipping Board, where it served until 1924.

In 1917, the Germans resumed the practice of unrestricted submarine warfare against all Allied ships, which led to America's entry into the war. But they never stopped their smuggling and sabotage activities, which is the basis of my novel, THE UNLIKELY SPY, now out on Kindle and paperback.

CLICK HERE. 

Watch a video of Spanish historical re-enactors firing a cannon from the fort of El Morro, Puerto Rico: