Merak I (Id.No. 2533)
1918
The first Merak retained the name she carried at the time of her acquisition.
I
(Id.No. 2533: displacement 7,100 (normal); length 334'0"; beam 47'0"; draft 20'3" (mean); speed 8 knots)
The first Merak, a single-screw, steel-hulled cargo vessel built in 1910 by the Rotterdam Droogd. Maat., Rotterdam, the Netherlands, was operated by Van Nievelt, Goudriaan & Co., Rotterdam, an Austrian-controlled firm, prior to the Great War [World War I]. Seized and turned over to the U.S. Navy in 1918, Merak, given the identification number (Id.No.) 2533, was assigned to the Naval Overseas Transportation Service, U.S. Army Account.
Ultimately, the German submarine U‑140 (Korvettenkapitän Waldemar Kophomel, commanding) shelled Merak, which sank with no loss of life, off Cape Hatteras, N.C., on 6 August 1918. By war’s end, Korvettenkapitän Kophomel would be numbered among the highest-scoring U-boat captains, sinking or capturing 56 ships (157,771 tons) and damaging 6 (10,176), decorated with the Order Pour le Mérite by Kaiser Wilhelm II personally.
Updated Robert J. Cressman
11 January 2021
