Other than native Samoan police, Germany had no armed forces stationed in the islands. The small gunboat SMS Geier and the unarmed survey ship Planet were assigned to the so-called "Australian Station" (encompassing all German South Seas protectorates, not the British dominion Australia), but Geier never reached Samoa.At the outbreak of World War I, the gunboat was in transit from German East Africa to German New Guinea and met the light cruiser SMS Emden. Geier initially stayed on station in the German Caroline Islands, but the 20-year-old 'orphan' ship had no military value as a naval combatant and was short on coal and provisions. She proceeded in October 1914 to Honolulu in the United States Territory of Hawaii. Shadowed by the Japanese, she was interned. With United States entry into the war in April 1917, Geier was confiscated, renamed USS Schurz and operated by the United States Navy until 1918, when she sank after a collision mishap off the North Carolina coast.
