[3] He was the highest achieving in tonnage, though Mikhail Kititsyn sank a larger number of ships.

[2] When World War I broke out Messer was the commanding officer of the submarine Kaiman.

[3] In late 1915 he was reassigned to be the captain of the submarine Volk,[5] with which he carried out nine war patrols[2] and sank four merchant ships.

Following the Russian Civil War he emigrated to Finland, Serbia, and finally to the United States, where he died on 16 December 1952 in Cleveland, Ohio.

[1][2] Messer was credited with sinking or capturing five merchant ships for a total of 10,756 gross register tons (GRT).