The Great Eastern Railway Company’s steamer Brussels, while on voyage from the Hook of Holland to Tilbury, was captured by the Germans in the early morning of the 23rd of June and taken into Zeebrugge. The master of the vessel was Captain Charles Fryatt. On the 29th of July the text of a German official announcement appeared in the Times:—
“On Thursday, at Bruges, before the Court-Martial of the Marine Corps, the trial took place of Captain Charles Fryatt, of the British steamer Brussels, which was brought in as a prize.
“The accused was condemned to death because, although he was not a member of a combatant force, he made an attempt on the afternoon of 28th March, 1915, to ram the German submarine U33 near the Maas Lightship. The accused, as well as the first officer and the chief engineer of the steamer, received at the time from the British Admiralty a gold watch, as a reward for his brave conduct on that occasion, and his action was mentioned with praise in the House of Commons.
“On the occasion in question, disregarding the U-boat’s signal to stop and show his national flag he turned at a critical moment at high speed on the submarine, which escaped the steamer by a few metres only, by immediately diving. He confessed that in so doing he had acted in accordance with the instructions of the Admiralty. The sentence was confirmed yesterday (Thursday) afternoon and carried out by shooting.
“One of the many nefarious franc-tireur proceedings of the British merchant marine against our war vessels has thus found a belated, but merited, expiation.”
Even in face of the German official announcement quoted, the British Government were unwilling to believe that the murder of Captain Fryatt had indeed taken place. The Foreign Office communicated with the American Ambassador at Berlin, asking that the facts of the case might be ascertained. This communication stated that “His Majesty’s Government find it difficult to believe that a master of a merchant vessel who, after German submarines adopted the practice of sinking merchant vessels without warning and without regard for the lives of passengers or crew, took a step which appeared to afford the only chance of saving not only his vessel, but the lives of all on board, can have been deliberately shot in cold blood for this action. If the German Government have in fact perpetrated such a crime in the case of a British subject held prisoner by them, it is evident that a most serious condition of affairs has arisen.”
The murder was referred to in the House of Commons and reported in the Times of the 1st August, 1916. In reply to a question by Sir Edward Carson, Mr. Asquith made the following reply:—
“I deeply regret to say that it appears to be true that Captain Fryatt has been murdered by the Germans. His Majesty’s Government have heard with the utmost indignation of this atrocious crime against the law of nations and the usages of war. Coming as it does contemporaneously with the lawless cruelties to the population of Lille and other occupied districts of France, it shows that the German High Command have, under the stress of military defeat, renewed their policy of terrorism.
“It is impossible to guess to what further atrocities they may proceed. His Majesty’s Government, therefore, desire to repeat emphatically that they are resolved that such crimes shall not, if they can help it, go unpunished. When the time arrives they are determined to bring to justice the criminals, whoever they may be, and whatever their station. In such cases as this the man who authorises the system under which such crimes are committed may well be the most guilty of all.”
The circumstances connected with Captain Fryatt’s death are not disputed by either side; everyone can, therefore, form his own opinion about the case. It is as well to remember, however, that Germany declared a blockade of the British Isles in February, 1915, a month before Captain Fryatt encountered the U33, and that the U-boat pirates were employing methods of “frightfulness” in March, 1915.
The captain was perfectly justified in believing that the U33 would sink his ship without giving those aboard her time to enter their boats. He acted as any man of spirit would have acted in similar circumstances, and the German defence of his murder breaks down when we recall the conduct of the U-boat commanders at that time. On the very day when Captain Fryatt met the U33 another German submarine was sinking the s.s. Falaba, without giving the passengers or crew time to abandon ship. The Falaba, it will be remembered, sank in eight minutes, with a loss of 104 lives. Was not Captain Fryatt justified in saving his crew from the chances of a similar fate?
On the 21st September the s.s. Curamalan proceeded to sea. She had been in the service of the Argentine Republic for twenty years, and could not, therefore, be classed as a ship transferred for use during the war. Her owners were subjects of the Republic, and she was chartered by the Argentine Whaling Company to carry coal from Newport (Wales) to South Georgia. Such vessels are in the habit of speaking St. Vincent, Cape Verde, en route, but the Curamalan did not do so. She has been missing “without trace” since the date of her sailing, and it has been presumed by the authorities that she was sunk in European waters.
It will be remembered that while Argentina was in controversy with the German Government about the destruction of her ships by submarines, Count Luxburg, the German Chargé d’Affaires in Buenos Ayres, was sending home, by way of the Swedish Foreign Office, recommendations that certain vessels should be sunk “without a trace.” That was in July, 1917, but the total loss of the Curamalan and her crew of 29 suggests the suspicion that this policy of sinking “without a trace” dates a good deal further back.