"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:--