Post by Administrator on Jul 31, 2017 22:27:16 GMT
Charles Fryatt: The man executed for ramming a U-Boat
The name Charles Fryatt is memorialised from New Zealand to Canada. Yet he was tried, convicted and executed as a "terrorist". A century on, Captain Fryatt's case is still debated by legal experts. But why would a merchant ship's commander ever try ramming a U-boat?
"I don't think he set out to be a hero," says Louise Gill. "I think he set out to look after his crew, his men and women, and trying to avoid capture."
Gill is the great-granddaughter of Fryatt who, in March 1915, attempted to ram a prowling German U-boat with his 1902-built passenger ferry, the Great Eastern Railway-owned SS Brussels.
Ordered to stop by submarine U-33 near the Maas lightvessel off the Dutch coast, Fryatt - born in Southampton and raised in Harwich - saw the German U-boat surface.
It was his third such encounter with a U-boat that month.
Believing it was being readied to torpedo his ship, Fryatt ordered full steam ahead and tried to ram the U-boat head on, forcing it to crash-dive.
The SS Brussels managed to escape and Fryatt was awarded a gold watch by the Admiralty.
LINK
The name Charles Fryatt is memorialised from New Zealand to Canada. Yet he was tried, convicted and executed as a "terrorist". A century on, Captain Fryatt's case is still debated by legal experts. But why would a merchant ship's commander ever try ramming a U-boat?
"I don't think he set out to be a hero," says Louise Gill. "I think he set out to look after his crew, his men and women, and trying to avoid capture."
Gill is the great-granddaughter of Fryatt who, in March 1915, attempted to ram a prowling German U-boat with his 1902-built passenger ferry, the Great Eastern Railway-owned SS Brussels.
Ordered to stop by submarine U-33 near the Maas lightvessel off the Dutch coast, Fryatt - born in Southampton and raised in Harwich - saw the German U-boat surface.
It was his third such encounter with a U-boat that month.
Believing it was being readied to torpedo his ship, Fryatt ordered full steam ahead and tried to ram the U-boat head on, forcing it to crash-dive.
The SS Brussels managed to escape and Fryatt was awarded a gold watch by the Admiralty.
LINK