Fryatt
CHARLES, master mariner, captain of a British merchant steamer which, on being signaled to stop by a German submarine in the North Sea in March, 1916, attempted to ram the submarine, so that the latter was compelled to submerge. For this act Captain Fryatt received a gold watch from the British Admiralty on arriving in England and was honorably mentioned in the House of Commons. In the following June Captain Fryatt , while piloting a passenger steamer across the er across the North Sea, from Rotteran English port, was captured by a German torpedo boat. A month later he was tried by court-martial at Bruges as a "franc-tireur" and sentenced to death, being executed immediately afterward.
World-wide indignation was roused by this act on the part of the Germans, who thereby attempted to terrorize all skippers of merchant vessels attacked attacked by their submarines into subwithout resistance.