The German pirate : $b his methods and record — John Shaqi
The German pirate : $b his methods and recordAjax
History
The German pirate : $b his methods and record
Ajax
World War, 1914-1918 -- Naval operations -- Submarine
"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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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