Charles Fryatt
Encyclopedia
Charles Algernon Fryatt was a British mariner who attempted to ram a German U-boat
U-boat
U-boat is the anglicized version of the German word U-Boot , itself an abbreviation of Unterseeboot , and refers to military submarines operated by Germany, particularly in World War I and World War II...

 in 1915. His ship, the was captured by the Germans in 1916. When it became clear who he was, Fryatt was court-martial
Court-martial
A court-martial is a military court. A court-martial is empowered to determine the guilt of members of the armed forces subject to military law, and, if the defendant is found guilty, to decide upon punishment.Most militaries maintain a court-martial system to try cases in which a breach of...

led and executed, although he was a civilian. There was international outrage following his execution. In 1919, his body was exhumed and given a funeral with full honours in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

.

Early life

Fryatt was born on 2 December 1872 in Southampton
Southampton
Southampton is the largest city in the county of Hampshire on the south coast of England, and is situated south-west of London and north-west of Portsmouth. Southampton is a major port and the closest city to the New Forest...

, the son of Charles and Mary Fryatt. He attended Freemantle
Freemantle
Freemantle is a suburb and electoral ward in Southampton, UK.Origins of the name are uncertain, but there are similarly named places in Hampshire, notably a suburb of Hannington and Freemantle Common in Bitterne...

 School in the late 1870s. In 1881, Fryatt's family lived at 22 Trinity Terrace, in St Mary's, Southampton, but later moved to Harwich
Harwich
Harwich is a town in Essex, England and one of the Haven ports, located on the coast with the North Sea to the east. It is in the Tendring district. Nearby places include Felixstowe to the northeast, Ipswich to the northwest, Colchester to the southwest and Clacton-on-Sea to the south...

, Essex
Essex
Essex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England, and one of the home counties. It is located to the northeast of Greater London. It borders with Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent to the South and London to the south west...

 where he attended the Corporation School. He and his wife, Ethel, had seven children; six girls and one boy. The children were Olive, Victoria, Doris, Vera, Mabel, Charles and Dorothy. The younger Charles later followed his father into the merchant navy, training at HMS Worcester.

Career

On leaving school, Fryatt entered the Mercantile Marine, serving on SS County Antrim, SS Ellenbank, SS Marmion and SS Harrogate. In 1892, Fryatt joined the Great Eastern Railway
Great Eastern Railway
The Great Eastern Railway was a pre-grouping British railway company, whose main line linked London Liverpool Street to Norwich and which had other lines through East Anglia...

 as a seaman on . Fryatt's father had been the First Officer on . Fryatt rose through the ranks, serving on various ships. His first command was . In 1913, he was appointed master of .

On 3 March 1915, Fryatt's ship, , a Great Central Railway
Great Central Railway
The Great Central Railway was a railway company in England which came into being when the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway changed its name in 1897 in anticipation of the opening in 1899 of its London Extension . On 1 January 1923, it was grouped into the London and North Eastern...

 ship, was attacked by a German U-Boat. The ship was chased for 40 nautical miles (74.1 km). With deckhands assisting the stokers, the ship made 16 knots (31.4 km/h) when it would normally have been pushed to make 14 knots (27.4 km/h). Wrexham arrived at Rotterdam
Rotterdam
Rotterdam is the second-largest city in the Netherlands and one of the largest ports in the world. Starting as a dam on the Rotte river, Rotterdam has grown into a major international commercial centre...

 with burnt funnels. The Great Eastern Railway presented him with a gold watch for this feat. The watch was inscribed Presented to Captain C. A. Fryatt by the Chairman and Directors of the G.E Railway Company as a mark of their appreciation of his courage and skilful seamanship on March 2nd, 1915. Later that month he was in charge of Colchester when it was unsuccessfully attacked by a U-boat.
On 28 March, he was ordered to stop by U-33
SM U-33
SM U-33 was a German Type U 31 U-boat of the Kaiserliche Marine.-SS Brussels:On 28 March 1916, U-33 ordered the Great Eastern Railway's to stop...

 when his ship was near the Maas lightvessel. Seeing the U-boat had surfaced in order to torpedo
Torpedo
The modern torpedo is a self-propelled missile weapon with an explosive warhead, launched above or below the water surface, propelled underwater towards a target, and designed to detonate either on contact with it or in proximity to it.The term torpedo was originally employed for...

 , Fryatt ordered full steam ahead and proceeded to try and ram U-33, which was forced to crash dive.
This action was in compliance of orders issued by Winston Churchill
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, was a predominantly Conservative British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the century and served as Prime Minister twice...

 to captains of merchant ships. These orders included treating the crews of U-boats as felons and not as prisoners of war. White flag
White flag
White flags have had different meanings throughout history and depending on the locale.-Flag of temporary truce in order to parley :...

s were to be ignored. Churchill's order also stated that survivors from U-boats may be shot if this was more convenient than taking them prisoner. If a captain was to surrender his ship he would be prosecuted by the British. The Germans were aware of these orders, having found a copy of them when they captured in October 1915. For this second action, Fryatt was awarded a gold watch by the Admiralty
Admiralty
The Admiralty was formerly the authority in the Kingdom of England, and later in the United Kingdom, responsible for the command of the Royal Navy...

. The watch was inscribed Presented by the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty to Chas. Algernon Fryatt Master of the S.S. 'Brussels' in recognition of the example set by that vessel when attacked by a German submarine on March 28th, 1915. Fryatt was presented with a certificate on vellum
Vellum
Vellum is mammal skin prepared for writing or printing on, to produce single pages, scrolls, codices or books. It is generally smooth and durable, although there are great variations depending on preparation, the quality of the skin and the type of animal used...

 by the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty. He was also praised in the House of Commons.

Capture

On 25 June 1916, Brussels left Hoek van Holland
Hoek van Holland
The Hook of Holland , also known in English as the Hook, is a town in South Holland in the Netherlands. It is situated on the North Sea coast, on the north bank of the Nieuwe Waterweg ship canal. The town is administered by the municipality of Rotterdam as a district of that city...

 bound for Harwich. Lights were shown from the beach and a flare was fired. A passenger is reported to have remained on deck and signalled to shore. Five German destroyers surrounded Brussels. The passengers were told to prepare to take to the lifeboats
Lifeboat (shipboard)
A lifeboat is a small, rigid or inflatable watercraft carried for emergency evacuation in the event of a disaster aboard ship. In the military, a lifeboat may be referred to as a whaleboat, dinghy, or gig. The ship's tenders of cruise ships often double as lifeboats. Recreational sailors sometimes...

 and orders were given for official papers to be destroyed, which was done successfully. Brussels was taken by the Germans, and the radio was destroyed. Firstly, she was escorted into Zeebrugge
Zeebrugge
Zeebrugge is a village on the coast of Belgium and a subdivision of Bruges, for which it is the modern port. Zeebrugge serves as both the international port of Bruges-Zeebrugge and a seafront resort with hotels, cafés, a marina and a beach.-Location:...

 and then to Bruges
Bruges
Bruges is the capital and largest city of the province of West Flanders in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is located in the northwest of the country....

.

Court Martial

Fryatt and his crew were interned at Ruhleben. On 16 July, it was reported in De Telegraaf
De Telegraaf
De Telegraaf is the largest Dutch daily morning newspaper, with a daily circulation of approximately . De Telegraaf is based in Amsterdam...

that Fryatt had been charged with sinking a German submarine. The Germans knew that U-33 had not been sunk. At the time of the trial she was on active service as part of the Constantinople Flotilla
Constantinople Flotilla
The Constantinople flotilla was an Imperial German Navy formation set up to prosecute the U-boat campaign against Allied shipping in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea in support of Germany’s ally, the Ottoman Empire...

. The basis for the charge was the inscriptions on his watches. Fryatt was tried at a Court Martial on 27 July. The Court Martial was held at Bruges Town Hall. He was found guilty of being a franc-tireur and sentenced to death. The sentence was confirmed by the Kaiser. At 19:00, Fryatt was executed by firing squad. He was buried in a small cemetery just outside Bruges which the Germans used for burying Belgian "traitors". The grave was later visited by diplomat Sir Walter Townley and his wife. Townley was the British Ambassador
Ambassador
An ambassador is the highest ranking diplomat who represents a nation and is usually accredited to a foreign sovereign or government, or to an international organization....

 to the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

 from 1917 to 1919.

An execution notice was published in Dutch, French and German announcing the death of Fryatt. It was signed by Admiral Ludwig von Schröder. A translation of the execution notice reads as follows:

German post-war confirmation of Court Martial

A German International Law Commission named after its chairman Walther Schücking
Walther Schücking
Walther Adrian Schücking was a German liberal politician, professor of public international law and the first German judge at the Permanent Court of International Justice in The Hague....

 "Schücking Commission" confirmed the sentence on 2 April 1919:
The Commission was heavily criticised in Germany for the second sentence. The Commission's members Eduard Bernstein
Eduard Bernstein
Eduard Bernstein was a German social democratic theoretician and politician, a member of the SPD, and the founder of evolutionary socialism and revisionism.- Life :...

 and Oskar Cohn dissented: In their opinion it was a severe infringement of international law.

Reaction

On 31 July 1916, British Prime Minister
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the Head of Her Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom. The Prime Minister and Cabinet are collectively accountable for their policies and actions to the Sovereign, to Parliament, to their political party and...

 H. H. Asquith
H. H. Asquith
Herbert Henry Asquith, 1st Earl of Oxford and Asquith, KG, PC, KC served as the Liberal Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1908 to 1916...

 issued a statement in the House of Commons.
Lord Claud Hamilton, MP
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

, Chairman of the Great Eastern Railway, denounced the execution as "sheer, brutal murder". The Mayor of Harwich opened a fund to erect a permanent memorial to Fryatt. A similar fund was opened in the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

.

In the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...

denounced the execution as "a deliberate murder". The New York Herald
New York Herald
The New York Herald was a large distribution newspaper based in New York City that existed between May 6, 1835, and 1924.-History:The first issue of the paper was published by James Gordon Bennett, Sr., on May 6, 1835. By 1845 it was the most popular and profitable daily newspaper in the UnitedStates...

called it "The crowning German atrocity". In the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

, the Nieuwe Rotterdamsche Courant
Nieuwe Rotterdamsche Courant
The Nieuwe Rotterdamsche Courant was an influential Rotterdam-based liberal daily newspaper, founded in 1844 by Henricus Nijgh.It merged in 1970 with the Amsterdam-based liberal daily newspaper Algemeen Handelsblad to form the NRC Handelsblad....

described the execution as "arbitrary and unjust", while the Handelsblad Holland called it "A cowardly murder inspired by hatred and revenge". In Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

, the Journal de Genève said "It is monstrous to maintain that armed forces have a right to murder civilians but that civilians are guilty of a crime in defending themselves". The Dutch branch of the League of Neutral States presented the Great Eastern Railway a memorial tablet which was erected at Liverpool Street station. The memorial was unveiled on 27 July 1917, exactly a year after Fryatt's execution. The scrap value of Brussels was donated towards the cost.

The Great Eastern Railway awarded Fryatt's widow a pension of £250 per annum. The Government granted her an extra £100 per annum pension on top of her entitlement. Fryatt's insurers, the Provident Clerk's Association, paid the £300 that Mrs Fryatt was entitled to immediately, dispensing with the usual formalities. The Royal Merchant Seaman's Orphanage offered to educate two of Fryatt's seven children. The King
George V of the United Kingdom
George V was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 through the First World War until his death in 1936....

 expressed his indignation and abhorrence at the execution of Fryatt in a letter to Mrs Fryatt. In the letter, he also wrote "The action of Captain Fryatt in defending his ship against the attack of an enemy submarine was a noble instance of the resource and self-reliance so characteristic of his profession."

Funeral

In 1919, Fryatt's body was exhumed and returned to the United Kingdom for burial. His coffin was landed at Dover
Dover
Dover is a town and major ferry port in the home county of Kent, in South East England. It faces France across the narrowest part of the English Channel, and lies south-east of Canterbury; east of Kent's administrative capital Maidstone; and north-east along the coastline from Dungeness and Hastings...

, and transported in South Eastern and Chatham Railway
South Eastern and Chatham Railway
The South Eastern and Chatham Railway Companies Joint Management Committee , known by its shorter name of the South Eastern and Chatham Railway was a working union of two neighbouring rival railways, the South Eastern Railway and London, Chatham and Dover Railway , that operated services between...

 PMV No.132
Cavell Van
The Cavell Van is the prototype Parcels and Miscellaneous Van built by the South Eastern and Chatham Railway in 1919. It is so named because it was the van which carried the body of Edith Cavell when it was repatriated to the United Kingdom following the end of the First World War...

 to London. On 8 July, his funeral was held at St Paul's Cathedral
St Paul's Cathedral
St Paul's Cathedral, London, is a Church of England cathedral and seat of the Bishop of London. Its dedication to Paul the Apostle dates back to the original church on this site, founded in AD 604. St Paul's sits at the top of Ludgate Hill, the highest point in the City of London, and is the mother...

. Hundreds of merchant seamen and widows of merchant seamen and fishermen attended. Representing the Government were many members of the Admiralty
Admiralty
The Admiralty was formerly the authority in the Kingdom of England, and later in the United Kingdom, responsible for the command of the Royal Navy...

, the Board of Trade
Board of Trade
The Board of Trade is a committee of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom, originating as a committee of inquiry in the 17th century and evolving gradually into a government department with a diverse range of functions...

, the Cabinet and the War Office
War Office
The War Office was a department of the British Government, responsible for the administration of the British Army between the 17th century and 1964, when its functions were transferred to the Ministry of Defence...

.

The band of the Great Eastern Railway, augmented by drummers from the Royal Marines
Royal Marines
The Corps of Her Majesty's Royal Marines, commonly just referred to as the Royal Marines , are the marine corps and amphibious infantry of the United Kingdom and, along with the Royal Navy and Royal Fleet Auxiliary, form the Naval Service...

 played the Dead March
Saul (Handel)
Saul is an oratorio in three acts written by George Frideric Handel with a libretto by Charles Jennens. Taken from the 1st Book of Samuel, the story of Saul focuses on the first king of Israel’s relationship with his eventual successor, David; one which turns from admiration to envy and hatred,...

. Eternal Father, Strong to Save
Eternal Father, Strong to Save
"Eternal Father, Strong to Save" is a hymn often associated with the Royal Navy or the United States Navy and United States Marine Corps. Accordingly, it is often known as the Royal Navy Hymn or the United States Navy Hymn , and sometimes by the last line of its first verse, "For Those in Peril on...

and Abide with Me
Abide With Me
The hymn tune most often used with this hymn is "Eventide" composed by William Henry Monk in 1861.Alternate tunes include:* "Abide with Me," Henry Lyte, 1847* "Morecambe", Frederick C...

were sung, and a blessing given by the Bishop of London
Arthur Winnington-Ingram
Arthur Foley Winnington-Ingram KCVO PC was Bishop of London from 1901 to 1939.-Early life and career:He was born in Worcestershire, the fourth son of the Revd Edward Winnington-Ingram and of Louisa...

. The route of the coffin to Liverpool Street station
Liverpool Street station
Liverpool Street railway station, also known as London Liverpool Street or simply Liverpool Street, is both a central London railway terminus and a connected London Underground station in the north-eastern corner of the City of London, England...

 was lined with people. Fryatt was buried at All Saint's Church, Upper Dovercourt
Dovercourt
For the neighbourhood in Toronto see Dovercourt-Wallace Emerson-JunctionDovercourt is a small seaside town in Essex, England. It is older than its smaller but better-known neighbour, the port of Harwich, and appears in the Domesday Book of 1086...

. His coffin was carried from the station to the church on a gun carriage. His widow was presented with the insignia of the Belgian Order of Leopold which had been posthumously awarded to Fryatt. Fryatt was posthumously awarded the Belgian Maritime War Cross.

Namesakes

A wing at Dovercourt
Dovercourt
For the neighbourhood in Toronto see Dovercourt-Wallace Emerson-JunctionDovercourt is a small seaside town in Essex, England. It is older than its smaller but better-known neighbour, the port of Harwich, and appears in the Domesday Book of 1086...

 Cottage Hospital - which is now known as the Captain Fryatt Memorial Hospital. - was named in Fryatt's honour. A public house
Public house
A public house, informally known as a pub, is a drinking establishment fundamental to the culture of Britain, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. There are approximately 53,500 public houses in the United Kingdom. This number has been declining every year, so that nearly half of the smaller...

 in nearby Parkeston is also named in Captain Fryatt's honour.

In Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

, the 11027 feet (3,361 m) high Mount Fryatt
Mount Fryatt
Mount Fryatt is Alberta's 26th highest peak. It was named in 1920, after Captain Charles Fryatt, a British merchant seaman who was executed by the Germans during World War I. It lies within peaks that are between the Athabasca and Whirlpool Rivers in Jasper National Park....

 (52°33′00"N 117°54′35"W) was named in 1921 in honour of Captain Fryatt. The 10317 feet (3,144.6 m) high Brussels Peak (51°31′00"N 117°49′20"W) was named in honour of his ship.

External links

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