The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1916-04-29
Alleged Disciple of Schiller
Was Soon Put in
Irons
BUT HE HAD PUT
CREW IN TERROR
Skipper Thought That Bomb
Threat Could Not Be
Overlooked

New York, April 29.-Double locked II
spuryen, tied to pier at Stapleton
Staten island, is Fritz Steiner, one o.
the members of the crew, who, according
to the officers, threatened to blow up the
ship in the name of the German kaiser.
Outside the stateroom door are sta
toned several armed sailors who are
hoping against hope that Steiner is a
practical joker and not an emulator OF
! Schiller, the lone pirate of the British
ship Matoppo, who captured that vessel
off Sandy Hook,
The bark Snespurven, which halls from
Bergen, is loaded to the gunwales with
cargo of petroleum destined for an
English port. She was about to hoist
her canvas yesterday morning when Capt.
Eskil Blomgvist made the startling dis
covery that all the members of his mari
! time family were not good and loyal
| Scandinavians. According to the cap
tain's own story he made the discovery
in the following fashion: Steiner goose
stepped down the deck to where he and
| his brother officers were gathered and
announced dramatically:
"This ship will never reach England
with its cargo of petroleum--not if
have to blow it up myself or set fire to
it,"
From the tone of Steiner's ultimatum
the captain and his fellow officers began
to suspect that Steiner was a German.
1t didn't take them over a minute to ar
rive at this astute conclusion and then
they re-examined Steiner's passports and
found that they were Swiss, but then,
of course, passports are not an invariable
proof Of nationality in these troublous
days.
While Steiner was still pledging his
support to Germany a group of sailors
under direction of Capt. Blomqvist exc
cuted a rear movement on him and, hav-
ing trussed him hand and foot, put him
in the cabin. Every now and then one
OF the flat footed guard sticks his head
cautiously in the door to see that Stein
er has not slipped his bonds and extract
ed a bomb from his trousers pockets.
Another squad of sailors made thor
ough examination of the ship to see that
Steiner hadn't been careless in leaving
his bombs around.
In the meantime Capt. Blomqvist, in
full uniform and carrying with him his |
black leather folio case containing all the |
necessary papers, paid a flying visit to
the Office of the Norwegian consul in
Manhattan and told the latter about the |
prisoner on the bark German bomb |
suspects are not popular these days in |
spite of the tremendous amount of pub |
licity they are receiving, and repre-
sentative of the consul was quite GER
tain that he didn't want Steiner around, |
but suggested that the federal authori- |
ties might agree to take care Of him.
Accordingly the perturbed captain and
the representative of the consul hurried |
to Asst. Z. s. Atty. Roger B. Wood, who
has been furnishing quarters for mum.
Der of German bomb men recently.
After hearing the full story, Mr.. Wood
decided that the case didn't come fully /
within his jurisdiction and sent for Capt.
Tunney, head of the police bomb squad.
"You see" said Mr.. Wood, "if the
things you tell me are so, Steiner must
have turned pirate before he sailed or
before the ship got on the high seas"
The deep furrow between Capt. Blom-
visits blue eyes smoothed out and he
ieaved a sigh of relief when Capt. Tun-
ley jumped to a telephone and sent out ,
IN 5. o. S. call for police boat.
III