Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1919-01-18
FRIGHT KILLED MARTIN,
THOUGETlT WAS { OLSON
British Captain Who Refused to
Rescue Zeppelin Grew Was
Much Viliiied.

London. Jan 1S-Captain William
Martin, of the british trawler King
stephen who, from fear OF treachery, re-
fused to take of tho crew of the disabled
Zeppchn l-l9 in the North Sen IN February
1916. died / months later of nervous
collapse caused hy the mistaken belief
that he had heen poisoned. his and other
facts concerning the incident now arc
available for the first time and II is possible
to tell the story in detail 1t is believed
here that the Is Germans composing the
crew of the I.-l9 perished
The action Of Captain Martin evoked
dCnunciaiions Of alleged british in
humanity in the German press which
compared tho affair 10 the celebrated
Raralong case II is claimed here that
public opinion upheld Captain Martin IN
his position that If he had taken the
Germans on hoard the trawier they would
have captured the vessel and unarmcd his
crew Of ten mon 1t will he recalled that
the Rev Arthur W Ingram, Bishop of
London. publicly declared, ''we ought 10
stand ny a skipper The Germans have
killed chvalry in wartime
Because Of his act ion, Captain Martin.
il is learned received a number at letters
threatening his life About II months
after The North Sea incident, he became
III after smoking 3 cigarette from pack
age sent him hy mail and he was convinced
| that the cigarette contained poison
| ANALYSIS Of the tobacco proved that his
! fears were unfounded but he never re-
| covered from the shock The verdict o.
| his physician was that he had died from
sheer fright
The Lie had taken part in raid over
| the midland countries Of England III
which G- non-comhatantS were killed
and III injured. Tho Zeppelin was
damaged hv glmfire and compelled t.
descend TO the North Sea where Captain
Martin Of the King stephen found heI
resting in the water According to
Captain Martins story the Zeppelin 5
commander offered me a reward if he
would take of the German crew but
Martin refused saving, i don trust you.
II had talked II over with George
Denny, my mate Captain Martin Is
quoted as saving. and We agreed that il
We lowered boat and sent some of the
crew to the Zeppelin they would be kept
as prisoners until We did aS the Germans
wished which would probably be that III
the end we should have them take charge
Of the ship If they came on board, or If We
refused to fetch them off they would
carry the crew Of our boat down with them.
was determined to take no risks. | knew
what the Germans had done to my class
in the North Sea and, besides Zeppelin
crews dropping bombs on houses and
killing women and children didn't appeal
10 me. There were is Germans and only
ten of us and you could scarcely imagine
their allowing us to take them as prisoners
/ There were two To one
80 | told the commander plainly that
nothing he could say would induce me to
rescue them IT was not nice feeling to
leave Is men to drown even II they were
your enemies When the commander saw
we were leaving and that there was nc
chance Of being rescued, he and the Others
set up q howl. Their rage was awful
Shaking their fists in despair, they kept
shouting ont 'Cott, strafe England
And they kept shouting this again anc
again as long as we were within hearing
The weather had been steadily growinl
worse and as no other vessel was in sight
! knew the Germans were doomed hu
felt that had done the right thing unde
the circumstances.