The Goldfield news and weekly tribune. [volume] (Goldfield, Nev.) 1911-1947, 1919-01-25
STORY OF Yep Liz
TOLD BY CAPTAIN
OF KING STEPHENS

LONDON, Jan. Is. Captain
William Martin of the British
trawler King Stephen who, from
fear of ~treachery, refused to take
off the crew of the disabled Yep
pelin Liz in the North sea in
February, 1916, died IL months
later of a nervous collapse caused
by the mistaken belief that he had
been poisoned. This and other
facts concerning the incident now
are available for the. first time,
and it is possible to tell the story
in detail. 1t is believed here that
the IS Germans composing the
crew of the Liz persisted.
The action of Captain Martin
evoked denunciations of alleged
British inhumanity" in the Ger
man press. which compared the af-
fair to the celebrated BaralOng
case. 1t is claimed here that pub
lie opinion upheld Captain Martin
in his position that if he had TAX
en- the Germans on board the
trawler they would have captured
the vessel and unarmed his crew
of 10 men. 1t vii. be recalled that
the Rev. Arthur w. Ingram, bish-
OPP of London, publicly declared,
eve ought to stand by the skip
per. The Germans have killed
chivalry in war time"
Because of his action, Captain
Martin, it is learned, received a
number of letters threatening his
life. About II months after the
North sea incident he became i'll
after smoking a cigarette from a
package SEN him by mail and he
was convinced that the cigarette
contained poison. Analysis of the
tobacco proved that his fears were
unfounded, but he never recover
ed from the shock. The verdict of
his physician was that he had died
from sheer fright.
The Lie had taken part in a
raid over the midland counties of
England in which 81 nOn-combat-
ants were killed and III injured.
The Zeppelin was damaged by
gunfire and compelled to descend
to the North sea. where Captain
Martin of the King Stephen found
her resting in the water. Accord
ing to Captain Martins story the
Zeppelin's commander offered "a
reward if he would take off the
German crew., but Martin refused,
saying, 81 don't trust you"
II had talked it over with
George Denny, my mate" Captain
Martin is quoted as saying, land
we agreed that if we lowered a
boat and SEN 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 in 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. l was de-
termined to take no risks. knew
what the Germans had done to my
class in the North sea, and, be-
sides, Zeppelin crews dropping
bombs on houses and killing women
and children didn't appeal to me.
There were Is German men and
only 10 of us, and you could
scarcely imagine their allowing us
to take them as prisoners. They
were two to one.
$50 / told the commander plain
Iy that nothing he could say would
induce me to rescue them. 1t was
not a nice feeling to leave Is men
to drown, v if they were your
enemies. When the commander
saw we were leaving and that
there was no chance of being res
cued he and the others set up a
howl. Their rage was awful.
Shaking their fists in despair, they