St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1919-01-22
REFUSED
TO RESCUE
GERMAN CREW
British Captain Died Think
ing He Lad Been
Poisoned
TOLD THE GERMAN
81 DON'T TRUST YOU
Was Upheld in His Action By
His CCuntrymen

Of The Associated Presa)-Capt;tii
William Martin, CT the British traN'-
lcr, King Stephen, who, from fear o.
,roacholy, refused to take of tlt
crew Of sh2 disabled Zeppelin Liz i.
Tie North Sea il February 1916, de"
ii months later CT Il nervous collaps,
caused by the mistaken belief that Il,
had bcen poisoned. 1'his and o.hc,
'acts conccI iinG the incident now 81
available for the first time and it
POSSIBLE to tell the story i'll detail. /
Is believed here that the is German
composing the crew of the Lilo pei
ishcd.
The action Of Captain Martin evol;
ed donuncations Of alleged "Britisl'
inllumanity" in the German pre-
which compared the affair to the ccl
chratcd Baralong case. 1t is clailnc(
here that pubic opinion upheld CaE
tain Martin in Ri; position that if Il
! had taken tie Germans on beard tn
t'awlcr they would have captured IT,
vessel end unarmcd his crew Of to-
men. It will he recalled that tn
Pew. Arthur ". IngrNNn. Bishop O
London, publicly declared, tive ougll
to stand by skipper: The German
have killed chivalry in war time"
Because Of his action, Captain Mar
lin, it is lc2lncd, received a numAcl
Of letters threatening us life. AboG
II months after tie N3rth Sea inc.
Icnt, lie became i'll aftr smoking {;
cigarette from u pNe!:a%c sent him By
mail AID he vas convinced that tn.
cigarette contained poison. AEaly3
o. the tob.lcco proved that his fear
were unfoundcd but he never rccov.
cred from the shock. The verdict o.
his physician was that he had dis
! from sheer fright.
/ The LIZ had taken part in q raiG
over thc midland counties of England
in which g. non-combatants wclt
killed and III injured. The ZcppeltF
vas damaged by G;Infre and compel
g, to descend to the North Sea wher,
Captain Martin Of the King Stephel
found her resting in the water &c.
co.H!ing to Captain Martins story tn,
ZcpDelin's commander offered me &
reward if he would take off the Ger
man crew hut Martin refused saying
- don't trust you"
/ II had talked it over with Georg,
Denny, my mate" Captain Martin
quoted as saying, "and we agreed
that if we lowered a 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 in the end VIZ
should have them take charge of tho
ship If they came on board, or if W.
refused to fetch them off they woul,
carry the crew of our boat down witt
them. was determined to take nc
risks. knew what the Germans hat
done to my class in the North Sea
and, besides, Zeppelin crews dropping
bombs on houses and killing womc,
and children didn't appeal to me
There were IS Germans and only ter
Of US and you could scarcely imagine
their allowing us to take them a
prisoners. There were two to one.
$50 told the commander plain1,
that nothing he could say would in
ducc me to rescue them. 1t was no
a nice feeling to leave 10 men t.
drown even II they were your enc
mics. Whcr the commander saw W,
were lcavin'y ard that there was n,
chance of hcine rescued, he and tn.
others set up q howl. Their rage wa
awful. Shaking their fists in despair
they kept shouting out "Gott, straf
: England And they kept shoutin.
this again and again as long as w
; were within bearing. The weathe
bad been steadily growing worse an,
as no other vessel was in sight,
knew tho Germans were doomed, bu
l felt that had done the right thin,
under the circumstances"