The Nenana daily news., 1919-02-12
FRIGHT CAUSES
 CAPTAINS DEATH;
 LEI HUNS PERISH

Captain William Martin, of the British trawler King Stephen who, from fear of treachery, refused to take off the crew of the disabled Zeppelin L-19 in the North Sea in February 1916, died II months later of 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 de- tail. It is believed here that the Is Germans composing the crew of the L-19 perished.
 The action of Captain Martin evoked denunciations of alleged British inhumanity" in the German press, which compared the affair to the celebrated Baralong case. It is claimed here that public opinion upheld Captain Martin in his posi- tion that if he had taken the Ger mans on board the trawler they would have captured the vessel and unarmed his crew of ten men. It will be recalled that the Rev. Ar thur w. Ingram, bishop of London, publicly declared, i've ought to stand by skipper. The Germans have killed chivalry in wartime
 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 cigarette from a package sent 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 recovered from the shock The verdict of his physician was that he had died of sheer fright.
 The L-19 had taken part in a raid over the midland counties of England in which 67 non-combat- ants were killed and IF injured. The Zeppelin was damaged by gun fire and compelled to descend to the North Sea, where Captain Mar tin, of the King Stephen found her resting in the water. According to Captain Martins story, the Zep- pelin's commander offered him a reward if he would take off the German crew, but Martin refused saying. q don't trust you"
 q 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 sent some of the crew to the Zeppelin they would be kept 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. I was determined to take nc 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 to 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. - "So I 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 if they were your enemies. When the commander saw we were leaving and that there was no chance of being rescued, he and the others set up howl. Their rage was awful. Shaking their fists in despair, they kept shouting out 'Gott, strafe England And they kept shouting this again and again as long as we were within hearing. The weather had been steadily grow ing worse and as no other vessel
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