The Cordova daily times., 1919-01-24
CREWDROWNED ASTREACHERY
 WAS FEARED

l treaChery. refused to take of the crew of the disabled Zeppelin L-1S in the North sea in February, 1916 died eleven months later of nervous collapse. caused by the mistaken be- lief that he had been poisoned. This and other facts concerning the incl. dent now are available for the first time, and 1t is possible to tell the story in detail It is believed here that the eighteen Germans composing the crew of the L-19 perished.
 The action of Captain Martin evoked denunciations of alleged Brit ish inhumanity" in the German press, which compared the affair to the Cele- brated Baralong case. IL is claimed here that public opinion upheld Capt. Martin in his position that if he had taken the Germans on board the trawler they would have captured the vessel and unarmed crew of ten men. It will be recalled that the Rev. Ar N'iuI " iiito hIii bISIbp pl bDlltDIl, publicly declared that we ought to stand by skipper. The Germans have killed chivalry in wartime"
 Because of his action Captain Mar tin, it is learned, received a number of letters threatening his life. About eleven 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 Analy- sis of the tobacco proved that his fears were unfounded. but he never recovered from the shock The yer dict of his physician was that he had died from sheer fright
 Tn" L-l9 had taken part in raid over the midland counties of England. in which sixty.scvcn noncombatants were killed and IF injured The Zep- pelin was damaged by gunfire and was compelled to descend to the North sea. where Captain Martin of the King stephen found her resting in the water. According to Captain Martins story, the Ieppelin's com mander offered him a reward if he would take off the German crew, but Martin refused, saying T don't trust you
 "l had talked it over with George Denny, my mate" Captain Martin is 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 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 be. sides, Zeppelin crews dropping bombs on houses and killing women and chil- dren didn't appeal to me There were eighteen Germans and only ten of us, and you could scarcely imagine their allowing us to take them as pris. oners. There were two to one.
 50 told the commander plainly that nothing he could say would in. duce me to rescue them. It was not a nice feeling to leave eighteen men to drown. even if they were your enc. mics. When the commander saw we were to leave and that there was no chance Of being rescued, he and the others set up howl Their rage was awful. Shaking their fists in de. spair, they kept shouting out 'Gott strafe England And they kept shout ing this again and again as long as we were within hearing. The weather had been steadily growing worse and as no other vessel was in sight, knew the Germans were doomed, but felt that l had done the right thing under the circumstances"