The Execution of Charles Fryatt

a Lambeth Road and the part of London called Southwark under the stately dome that used to be the chapel for the Bethlem Royal Hospital is the Imperial War Museum London founded in 1917 while the Great War was still raging the museum's founder Sir Alfred Mann said that it was hoped that the collection would be so complete that everyone who took part in the war no matter how obscurely would find therein some example of the sacrifice that he or she made the museum opened in the Crystal Palace 1920 moved to its current location in 1936 and it has a huge and varied collection it's a wonderful museum it's well worth your time if you're in London and in that collection is a gold watch that bears an inscription and has an extraordinary story the name Charles Frey it was well recognized a hundred years ago but nearly forgotten today and the story of this one of the millions of victims of the Great War leads to 30 questions of international law of what is a combatant and how the war affects civilians and how you define a pirate because not all great stories involve pirates the execution of what was described as a very gentle and inoffensive man is history that deserves to be remembered by 1915 the illusion that the war would be over quickly had faded the Great War was far bloodier than planners had imagined more than 1/2 million soldiers died in the Battle of the frontiers on the Western Front in August 1914 the stunning reality of the war changed the approach for planners on both sides as they recognized that broader measures would be required to force the enemy to capitulate the war moved to the sea with both allies and central powers seeking to starve the other into submission the British would sell largest fleet on earth imposed an extraordinarily harsh blockade in November 1914 they declared the entire North Sea to be a war zone and even declared it merely transporting food to be contraband of war Britain could import such a blockade had been a naval arms race since the beginning of the century but one which Germany had been unable to keep up at the outset of the war the British Grand Fleet outnumbered the German high seas fleet by some 60% the high seas fleet would be corralled for most of the war the grand fleet was free to enforce a naval blockade the Germans realized their only chance of blockading Britain was by the use of u-boats but the u-boat war held a political risk so-called unrestricted submarine warfare antagonized neutral powers notably the United States that Germany hoped to keep out of the war over the course of the first world war the German u-boats sank almost 5,000 ships representing some 13 million gross registered tonnes losing along the way 178 boats in almost 5,000 crew it is staggering to look at the numbers represented in the u-boat campaign but the nature of the war can be seen more clearly through the experience of those who faced it one such person was Charles Algernon fry it Charles Frey it was born in 1872 in Southampton and had followed his father into a career in the Merchant Marine in 1892 he joined the service of the Great Eastern Railway Company a British railway company which also operated a number of ferries by 1915 he was a ship's master and a family man with seven children six girls and a boy described as a tall Farish man in his early forties who looked the typical sailor during the Great War France served on Great Eastern ships that operated between the United Kingdom and Rotterdam the roots went through a dangerous part of the sea subject to the risks of the war unlighted coasts mines enemy warships airplanes and of course submarines were constant threats and yet Fred called a level-headed man and a most fearless navigator made 143 passages across those dangerous waters on Great Eastern Railway ships in the first two years of the war a march 2nd 1915 he was the captain of SS Wrexham twelve-year-old passenger ship of about 1,400 gross register tons bound for Rotterdam a German submarine surfaced in ordered Wrexham to stop fry and his crew refused the command and stoked the boilers the Wrexham was built to make a top speed of 13 knots the deckhands assisted the fireman stoking the fires to get every ounce of speed out of the vessel dodging dangerous shoals and floating mines fry it pushed the vessel to 16 knots the u-boat pursued him for forty miles but they made it to Rotterdam when she entered the funnels were said to be burnt and blistered Kru black with coal dust the Consul General at Rotterdam said the friend and his crew were worthy of the highest commendation for their actions the British Admiralty commended the crew the railway presenta Friant with a gold watch the inscription read presented to Captain CA fry it by the chairman of the directors of the GE railway company as a mark of their appreciation of his courage and skilful seamanship a March 2nd 1915 but there was controversy in the action by ignoring the u-boats commands to stop Fred and his crew were in essence encouraging so-called unrestricted submarine warfare that is a policy of submarines to shoot without warning so-called prize rules required submarines to surface and search merchant men and place crews in a place of safety before sinking them a ship under the rules could be targeted or sunk for persistent refusal to stop or active resistance to visitor search but if ships like Wrexham chose to ignore the orders of submarines and try to escape the Germans were encouraged to instead attack without warning preventing the chance of escape the British however noted that the Germans were already attacking without warning by 1915 had sunk nearly two dozen British merchant ships without warning the position was that the captains had little choice but to attempt to save their ship the event aboard Wrexham was not the only time that captain fry it would do exactly that he avoided another German submarine later that month while in command of the 1160 ton SS Colchester a third attack came on March 28th while Frank commanded the 1380 ton ferry SS Brussels the German submarine u 33 type u 31 submarine was sighted for miles distant fry at new this time they could not escape the way he had previously the tie Q 31 was a large submarine that had a surface speed of more than 16 knots and was in the position to make an easy torpedo attack given Brussels course the some brain hoisted two flags ordering him to stop but as fry it later noted he did not like to give up his ship in an astounding act of bravery fright charged the submarine he orders engineers below to get all possible speed order the crew aft in case the submarine fired at them had his crew fire saket rockets used for signalling in the hopes that the submarine might think the ship was armed and steered for the conning tower the submarine was forced to die to avoid being rammed and only just able to do so when fried then saw the periscope to the side he ordered the Brussels to roll over it knowing his only hope of escape was to force the submarine to stay under the Brussels did not apparently actually strike the submarine but by forcing it to dive Frank gave his ship time the submarine chased SS Brussels for another 20 minutes but fry it managed another remarkable escape for this action and fry it along with his first officer and chief engineer were awarded gold watches this time by the Admiralty of the Royal Navy the inscription on France watch read presented by the Lords commissioners of the Admiralty to Charles Algernon fry it master of the SS Brussels in recognition of the example set by that vessel when attacked by German submarine a March 28th 1915 that watch is on display at the Imperial War Museum interestingly the British likened the German u-boats to pirates and fry it who had sunsets killed escaping them was called in the press the Pirates terror the Germans however had a very different attitude about fry its actions the night of June 23rd 1916 fry it was again in command of SS Brussels when on his return trip from Holland bound for Hirsch and carrying refugees the Brussels was captured by German warships this time five type 101 torpedo boats the Imperial Navy's term for destroyers there were reports at the time that a passenger posing and his American was a spy and had signaled the German boats prayut managed to destroy the ships important papers before the ship was taken SS Brussels was taken to the Belgian port a Bruges fry it and his crew were imprisoned the SS Colchester was also captured by German torpedo boats that June interestingly the British took the stand that the two ships being captured was evidence against the legitimacy of submarine warfare the Great Eastern Railway magazine said in November 1916 one knows that when the enemy without warning means attempts upon these vessels from underwater craft he did not succeed but when he adopted means about which we cannot complain he secured two good ships with their cargoes normally merchant crews will be held as prisoners but in July a disturbing notice was published in the Dutch newspaper captain fry it was being tried by court martial as a frank terror frank t'rar french for free shooter was a term for irregular military what today would be called partisans or resistance fighters the paper claimed that captain fry it was being tried for sinking the u-33 Britain sought clarification through the United States which at the time was still neutral and had relations with both Germany and Britain captain fret was indeed being tried under the argument that by attempting to ram the submarine in March 1915 he had marked himself as an irregular combatant Germany claimed that they had found out his role by the engravings on his watch although that was not true as did not take the engraved watches with him and the Germans had likely found out his name from newspaper reports most distressing were he to be convicted Frank jurors were not entitled to protection of normal combatants but were subject the summary execution Frant was convicted in a brief court-martial and executed by firing squad on July 28th the execution tested difficult boundaries of international law complicated by the authority issues created by the methods used to conduct and combat submarine warfare in its decision Germany argued that by making attempt to ram the submarine fry it had acted as an unlawful combatant a statement from the German government the following August explained the German war tribunal sentenced him to death because he had performed an act of war against the German sea forces although he did not belong to the Armed Forces of his country they concluded one of the many Frank terror actions of the English merchant shipping against our war vessels has thus found late but merited expiation the German position was that merchant vessels had attempted to evade or attack their u-boats were attempting to cause harm to crews who risk themselves for the benefit of the merchant crews merchant vessels had a responsibility they argued to take no action when confronted ironically the man the British had called the Pirates terror was called the pirate fry it in the German press the Allies were indignant arguing that merchant crews have the right to defend themselves even if they did attack at the very worse the Allies contended that should be treated as prisoners of war they argued there's no such thing as a frank tourettes knowing that they had taken German submarine crews that array after attack civilian merchant vessels without warning and aeronautical officers with bomb civilians from Zeppelin's and it treated those captured menace prisoners of war the British pointed out the example the SS follow ba which on the same day that fried had tried to ram the u-33 had been stopped by hue boat and told the surrender about stop but was blown up by the u-boat just 10 minutes later before most of the crew could get to lifeboats the execution of Charles Frey had led to anger and condemnation from the Allies and for a while there was talk of retaliation against German u-boat and Zeppelin crews that were held prisoner but in the end no retaliation occurred that might have been partly because of pressure from the United States the United States took the position that Charles Frey its actions were justified and that his execution was illegal they argued that the mere presence of a submarine implied attack and yet the u.s. opposed retaliation President Wilson had convinced the Germans to go back to a policy of prise rules and give up the policy of unrestricted submarine warfare in 1916 and Wilson was afraid that if there was retaliation against those German crews that would move the Germans back to unrestricted submarine warfare turned out to be irrelevant in 1917 the Germans decided that unrestricted submarine warfare was their best chance to win the war they went back to the policy of course after the United States into the war experts on international law agreed that whether the execution of Charles Frey it was legal really depends upon his specific actions if his ship was under threat under international law he had a right to defend his ship but if it was not under threat then he was seeking out the enemy then he did not have the protection of law the position of Frank terrors was really not resolved after the first world war and the Germans used that term Frank terror to justify brutal repression of civilian populations and eras where there was partisan activity during both world wars the position was somewhat defined the Geneva Conventions following the Second World War for the types of partisans that had a regular chain of command that had some sort of uniform or marker that could be seen at a distance that carried their arms openly and that themselves followed the rules of war but really did not clarify the position of merchant mariners like Charles Friant fry it was seen as a hero in the United Kingdom his wife was given a equal to his Merchant Marine pay when his remains were returned in 1919 he was given a hero's funeral his death represented the very real effects that war has on people in civilian service he was just one of the seven million civilians estimated to have died in the Great War I hope you enjoyed this episode of the history guy short snippets of forgotten history between ten and fifteen minutes long and if you did enjoy please go ahead and click that thumbs up button if you have any questions or comments or suggestions for future episodes please write those in the comment section I will be happy to personally respond be sure to follow the history guy on facebook instagram twitter and check out our merchandise on teespring com and if you'd like more episodes don't forgotten history all you need to do is subscribe [Music]

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Views: 417,057

Rating: 4.9630084 out of 5

Keywords: history, the history guy, world war I, merchant marine, charles fryatt, wwi, history guy

Id: 7EjAl8KAsy0

Length: 14min 15sec (855 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 28 2019