| Captain Charles Fryatt | ||
 It
is 90 years since the Southampton sailor was captured and executed by the
Germans for his daring exploits during WWI. And his biography has been
written by author Michael White.T hough not a Hampshire man and many people
will never of heard of him, the memory of Captain Charles Fryatt is still
regarded as a hero in Belgium. Charles Fryatt was the master of the British
merchant ship, Brussels and was en route from Rotterdam to Southampton in
1916 when he was stopped by a German torpedo boat and subsequently
interned in Zeebrugge, Belgium. He was arrested when the enemy discovered
that he had received a decoration from the British Admiralty for showing
courage while trying to sink a U-boat the year before.His ship had regularly plied to Rotterdam from the UK since the outbreak of war and he was regarded as a thorn in the side of the German Navy. The Germans tried twice in March 1915 to sink his ship without success and during the first attack he evaded a U-boat and sailed back to England to a hero's welcome and the ships owners rewarded him with a gold watch. A further attempt to sink him was made on 28 March but again the U-boat was spotted while surfacing and trying to line a torpedo shot on the ship. Capt Fryatt immediately spun the helm over and bore down on the submarine forcing it to crash dive out of the way. It never reappeared and Capt Fryatt was awarded another gold watch, this time from the Admiralty. For another 15 months he continued on his route until a flotilla of German E-Boats trapped him and took him prisoner. A court martial was held in Bruges and some records show that he was convicted even before the trial took place and then condemned to death. He was executed that same evening and was buried in a small churchyard on the outskirts of Bruges where the Germans buried Belgian 'traitors'. Capt Fryatt was in the employ of the Great Eastern Railway at the time. Source: The Great War Volume 7 Published by the Amalgamated Press Ltd London in 1916
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