This thread ....... works in conjunction with this thread !! http://ww1talk.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=443 Please feel free to jump in anytime if there is something you can add ... I'd be delighted !! Looking for the crew of the Brussels .... ( which were hard to find at that time ) .... the most important piece of the puzzle that I found and started with - was this ....... The Times of July 27th 1926 Gave the outcome of a long investigation into the execution by the Germans of Hartnell's superior officer, Captain Fryatt, concluding that it was indeed murder ("Ten Years Ago", p. 13, col. G). Hartnell and Captain Fryatt had both been captured by the Germans on June 22nd 1916 after an incident concerning their ship, the Brussels, and a German submarine, U33. The Germans accused Fryatt of having tried to ram their submarine, and arrested him and the crew, sending them all to Ruhleben. On June 30th, Hartnell, as first officer along with his captain, was arrested in the camp and taken to Bruges, where both were interned for three weeks. Fryatt was charged on suspicion of having attempted to cause injury to the forces of Germany, and after a court martial, was found guilty and sentenced to death. Fryatt "...was allowed a few minutes walk in the prison yard, and at 5 o' clock Mr. Hartnell was permitted to visit him in his cell. An hour later a Lutheran minister entered and warned him to prepare for death at once. His last thoughts were of his family, of his wife and seven children, and to the chaplain he confided their names.." Fryatt was executed by firing squad, but Hartnell's fate was not recorded
Then when Chris came out with his web site a while ago - THE RUHLEBEN STORY http://ruhleben.tripod.com/index.html .... I found these ! .... first .... Captain Charles Algernon Fryatt Captain Fryatt was the British merchant ship captain of the Great Eastern Railway Harwich mail steamship 'Brussels' who was temporarily interned at Ruhleben in 1915, before being taken to Bruges on trumped up charges of attempting to ram a German submarine. The American Ambassador in Berlin, James W. Gerard, wrote the following about Fryatt's unfortunate situation in 1917, in his book, "My Four Years in Germany": The story was well covered in the Scotsman newspaper - "Deep Indignation in Holland - Compared with the Murder of Miss Cavell" (July 29th 1916, p.7); "The Murder of Captain Fryatt - His Farewell to his Crew" (August 7th 1916, p.3); and "The Fryatt Murder - A Call for Reprisals" (August 7th 1916, p.5). The National Archives in London hold documents from 1916 at FO383/195 concerning the capture of the Brussels on 23 June 1916, the officers and crew whilst interned at Ruhleben, a query as to the whereabouts of five of the ship's stewardesses, a list of the crew, with grades and addresses (in docket no.139424.), as well as on the court martial of Fryatt at Ghent for the ramming of the German submarine on 28 March 1915. The documents note that he was found guilty and shot at Bruges on 27 July 1916, and contain expressions of abhorrence and proposals for a British reaction. ( I then found this .... ) Interned seamen of the SS Brussels, including: Birth certificate of Mr Henry Gilbert (in docket no. 184066). Birth certificate of Mr Frederic Thurlow (in docket no. 1992206); enquiry from Mr W J Hawkins about the possibility of Mr Thurlow's release. Arrangements for the repatriation of five stewardesses from the SS Brussels, including an interview with two of the stewardesses, Miss Bobby and Miss Elwood. Confirmation that the steward, Mr Richard Toven, was in good health. Extracts from Foreign Office Confidential Print on reports of inspection visits by British doctors to various German prisoner of war camps. Confirmation that Mr W Hartnell, the Chief Officer, was in good health. http://yourarchives.nationalarchives.gov.uk/index.php?title=SS_Brussels To continue ...... An enquiry into Fryatt's death was opened in Berlin on April 1st 1919, as reported in The Times of April 3rd 1919 ("The Murder of Captain Fryatt", p.12, col. B). Dr. Rocholt, for the Legal Department, presented a formal account of the case as reported by Lieutenant-Capatin Ganzer, of the submarine U33, who charged Captain Fryatt with endeavouring to ram his vessel a few miles west of the Maas Lightship on March 28, 1916, at 2 p.m. the reporter then related the circumstances of Captain Fryatt's capture later on board the steamer Brussels. He said it was originally intended simply to send him to Ruhleben, but he was retained by order of the Admiralty Staff of the Marine Corps. The sentence of death was confirmed by Admiral von Schroder, the president of the Court-martial. The reporter further noted that Captain Fryatt himself definitely denied any intention of ramming the submarine. He was merely attempting to save his ship. The Times of July 27th 1926 gave the outcome of the long investigation into the execution by the Germans of Fryatt, concluding that it was indeed murder ("Ten Years Ago", p. 13, col. G). The article gives some more detail as to Fryatt's last moments: "He was allowed a few minutes walk in the prison yard, and at 5 o' clock Mr. Hartnell (his first officer) was permitted to visit him in his cell. An hour later a Lutheran minister entered and warned him to prepare for death at once. His last thoughts were of his family, of his wife and seven children, and to the chaplain he confided their names.." The Liddle Collection at Leeds University holds some items relating to Fryatt, at RUH 24, as donated by a Mrs Cooper of Harwich. These are a photocopied press cutting of July 15th 1966, and a publication 'A Short History of the Parish Church of Dovercourt', including a description of the monument erected to the memory of C.A. Fryatt, from May 1977. The online index tells us that Fryatt was captain of the Great Eastern Railway Steamship SS Brussels, captured by four German submarines on 23 June 1916. He was taken to Ruhleben and then to Bruges where he was put on trial for attempting to ram a German submarine. He was illegally executed on July 27th 1916, and his body later brought back for burial at Dovercourt. Then I was excited to see ..... W. H. Hartnell, of London, was named in a list of merchant seamen interned at Ruhleben, as published by the Scotsman newspaper on 7/1/1915 (p.7). He was the chief officer of the SS Brussels. The National Archives in London hold records from 1916 at FO383/201 confirming that he and other crew members, were being held in Ruhleben Camp in Germany.
Then I found this ........ 'The stewardesses released' from The Great Eastern Railway Magazine, November 1916, pp. 273-4 It was indeed a pleasure and a relief to see again the released stewardesses of the s.s. 'Brussels.' Mrs. Elwood, Miss Elwood, Mrs. Stalker, Miss Bobby and Miss Smith have passed through a most trying experience and have done so in a manner of which G.E.R. women can be proud. The Germans who boarded the 'Brussels' wondered at their calmness and asked if they were not afraid of being shot. 'We are Englishwomen' was considered sufficient reply. After the tiring work of providing for the refugees on board the 'Brussels' they were resting, when at 1.30 a.m., June 23rd, they noticed the stopping of the engines and heard noises on deck. Chief Steward Tovill said there was trouble and told them to get their life-jackets on. The ship was the prize of five torpedo boats and the Germans were on board. The captain had been hailed in English. For the sake of the women and children he sent no wireless message: if it had not been for them there is little doubt that the Germans would not have been able to take the ship whole. There was an argument as to whether the ship should be sunk or spared, but she was taken to Zeebrugge, where a huge crowd of sailors and soldiers greeted her, and thence to Bruges, the captors on the way enjoying a most hearty meal. They called for wine but fortunately, think the stewardesses, there was none on board. The stewardesses were kept busy for some five hours serving the Germans and comforting the unfortunate weeping refugees whom they provided, as soon as the alarm came, with abundance of biscuits and bread. Two nights were passed at the Bruges Townhall, the stewardesses being locked in an upper room icily cold: the guard later gave them an opportunity to share the guardroom fire which they were glad to accept. Black bread and liquid, yclept coffee, was served but they could not touch it. Refugees who had white bread from the ship insisted upon giving it to them - the stewardesses had provided themselves with a few biscuits only. They passed the day with the officers and crew in a shed below. They went in a cattle truck to Ghent and there spent a night in a slimy damp cellar, in which were straw mattresses laid in pools. They stood all night. In the early morning, they were made to walk with their baggage about a mile down the railway line and entrained there in a German fourth-class carriage (the Belgians very completely evacuated their rolling stock into France, I believe) to Cologne. The seating of these carriages, in dimensions or design, bears no relation to the human frame. They lived on their biscuits and some weak coffee. One officer found them milk which another appropriated for other purposes. Captain Fryatt assured them it could only mean some days' detention for them and for the men, at the worst, detention during the war. Without opportunity to say farewell they were then separated from the 'Brussels' men and passed on in another fourth-class misfit to Holzminden, where they had to march two miles with their luggage to the camp. There they suffered from bad accommodation, verminous and damp bedding, rations inadequate and uneatable, unpleasant company, and all that lack of liberty means. They were not molested in any way by the Germans they came into contact with: some were German-natured and others human-natured: generally they carried out their duties without annoying their prisoners. They were apt to remind them of the sins of England. An English nurse with them who spoke German would ask for better food, paraffin or other trifles and would be told she must get them from England for England was stopping everything. She replied if England was doing so it must be right and they would do without. The stewardesses wore their blue uniform with brass buttons and Germans took them for fighting women: England's last hope, taken in a great fight for H.M.S. 'Brussels.' Some Finnish sailors deprived themselves of food to aid them and they also received help from a French Committee. Without this early aid and the parcels subsequently received from the Company and the Red Cross they could hardly have endured. At the camp they learnt with great grief of Captain Fryatt's death. They could not communicate with the crew at Ruhleben. Scarcely could they believe their good fortune when released and hurried to the frontier station - their baggage was not examined, a most unusual circumstance. But they passed from Germany in dignity.
http://yourarchives.nationalarchive...orld_War_One_and_World_War_Two,_Merchant_Navy This page is an index of Prisoner of War movement in/out/intra the Ruhleben First World War camp. This held mainly British civilian prisoners including many Merchant Seaman including the crew of the SS Brussels. The orginal documents are in document MT 9/1094. http://yourarchives.nationalarchives.gov.uk/index.php?title=Ruhleben_POW_Camp_Changes_List_6 I was sad to see this ........ FRYATT C A MASTER OAKLAND ROAD DOVERCOURT ESS BRUSSELS ON 109884 EXECUTED Then I was so happy ... I found these .......... HARTNELL W FIRST OFFICER GARLAND ROAD PARKESTON ESS BRUSSELS ON 109884 RELEASED TO HOLLAND 16/5/18 TOVELL R FIRST STEWARD 4 LEE ROAD DOVERCOURT ESS BRUSSELS ON 109884 RELEASED 27/2/18 http://wanborough.ukuhost.co.uk/POW/POW.asp?name=
GILBERT H AB 67 CHURCH STREET HARWICH ESS BRUSSELS ON 109884 RELEASED 27/2/18 THURLOW F FIRST ENGINEER BRUSSELS ON 109884 RELEASED 27/2/18 http://wanborough.ukuhost.co.uk/POW/POW.asp?name=
