GERMAN AGGRESSION.

Evening Star, Issue 13091, 26 October 1908, Page 6

GERMAN AGGRESSION.

TRUE STORY OF THE CAPTURED TRAWLER. Great indignation was caused at Grimsby by the publication in the British newspapers of an extract from the German ‘ Lokalanzeiger ’ with regard to the arrest of the steam trawler Taurus. The journal denies that the Germans unwarrantably confiscated all the trawler’s movable fittings, and adds that while the captain of the trawler was detained in custody, he was almost immediately set at liberty

again. A Grimsby correspondent has been informed of the actual facts. When the Taurus was arrested by the German gunboat she was taken captive to Cuxhaven. There tlie Germans swarmed on board, and stripped the vessel clear of all movable fittings. Such a clean sweep has never before been known in the history of the British fisheries. The gear from each side of tiie ship was taken. All her spare nets and warps and fittings below were dragged on dock and impounded. The side lockers were stripped, while handspikes, trawl boards, lights, anchors, and similar trifles were carted to the quay. The deck hose was commandeered, and it was only when the chief engineer pointed out that there had already been two fires in the bunkere, and that in the event of a third the ship must perish unless hose were left to fight the flames, that it was restored. Then the running gear on the masts attracted the Germans. They were removing that, until the mate protested, but the crowning piece of effrontery was when with chisels and hammers the Germans commenced to chip away the cleats and fair leads which are bolted on to the ship’s casings and bulwarks. How such fittings became fishing gear the Cuxhaven authorities alone can explain. So far as the detention and almost immediate release of the skipper are concerned, the facts are that both skipper and mate were arrested. The latter was in custody for twenty-four hours before the Germans realised that they had no case against him. Then he w'as ungraciously bidden to depart. The skipper waa in gaol for forty hours, until the ViceConsul procured his release by depositing 400 marks. The suggestion that in the case of the Taurus the Cuxhaven authorities exceeded’ their powers is supported by the procedure followed in the recent cases of the Margate and Zenna. After confiscating the side gear and catch, these vessels have been released. No .other fittings were touched. The British Foreign Office is going to take the matter up. Meanwhile the owners of the Taurus arc pressing the German authorities for the return of the confiscated fittings.