First World War (1914-1918)
The U-Boat Menace

The emergence of the submarine was a major development in naval warfare. German submarine - or U-Boat - attacks against Allied shipping in the Atlantic and in European waters posed a major threat to the Allied war effort.

Life Ring, SS Brussels

This life ring is from the SS Brussels, a British ferry captured by German destroyers in June 1916.

In March 1915, when the German submarine U-33 attempted to capture the Brussels, Captain Charles Fryatt turned his ship and tried to ram the submarine. U-33 dived to avoid a collision and the Brussels escaped. Fryatt had followed British Admiralty instructions that ships' masters should resist surrendering their vessels. The German navy saw Fryatt as a civilian attempting to attack a vessel of war and, after his capture in 1916, tried and executed him as an unlawful combatant.

Life Ring, British
CWM 19390002-677