used in Nazi-era, anti-British propaganda. King Stephen never again sailed as a fishing vessel. After her return, she was taken over by the Royal Navy for use as a Q-ship, under the command of Lieutenant Tom Phillips. She was sunk 12 weeks later on 25 April 1916. An official German communiqué, reported by The New York Times, stated she had been sunk by one of the German vessels taking part in the bombardment of Yarmouth and Lowestoft. King Stephen, now fitted with a 3 pounder Hotchkiss gun, had fired on and pursued a surfaced U-boat, but then inadvertently steamed directly into the path of the returning German fleet. She was sunk by the torpedo boat and her crew taken prisoner. King Stephens name was notorious to the Germans, and Lt. Phillips was charged with war crimes upon reaching Germany. However, the charges were dropped and he and his crew were treated as normal prisoners-of-war after a photograph of William Martin was published in a British newspaper and the Germans realized they held another man. William Martin himself died of heart failure in Grimsby on 24 February 1917, slightly over a year after encountering the L 19. He had received a large numbers of letters, including both letters of support and, reportedly, hate mail and death threats. In July 1939, an unexploded munition—described by a press report as an aerial torpedo—was discovered near Kidderminster during renovation work on a bridge. At the time, it was believed to have been dropped by the L 19. Relics One of the L 19 crew's bottles, together with its messages, are surviving relics of the incident; they were displayed as part of an exhibition at the National Maritime Museum in London in 2001. The Aeronauticum, the German naval aviation museum in Nordholz, displays one of the King Stephens lifebelts, as well as her Red Ensign flag, taken from the vessel before she was sunk. Both the National Maritime Museum and the National Air and Space Museum in the United States own rare examples of Karl Goetz's medal. Specifications Notes References Citations Works cited Chant, Cristopher (2000). The Zeppelin: A History of German Airships from 1900 to 1937 London: Amber Books. Chamberlain, Geoffrey (1984).Airships: Cardington. A History of Cardington Airship Station and its Role in World Airship Development, Lavenham, Suffolk: Terence Dalton. Lehmann, Ernst A.; Mingos, Howard. The Zeppelins. The Development of the Airship, with the