The Thrasher incident, as it became known in US media, was a political and diplomatic incident in 1915, when the United States was still neutral in World War I. On 28 March 1915 the German U-boat U-28 sank the British steamship Falaba by torpedo, killing more than 100 people. One of the victims was a passenger from the US, Leon Chester Thrasher.
On 28 January 1915 a German merchant raider captured and scuttled the US sailing ship William P. Frye. On 4 February Germany declared a war zone around the British Isles, in which all ships would be targeted. The Imperial German Navy's 30 submarines then began attacking all ships, whether belligerent or neutral. They had secret orders to spare US ships, but mines in the North Sea sank US steamships on 21 and 22 February. [1] [2]
The United Kingdom responded by tightening its blockade of Germany, including food. [3] The UK Admiralty ordered ships to steer away or to ram any submarine that they encountered, and not to zigzag. [4]
The US government, led by President Woodrow Wilson and Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan, protested to the German government on 10 February. Wilson and Bryan called the German intention "an act so unprecedented in naval warfare" and that the US would hold the Germans to "a strict accountability for such acts of their naval authorities." [5]
Leon Chester Thrasher (sometimes spelled Thresher) was from Massachusetts. He was born in Hardwick in 1884, and trained in Springfield as a machinist and master mechanic. [6] He was described as a "mechanical engineer" [7] or "mining engineer". [8] He had worked for the Panama Canal Railway, and was traveling from London to Sekondi to work for a British firm, the Broomassie Mining Company, in Gold Coast (now Ghana). [9] [10] Thrasher was issued a US passport in June 1911, but it had expired in June 1912. At first this raised a question of whether he had retained his US citizenship. [7]
On 27 March 1915 Elder Dempster Lines' Falaba left Liverpool for West Africa. She had a crew of 95 and 151 passengers. The passengers included 30 British Army officers on their way to prepare for the Kamerun campaign, 70 Colonial Service officers, [11] and Leon Thrasher. [12] [13] Her cargo included 13 tons of cartridges and gunpowder. According to the inquiry this was a normal peacetime cargo for the ship. [14]
At 11:40 hrs on 28 March Falaba's Chief Officer, Walter Baxter, sighted U-28 in St George's Channel. Falaba's Master, Captain Frederick J Davies, ordered his ship to steer away at full speed. However, U-28 outran Falaba, and Davis sent a wireless wireless telegraph message to that effect at 11:50, describing the submarine as falsely flying a British flag. Later he would observe that this is not the case, though it is unclear if he was initially mistaken or if the Germans had now hoisted their true colours. The submarine ordered "Stop or I will fire", so Davies ordered the engine to be shut off. U-28's commander Kapitänleutnant Georg-Günther von Forstner, then hailed the ship through a megaphone, ordering them to abandon ship at around noon, as it was to be sunk in ten minutes (five according to the British inquiry). The captain replied saying he was taking to the boats, and a second radio message was sent. According to the subsequent British inquiry, the ship stopped moving at around five minutes after noon. The evacuation was disorganized due to the short amount of time given, which meant not all the lifeboats were launched. One torpedo was launched at 10 minutes after noon, striking the ship amidships, and Fabala sank quickly in eight minutes. [4] [15] The overall time given to evacuate is disputed even today, with 5, 10, and 23 minutes given as possible numbers. [16]
104 were lost of the 242 on board. Thrasher was among the people killed in the incident. He was the first US citizen to be killed by the action of a German submarine. [17]
Falaba was the second British passenger ship that U-28 had sunk in as many days. On 27 March it had sunk Yeoward Brothers' steamship Aguila, also with considerable loss of life. U-28 was reported to have fired its deck gun at Aguila, inflicting casualties, including as her passengers and crew were abandoning ship. [18]
Wilson thought U-28 had violated international law, the key point being the short amount of time given to evacuate the ship, but Bryan questioned "whether an American citizen can, by putting his business above his regard for his country, assume for his own advantage unnecessary risks and thus involve his country in international complications." [19]
Wilson had Counselor Robert Lansing draft a diplomatic complaint to the Germans:
The Government of the United States has received a report, confirmed by substantial evidence, that Leon C. Thrasher, a native born American citizen, came to his death by reason of the act of the German naval authorities in sinking the British passenger steamer Falaba on the high seas on the 28th of March, 1915, outward bound from Liverpool, and the failure of the commander of the German submarine U–28 to give ample time for the crew and passengers of the Falaba to leave the vessel before sinking her by means of torpedoes. It is further reported that, at the time when the Falaba was torpedoed and sunk, she was lying to, making no attempt to escape and offering no resistance.
[...]
It sincerely hopes that the Imperial Government, recognizing the justice of these representations, will promptly disavow the act complained of and take the steps necessary to prevent its repetition.
— Robert Lansing, April 5 1915 [20]
Bryan advised Wilson to not send a note in such bellicose terms, and had Lansing redraft the note. It was noted that only one American was killed, thus grounds for a legal protest was weak. The decision was made to leave off a formal protest for the time being, as Thrasher may be simply an isolated incident. [21]
Two attacks followed: one, an air attack on the Cushing, and then a submarine attack on an American tanker, the Gulflight. On 7 May a U-boat sank RMS Lusitania. The incident was a great deal more severe, as the U-boat had this time attacked with no warning at all. Many people, including over a hundred US citizens, died in the shipwreck. The US sent a diplomatic note to Germany asking for an apology and reparations for both ships. The note included a warning that the US would take "any necessary act in sustaining the rights of its citizens or in safeguarding the sacred duties of international law." [19]
The Lusitania sinking brought up the Thrasher case again. The Germans claimed that they had given the ship ample time to evacuate (10 minutes, extended to 23), and that they had been forced to sink the ship due to the approach of "suspicious vessels". This point was brought up by Bryan in his discussions with Wilson. [22] The German government also contended that if a merchant ship tries to escape capture and seek assistance, that alters the duty of the commander of the attacking vessel to try to ensure the safety of non-combatants aboard the merchant ship, even after the ship subsequently stops and ceased resistance. The US government rejected this contention. [23]
Thrasher's body washed ashore on the coast of Ireland on 11 July 1915, after it had been in the sea for 106 days. At first, authorities mistook him for a Lusitania victim and designated him Body No. 248. [24]
During the subsequent British inquiry led by Lord Mersey, which ended in July, one of the passengers was angry at the "bungled" evacuation, alleging that had the crew been well organized and the passengers well led, all of those on the ship could have been safely evacuated before the torpedo was fired. The passenger thus blamed Elder, Dempster, their Marine Superintendent and his brother-in-law Fred Davies for the loss of life. Mersey ultimately found that the ship only had five minutes to evacuate, thus placing all of the blame on the U-boat captain. Many later authors suspect the true amount of time given to evacuate was likely around 10 minutes, in between the British and German claims. [16] [25] Journalist and Lusitania conspiracy theorist Colin Simpson claims the torpedo may have detonated the Falaba's cargo, [26] but the inquiry at the time did not believe this was an issue.
RMS Lusitania was an ocean liner launched by the Cunard Line in 1906. She was the world's largest passenger ship until the completion of the Mauretania three months later and was awarded the Blue Riband appellation for the fastest Atlantic crossing in 1908. The Lusitania was sunk on her 202nd trans-Atlantic crossing, on 7 May 1915 by a German U-boat 11 miles (18 km) off the Old Head of Kinsale, Ireland, killing 1,197 passengers, crew and stowaways. The sinking occurred about two years before the United States declaration of war on Germany but significantly increased public support in the US for entering the war.
Gulflight was an American 5,189 GRT oil tanker built by the New York Shipbuilding Corporation of Camden, New Jersey for the Gulf Refining Company. It was launched on 8 August 1914. The ship became famous when it was torpedoed early in World War I and became the center of a diplomatic incident which moved the United States closer to war with Germany. The ship survived the attack but was eventually sunk in 1942 by torpedo attack in World War II.
Falaba is a rural town in Solima chiefdom, Falaba District in the Northern Province of Sierra Leone. The population of Falaba is largely from the Yalunka, Kuranko and couple of Mandingo ethnic groups. Falaba is virtually all Muslim and it is known for its deeply religious Muslim population. Farming is the major economic activity in Falaba.
The SS Cameronia was a twin propeller triple-expansion 15,600 IHP passenger steamship owned by the Glasgow-based Anchor Line and built by D. and W. Henderson and Company at Glasgow in 1911. The ship provided a transatlantic service from Glasgow to various destinations.
John Charles Bigham, 1st Viscount Mersey, was a British jurist and politician. After early success as a lawyer and a less successful spell as a politician, he was appointed a judge and worked in commercial law.
SM U-20 was a German Type U 19 U-boat built for service in the Imperial German Navy. She was launched on 18 December 1912, and commissioned on 5 August 1913. During World War I, she took part in operations around the British Isles. U-20 became infamous following her sinking of the British ocean liner RMS Lusitania on 7 May 1915, an act that dramatically reshaped the course of World War I.
SS Cymric was a steamship of the White Star Line built by Harland and Wolff in Belfast and launched on 12 October 1897.
SS Arabic was a British-registered ocean liner that entered service in 1903 for the White Star Line. She was sunk on 19 August 1915, during the First World War, by German submarine SM U-24, 50 mi (80 km) south of Kinsale, causing a major diplomatic incident.
The U-boat campaign from 1914 to 1918 was the World War I naval campaign fought by German U-boats against the trade routes of the Allies. It took place largely in the seas around the British Isles and in the Mediterranean. The German Empire relied on imports for food and domestic food production and the United Kingdom relied heavily on imports to feed its population, and both required raw materials to supply their war industry; the powers aimed, therefore, to blockade one another. The British had the Royal Navy which was superior in numbers and could operate on most of the world's oceans because of the British Empire, whereas the Imperial German Navy surface fleet was mainly restricted to the German Bight, and used commerce raiders and submarine warfare to operate elsewhere.
SS Ancona was an ocean liner, built in 1908 by Workman, Clark and Company of Belfast for the Societa di Navigazione a Vapore Italia of Genoa. She was an emigrant ship on a route between Italy and the United States. SM U-38 sank her on 8 November 1915 off the coast of Tunisia.
The Atlantic U-boat campaign of World War I was the prolonged naval conflict between German submarines and the Allied navies in Atlantic waters—the seas around the British Isles, the North Sea and the coast of France.
Raimund Weisbach was an officer of the Kaiserliche Marine, and a U-boat commander during the First World War. He was the torpedo officer on the German U-boat, the U-20, who saw to the preparation and firing of the torpedo that sank the RMS Lusitania on 7 May 1915. He went on to become a successful commander, sinking 36 ships before being captured when his submarine was sunk by the Royal Navy.
HMS Laburnum was a Royal Navy Acacia-class sloop built by Charles Connell and Company, Scotstoun. She was scuttled during the fall of Singapore in 1942.
Captain William Thomas Turner was a British merchant captain. He is best known as the captain of RMS Lusitania when she was sunk by a German torpedo in May 1915.
SS Armenian was a British cargo liner that was launched in Ireland in 1895. In her first few years she carried cattle from Boston to Liverpool. From 1903 she carried cattle from New York to Liverpool. Leyland Line owned her throughout her career, but White Star Line managed her from 1903. She carried prisoners of war in the Second Boer War, and horses and mules in the First World War.
"The captain goes down with the ship" is a maritime tradition that a sea captain holds the ultimate responsibility for both the ship and everyone embarked on it, and in an emergency they will devote their time to save those on board or die trying. Although often connected to the sinking of RMS Titanic in 1912 and its captain, Edward Smith, the tradition precedes Titanic by several years. In most instances, captains forgo their own rapid departure of a ship in distress, and concentrate instead on saving other people. It often results in either the death or belated rescue of the captain as the last person on board.
The RMS Lusitania was a British-registered ocean liner that was torpedoed by an Imperial German Navy U-boat during the First World War on 7 May 1915, about 11 nautical miles off the Old Head of Kinsale, Ireland. The attack took place in the declared maritime war-zone around the UK, three months after unrestricted submarine warfare against the ships of the United Kingdom had been announced by Germany following the Allied powers' implementation of a naval blockade against it and the other Central Powers.
The Gore–McLemore resolutions were a set of United States Congressional resolutions introduced in early 1916 that warned US citizens against travel on armed merchant or passenger ships of belligerent nations in World War 1. These resolutions came as the German Empire was preparing to ramp up its U-boat campaign in the spring of 1916, and in the aftermath of maritime disasters such as the sinking of the Lusitania. Though the two resolutions indicated a fracture between Congressional Democrats and President Woodrow Wilson regarding Germany's policy on submarine warfare, ultimately, most Congressional Democrats rallied behind President Wilson. The McLemore resolution in the House and the Gore resolution in the Senate were both tabled shortly after they were introduced.
SS Falaba was a British cargo liner. She was built in Scotland in 1906 and sunk by a U-boat in the North Atlantic in 1915. The sinking killed more than 100 people, provoking outrage in both the United Kingdom and United States.
SS Aguila was a British merchant steamship that was built in Scotland in 1909. She was one of a small fleet of ships that Yeoward Brothers ran between Liverpool and the Canary Islands, importing fruit to Britain, and carrying passengers in both directions. A U-boat sank her in 1915.
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