Thrasher incident

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Leon Chester Thrasher, who was killed on Falaba

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.

Background[edit]

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 Thrasher[edit]

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]

Falaba[edit]

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.[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 ordered "Stop or I will fire", so Davies ordered Falaba to heave to. U-28's commander, Kapitänleutnant Georg-Günther von Forstner, then ordered Davies to abandon ship, as it was to be sunk. Davis ordered the sending of two wireless telegraph messages of their predicament. The evacuation was disorganized, which caused several casualties. One torpedo amidships sank the ship quickly.[4]

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.[15]

Aftermath[edit]

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.[16]

Wilson thought U-28 had violated international law, 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."[17]

On 7 May a U-boat sank RMS Lusitania. Many people, including numerous 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."[17]

The Gore-McLemore resolution, introduced by two Southern members of Congress directed the President to warn US citizens against traveling aboard foreign ships of belligerent nations, and even proposed confiscating passports of citizens who failed to comply. In keeping with that sentiment, and supporting the isolationist views of his constituents, Representative Frank Park of Georgia affirmed that he opposed any policy that would "hurl the sons of the South to death and destruction because some fool, or idiot, or nonpatriotic rascal" chose to sail on a "belligerent armed vessel".[18]

After persistent requests by Bryan, documents detailing witness statements from the sinking of Falaba offered evidence that U-28's commander gave adequate warnings and time for Falaba to abandon ship. Instead, the officers of Falaba had used that time to radio the position of the submarine to nearby Royal Navy patrol ships. As a warship approached, the submarine fired one torpedo, which may have detonated the 13 tons of explosive in Falaba's cargo.[19]

The German government 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. The US government rejected this contention.[20]

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.[21]

After reviewing Lord Mersey's investigation of the incident, one modern author alleged "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 sinking of the ship was down to von Forstner and U-28; responsibility for the loss of life, however lay with Elder, Dempster, their Marine Superintendent and his brother-in-law Fred Davies."[22]

References[edit]

  1. ^ "U.S. steamer mined off Borkum". The Times. No. 40784. London. 22 February 1915. col F, p. 9.
  2. ^ "U.S. Merchant Ships, Sailing Vessels, and Fishing Craft Lost from all Causes during World War I". USMM. Retrieved 23 September 2020.
  3. ^ Cooper 2009, pp. 275–277.
  4. ^ a b Walker 2012, p. 152.
  5. ^ Cooper 2009, p. 275.
  6. ^ "Thrasher born in Bay State". The New York Times. 1 April 1915. p. 2. Retrieved 22 March 2024 – via Times Machine.
  7. ^ a b "Recalls warning to Berlin". The New York Times. 1 April 1915. p. 2. Retrieved 22 March 2024 – via Times Machine.
  8. ^ "No Report to Washington Yet". The New York Times. 31 March 1915. p. 2. Retrieved 22 March 2024 – via Times Machine.
  9. ^ "Submarine raid killed American". The New York Times. 31 March 1915. pp. 1, 2. Retrieved 22 March 2024 – via Times Machine.
  10. ^ "Death of Thrasher stirs our Embassy". The New York Times. 1 April 1915. p. 2. Retrieved 22 March 2024 – via Times Machine.
  11. ^ "Germany defends sinking of Falaba". The New York Times. 14 April 1915. p. 3. Retrieved 22 March 2024 – via Times Machine.
  12. ^ "U.S. Citizen is Lost on Torpedoed Ship". The Evening Star. Washington, D.C. 31 March 1915. p. 1 – via Library of Congress.
  13. ^ "American lost when submarine torpedoed ship". New-York Tribune. 31 March 1915. p. 1 – via Library of Congress.
  14. ^ Walker 2012, pp. 78–79.
  15. ^ Walker 2012, p. 80.
  16. ^ "140 lives lost as submarines sink two ships". The New York Times. 30 March 1915. pp. 1, 2. Retrieved 22 March 2024 – via Times Machine.
  17. ^ a b Cooper 2009, pp. 277–278.
  18. ^ Fry 2002, p. 156.
  19. ^ Simpson 1973, p. 82.
  20. ^ "Washington awaits facts". The New York Times. 2 July 1915. p. 2. Retrieved 22 March 2024 – via Times Machine.
  21. ^ Larson 2015, p. 6.
  22. ^ Walker 2012, p. 172.

Bibliography[edit]

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