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Concept
Thrasher incident
Summary
The Thrasher incident, as it became known in the US media, nearly became the start of America's involvement in World War I. On March 28, 1915, the British steamship was torpedoed and sunk by German U-boat . In the incident, 104 people were killed, including one American passenger, Leon Chester Thrasher, a 31-year-old mining engineer from Massachusetts.
On 4 Feb. 1915, the German Admiralty declared a war zone around Britain, with all ships in that zone to be targeted. Germany's 30 submarines then began sinking all vessels, whether belligerent or neutral. Though they had secret orders to spare American ships, a freighter and a tanker were sunk. Britain responded by tightening its blockade of Germany that included food.
The British Admiralty instructed ships to steer away or to ram any submarine that they encountered. They were not to zigzag.
The American government, led by US President Woodrow Wilson and US Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan, responded with a protest 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."
On 27 March 1915, the Falaba of the Elder Dempster Lines left Liverpool for West Africa. She was operating with a crew of 95 and carried 147 passengers, one of whom was the American mining engineer Leon Chester Thrasher (sometimes spelled Thresher). In addition, the ship was carrying 13 tons of cartridges and gunpowder.
On 28 March, at 1140, the conning tower of U-28, commanded by Kapitänleutnant Georg-Günther von Forstner, was sighted by Chief Officer Walter Baxter. Captain Frederick Davies then ordered the Falaba to steer away at maximum speed. However, Davies then ordered them to stop and to send two wireless messages of their predicament, the result of the Germans warning the ship to "stop or I will fire." Forstner then ordered Davies to abandon the ship, as it was to be sunk.
Official source
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