In response to the British blockade of the Central Powers, the Germans launched a submarine campaign against merchant vessels in the seas surrounding the British Isles. Wilson strongly protested the policy, which had a much stronger effect on American trade than the British blockade. In the March 1915 Thrasher Incident, the commercial British steamship "Falaba" was sunk by a German submarine with the loss of 111 lives, including one American. In early 1915, a German bomb struck an American ship, the "Cushing", and a German submarine torpedoed an American tanker, the "Gulflight". Wilson took the view, based on some reasonable evidence, that both incidents were accidental, and that a settlement of claims could be postponed to the end of the war. A German submarine torpedoed and sank the British ocean liner RMS "Lusitania" in May 1915; over a thousand perished, including many Americans. Wilson did not call for war; instead he said, "There is such a thing as a man being too proud to fight. There is such a thing as a nation being so right that it does not need to convince others by force that it is right". He realized he had chosen the wrong words when critics lashed out at his rhetoric. Wilson sent a protest to Germany which demanded that the German government "take immediate steps to prevent the recurrence" of incidents like the sinking of the "Lusitania". In response, Bryan, who believed that Wilson had placed the defense of American trade rights above neutrality, resigned from the cabinet.