New-York tribune., 1915-03-31
AMERICAN LOST
WHEN SUBMARINE
TORPEDoED SHIP
Leon c. ThraSher, an Engi-
neer, Was Passenger
on Falaba.
DEATH LIST OF TWO
SHIPS PUT AT III
Boat Missing from the Aguila
Reaches SAFETY with
Fifteen.

London, March 31.-The official an
nouncement is made that amon,. the
missing passengers Of the steamer Fall
aba, which was sunk By a German SUBJ
marine, is Leon Chester Thrasher, an
American engineer, who had Deen liv-
ing for the last twelve months on the
Gold Coast, British West Africa.
Reference to the form which has to
be filled up to satisfy the Board Of
Trade by every passenger embarking
at a British port before tickets are
issued shows that Mr.. Thrasher was
thirty-one years old at his last birth
day He was unmarried.
Thrasher had an American passport,
and in the form he was required TO
fill out before embarking, described
himself as an American citizen. but
gave no American address. He was
employed by the Broomassie Mines,
Limited. Inquiry at the Offices of the
company in London elected the infor-
nation that nothing had been heard
from Thrasher and that it was pre-
sumed he had been drowned. I
Samuel Clements, of the Home and
Colonial Hotel, where Mr. Thrasher
stayed while in London, said he was
afraid there could be no doubt that
the American engineer had lost his
life.
He first came to my hotel about
eiy Ia
He told me he was American born,
and appeared to have travelled a great
deal. feel sure | should have heard
/ if he had been saved, for he looked
upon this place as his home in Lon
4 DON"
( Inquiry from people connected with
| the London Offices of the brocmassie
/ Mines, by whom Mr. Thrasher was
! employed. elected the information that
/ up TO last night nothing had been
/ heard of the missing man.
I'VE fear that he has been drowned"
said a high official Of the company.
Another employe of the company. a
Mr.. Seccombe, who was in the Falaba,
has told us he fears that Mr.. Thrash
er was drowned"
Passengers rescued from the Falaba
! say that when the submarine ap-
! preached the steamer the German cap
tain shouted in English through a
megaphone, ~ am going to sink you"
Another first class passenger from
the Falaba turned up in Liverpool last
/ night, having been rescued by trawl-
/ er and landed at Milford.
| The real nature of the submarine
/ attack on the Falaba is brought home
| by number of remarkable photos
taken from the deck of the torpedced
vessel by an Englishman. One pict-
/ ure shows boat which capsized when
the torpedo struck the Falaba, the
! passengers in the water struggling to
reach its upturned bottom. One Of
/ them was a woman, who had just se-
cured a precarious grip on the keel.
! "The Daily Mail" in an editorial in
connection with the drowning Of
Thrssher, says that the question
/ whether the Washington government
will permit belligerent 70 destroy an
unoffending passenger ship carrying an
/ American citizen without giving that
citizen any opportunity to escape is
raised in its sharpest form.
The death list Of the Falaba has been
officially placed at Ill.
The missing boat from the British
steamer Aguila, sunk by German sub
marine off the Welsh coast, containing
thirteen members of the steamers crew
and two passengers, has reached
/ safety.