William P. Frye (1901)

William P. Frye was a four-masted steel barque named after a US Republican politician of the same name, from the state of Maine. Built by Arthur Sewall & Co of Bath, Maine she was sunk by the Imperial German Navy raider SMS Prinz Eitel Friedrich (1904) in 1915. She was the first U.S. vessel sunk during World War I.

Sinking
The ship sailed from Seattle, Washington, on November 4, 1914, with a cargo of 189950 USbu of wheat, bound for Queenstown, Falmouth, or Plymouth in the United Kingdom. In 1915 the UK was at war with Imperial Germany; the United States was not yet involved in the war and was officially neutral. Off the coast of Brazil, William P. Frye encountered the Imperial German Navy raider SMS Prinz Eitel Friedrich (1904) on January 27, 1915. The Germans stopped and boarded the ship. While William P. Frye was U.S.-owned and thus a neutral ship, her cargo was deemed a legitimate target because the Germans believed it was bound for Britain’s armed forces. The captain of Prinz Eitel Friedrich, Max Thierichens, ordered that William P. Frye's cargo of wheat be thrown overboard. When his orders were not followed fast enough, he took the ship's crew and passengers prisoner and scuttled her on January 28, 1915. William P. Frye was the first American vessel sunk during World War I.

Aftermath
The crew and passengers of William P. Frye, including some women and children, were part of some 350 people taken prisoner from eleven different ships Prinz Eitel Friedrich had searched and destroyed. All 350 were released on March 10, 1915, when the German raider docked in the American port of Newport News, Virginia, due to engine trouble. An outraged American government forced the Germans to apologize for the sinking. The owners of the ship, Arthur Sewall & Co., wanted damages for the sinking of the ship and presented a claim for $228,059.54 ($0 in 2024).