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Lt. FREDERICK MACQUARIE A. LASSETTER, Saloon Class Passenger

[No Picture Provided]

Lieutenant Frederick Lassetter, 22, was born 30 July 1892 to Colonel and later Major General H. B. Lassetter and Elisabeth Ann Antill.  The Lassetters lived in Australia and Frederick was an officer in a Scottish regiment, in the King's Own Light Infantry.  He had been wounded in September 1914 in Flanders and took a three-month leave to recover.  In May 1915 he was returning to England with his mother, Elisabeth, on the Lusitania after visiting relatives in Los Angeles, California, United States.  Lassetter had attended Oxford and his school friend Harold Boulton was also onboard.

After the Lusitania was struck, Commander J. Foster Stackhouse told the young man to look for his mother.  Frederick returned with his mother both wearing lifebelts.  They also saw Stackhouse give his lifebelt to a little girl and assist with loading the lifeboats.  He was explaining to them they he could not join them because "There are others who must go first."

Harold Boulton met up with Lassetter and his mother on deck.  Boulton and the young Lieutenant helped Elisabeth into a portside boat, but not without difficulty.  The following is Frederick Lassetter's deposition as read during his mother's testimony:

1961 I will not read the early part because it is immaterial, but he goes on thus, "The order was given from the bridge to lower the boats to the level of the boat deck.  This was done with some difficulty with the boat opposite us as it had jammed owing to the list. The boats crew however, managed their work though no officer was present to take charge.  I gave my lifebelt to a woman and returned to the cabin for another.  I came back passing through the Captain's cabin where I saw the Staff Captain, who told me to tell everyone to lower no more boats. "

Lassetter and Boulton did as they were told and helped Elisabeth out of the boat.  Boulton glanced forward and was shocked to see "the bow just beginning to submerge."  He then turned to Lassetter and said gravely, "This ship is going to sink" -- "the only thing to do is to jump."

Boulton instructed a nervous Elisabeth to remove her skirt.  Harold, Elisabeth, and Frederick, in that order, held hands and jumped about ninety feet into the ocean.  Frederick and Elisabeth bobbed up next to each other in the swirling water and held onto some flotsam.  Harold Boulton was nearby, holding on to a large box.

Frederick looked to see the Lusitania make her final plunge and saw Commander Stackhouse standing calmly on the stern.

1964 Then it goes on thus: "finding the ship sinking by the bow I jumped in with my mother, and after three hours we were picked up by the ship's boat of the Katrina, we owed our lives to a square box 4 feet 6 inches as there was no room in the half sinking lifeboats near us. A great many people, especially ladies, on being reassured from the bridge went into the lounge on the boat deck just before the ship sank . . .."

The "Greek" Katrina was actually the SS Westborough in disguise.

Frederick's father, Major General Lassetter, went to Ireland to collect Frederick and Elisabeth upon hearing news of the Lusitania's demise.

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Contributors:
Michael Poirier
Judith Tavares
Hildo Thiel

References:
Hickey, Des and Gus Smith.  Seven Days to Disaster.  G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1981.

Hoehling, A. A. and Mary Hoehling.  The Last Voyage of the Lusitania.  Madison Books, 1956.

The New York Times, Tuesday, 11 May 1915, page 2

Preston, Diana.  Lusitania:  An Epic Tragedy.  Berkley Books, 2002.

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