Dogger Bank incident
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- This article is about a 1904 attack on British fishermen. For the naval battle between the German and British navies during World War I, see Battle of Dogger Bank (1915).:
The Dogger Bank incident (also known as incident of Hull) was an assault by the Russian Baltic Fleet on British trawlers at the Dogger Bank in the night of October 21 to October 22, 1904, after the Russians had mistaken the fishery ships for Japanese Imperial Navy forces. Three British sailors died and a number were wounded. A priest aboard a Russian cruiser caught in the crossfire was also killed. The incident almost led to war between Britain and Russia, until it was diplomatically defused.
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[edit] The incident
Russian warships were on their way to the Far East, to partake in the Russo-Japanese War. Because of wrong reports about the presence of Japanese torpedo boats and general nervousness of the Russian sailors, approximately 30 harmless fishing trawlers were, thousands of miles away from the enemy waters, attacked by the Russians.
The disaster began in the evening, when the drunken captain of the supply ship Kamtchatka (Камчатка), which was last in the Russian line, took a passing Swedish ship for a Japanese torpedo boat and radioed that he was being attacked. Later in the night the officers on duty sighted the British ships, interpreted their signals incorrectly and classified them as Japanese torpedo boats, and consequently opened fire on the British fishermen. The British trawler Crane was sunk and two British fishermen lost their lives. On the other boats there were six fishermen wounded, one of whom died a few months later. In the general chaos, Russian ships shot at each other: when the protected cruiser Aurora (Aврора), which had yet to be involved, approached, she was taken for a Japanese warship, bombarded and slightly damaged. At least one Russian sailor was killed, another badly wounded.
[edit] The aftermath
The incident led to a serious diplomatic conflict between Russia and Great Britain, which was particularly dangerous due to the alliance that existed between Britain and Japan. In the aftermath some British newspapers called the Russian fleet "pirates". The Royal Navy intervened, and the Russian admiral Zinovi Petrovich Rozhdestvenski was heavily criticised for not leaving the British sailors lifeboats. The Royal Navy went after the Russian fleet and bottled her up in Vigo, Spain. The Russian government agreed to investigate the incident, after which, the Russian ships were let free. The investigation was given up after the Russian fleet was almost completely destroyed in the battle of Tsushima. Meanwhile the Russian government paid £66,000 as compensation for the fishermen in order to placate the British government.
In 1906 the Fisherman's Memorial was unveiled in Hull in honour of the death of the three British sailors. The approx. 5.4m high statue shows the killed fisherman George Henry Smith and carries the following inscription:
- Erected by public subscription to the memory of George Henry Smith (skipper) and William Richard Legget (third hand), of the steam-trawler CRANE, who lost their lives through the action of the Russian Baltic Fleet in the North Sea, October 22, 1904, and Walter Whelpton, skipper of the trawler MINO, who died through shock, May 1905.
[edit] Literature
- Westwood, John N., Russia against Japan 1904-05. A new look at the Russo-Japanese war, Houndmills 1986.
[edit] External links
- Hull In Print (article on an exhibition for the centenary of the incident)
