On October 22, 1904, off the coast of Britain, Russian ships opened fire on British sailors.
The beginning of the 20th century turned out to be very difficult for Russia. The ambitions of the great power came into conflict with internal problems that grew from year to year. The war with Japan that broke out in 1904 did not develop at all as expected in St. Petersburg.
The Japanese fleet successfully blocked the forces of the First Pacific Squadron in Port Arthur. Attempts to break out of the trap did not lead to anything. Most of the squadron's forces died during the siege of Port Arthur.
It was decided to save the situation by sending a new squadron formed in the Baltic. It included 7 battleships, 8 cruisers, 9 destroyers and a number of auxiliary ships.
"Fire" squadron
The formation and command of the Second Pacific Squadron was entrusted to the Chief of the Main Naval Staff Zinovy Rozhdestvensky.
As British historians later wrote, "for coal steam ships of the pre-turbine era, the voyage from Libau to the Sea of Japan, in the absence of friendly bases along the way, was a real feat."
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At the disposal of Rozhestvensky were either outdated ships, or the newest, but not fully tested. To the series of technical failures, the crews were not ready for the campaign. In addition, according to the principle "the speed of a squadron is equal to the speed of its slowest ship," the newest and most powerful battleships were "hostages" of slow-moving obsolete ships, being forced to go at their speed. And the speed of the motley Russian squadron, "assembled from the world on a string," was significantly inferior to the speed of the Japanese formations. Officers and sailors were recruited in a fire brigade, and they simply did not have the skills to operate in difficult conditions.
All this led to events due to which Great Britain almost got involved in the war with Russia.
However, the so-called "Hull incident" leaves many questions.
Even before the start of the squadron's campaign, Russian intelligence reported to Petersburg: provocations from the Japanese were possible, and directly off the coast of Europe. Admiral Rozhestvensky ordered the ships to be ready to repel a possible attack. Moreover, by order of the admiral, in case of danger, even middle-ranking officers could order to open fire (previously this was the prerogative of senior officers). All this anxious expectation, the nervous tension of poorly trained Russian sailors, coupled with a fair amount of confusion and organizational "holes" led to tragedy.
Location of Dogger Bank in the North Sea.
Anxious waiting at the Dogger Bank
The greatest tension among the Russian sailors reigned as they approached the shores of Great Britain. The British did not hide their sympathy for the Japanese, and if provocations could happen anywhere, it was in local waters.
A special place in that area is the so-called "Dogger Bank". It is a very large sandbank in the North Sea about a hundred kilometers off the east coast of Great Britain. Located practically in the middle of the routes of most of the military, merchant and fishing ships in the area, Dogger Bank has been the site of naval battles and incidents many times. The closest British city on the coast to this place is Hull, in the then Russian tradition it was called Hull. Therefore, what happened there with the Russian squadron in October 1904 is called the "Hull incident" (in the English tradition - "The Dogger Bank Incident"). Here's what happened.
On October 20, the transport (in this case, the ship-repair base) "Kamchatka" due to damage in the mechanisms was forced to slow down and began to lag behind the squadron.
A day later, radio requests began to arrive from the Kamchatka board with demands to indicate the location of the squadron. Rozhestvensky logically considered the request suspicious and ordered the ship to move in the direction of the Dogger Bank.
Soon "Kamchatka" reported that it was attacked by unknown destroyers. At the same time, the actions of the transport looked very suspicious. The commander of the Russian squadron suspected (and had every right to do so) that the messages were being transmitted not from Kamchatka, but from some other vessel, trying by any means to establish the exact location of the Russians.
A signal was transmitted to the squadron: "Redouble your vigilance and expect an attack from destroyers." At about one in the morning on October 22, the Russian ships found themselves in the heart of the flotilla of small British fishing vessels on Dogger Bank.
Hurricane fire
The battleship "Prince Suvorov" was the flagship of the squadron. The officers of the battleship drew attention to a certain ship on which the lights were extinguished. Rozhestvensky was informed that this is a destroyer, which is in full swing on the flagship. The commander ordered to open fire on the aggressor.
When the shooting had already begun, there was a report that a fishing ship had wedged between the destroyer and the Suvorov. The order to cease fire followed. But at that moment they started shooting from the other side of the Suvorov - there the Russian sailors also decided that they had seen the enemy.
Other Russian battleships also opened fire. The cruisers "Aurora" and "Dmitry Donskoy" (they were part of another detachment not far from the battleships), seeing that the leaders were fighting, also turned on the searchlights and opened fire in the direction of the alleged enemy. But at that moment, real chaos began in the actions of the Russian sailors. The battleship crews saw the cruisers ("Aurora" and "Donskoy") emerging from the darkness and firing. And they took them for the attack of a new enemy. As a result, the battleships turned their attention from small fishermen to "dangerous cruisers". Not understanding it, they began to hit the "Aurora" and "Dmitry Donskoy" from all guns, including the main caliber.
After a twenty-minute skirmish, the officers finally figured out that all the shooting ships were their own, and Rozhestvensky realized that there was no enemy nearby. Either he has already disappeared, or he was not originally. "Prince Suvorov" ordered the ships of the squadron to cease fire.
Aurora was fired during the incident of other Russian courts. Cruiser Aurora.
Fleet of Crazy
As a result of chaotic shooting, one English fishing vessel was sunk, six were damaged. One Englishman was killed (according to other sources, two), six were injured. On board the Aurora, two people were wounded, including the ship's hieromonk Anastasiy Rukin, who died a few days later. Great Britain was seething with rage - the Russians were called "epileptic", and the squadron as a whole was called the "fleet of madmen".
The most zealous British politicians demanded to sever diplomatic relations with Russia. London insisted on the return of the Russian ships to Kronstadt, and the British wanted to put Vice Admiral Rozhdestvensky on trial.
Fortunately, the Second Pacific Squadron was not waiting for the decision of its fate in Britain, but in the Spanish port of Vigo, where there was no such hostility towards the Russians.
To investigate the incident, an international commission of inquiry was assembled, consisting of five admirals of various nationalities. This is the first time that an international commission has been convened to establish the truth.
Commission on the Hull incident.
Opening fire was not justified
Paradoxical as it sounds, the damage to the Aurora and the death of the priest eased the situation. It became clear that there was no deliberate execution of the fishermen.
But who did the Russian sailors actually shoot at?
“Most of the commissars… believe that there was no destroyer among the fishermen, or in general in these places; in view of this, the opening of the fire by admiral Rozhdestvensky was not justified,”the commission said.
Some historians believe that the provocateur ship did exist and then managed to escape. There is even (though not confirmed by anything) a version that the provocateurs were the Germans, who were trying to push Russia and Great Britain in this way.
But the following version seems more likely: poorly trained crews, being in a state of anxious expectation, simply could not stand it. As soon as one shouted "destroyer", many saw the enemy in the dark. And then panic, chaos and indiscriminate firing.
However, the next conclusion of the commission was unexpected: "The judgments formulated in this report do not cast any shadow on the military abilities or on the feelings of humanity of Admiral Rozhdestvensky and the personnel of his squadron."
"Fisherman's Memorial" in Halle.
Harbinger of great disaster
The verdict "guilty, but not guilty" satisfied everyone except the British. Russia has paid compensation to the fishermen in the amount of 65,000 pounds, as well as awarded the wounded and relatives of the victims with life pensions.
The Hull incident was a harbinger of great disaster. The second Pacific squadron managed to reach the Far East, but the Tsushima disaster awaited it there. Only a few Russian ships managed to escape from the battle of Tsushima, and among them was the "Aurora", which suffered just in the Gull incident.
Vice-Admiral Rozhdestvensky will be taken prisoner by the Japanese, then will return to his homeland, where he will be accused of defeat. At the trial, he will take all the blame on himself and remark: “If I had even a spark of civil courage, I should have shouted to the whole world:“Take care of these last resources of the fleet! Don't send them to extermination! But I didn't have the spark I needed.”
He will be acquitted, but despite this, the naval commander will live the rest of his life as a recluse and will die on New Year's Eve 1909 from a heart attack at the age of 60.
And so unsuccessfully started its combat path "Aurora" will survive all the storms of the XX century and will remain - the only one from that squadron - an existing ship to this day.
Author: Andrey Sidorchik
