The Russian Outrage : Under Attack
By late October 1904 Russia had been engaged in a war with Japan for over six months. As well as major land defeats they had lost three of their own vessels in February 1904 and by now a sense of anxiety and paranoia had taken over the Russian crews patrolling the seas. Although this war had nothing to do with England it would have dire consequences for the men on the Gamecock fishing fleet on the night of the 21 October 1904. The Gamecock fishing fleet consisted of around 50 steam trawlers and on the 21 October 1904 they were fishing off the Dogger Bank, a favoured fishing ground for over a quarter of a century. At the same time a Russian Baltic fleet were making their way across the North Sea to help the Russian Pacific fleet who were being held down by the Japanese navy at Port Arthur on the coast of Manchuria. The crew of the Russian fleet, led by Admiral Rojdestvensky, were inexperienced and jumpy and the sudden appearance of the English fishing fleet as well as the firing of signal rockets by the mark-boat alarmed the Russian look-outs who assumed that they were under attack. #SUBHEADING# The Attack#SUBHEADINGEND# The Russians didn't wait to identify the vessels in their midst but instead opened fire convinced that they were firing on Japanese torpedo boats. The crew of the trawlers, who at first were intrigued by the presence of Russian warships, now panicked as they realised that they were under attack. They fired green flares to call off the attack and desperately held up fish to signal to the Russians that they had made a mistake. The Russians however, did not stop firing and for twenty minutes the trawlers were bombarded with several hundred shells. The shooting was so wild that the Russians even hit one of their own ships, the 'Aurora'. By the time the Russians had stopped firing they left one vessel sinking and five others badly damaged. Skipper Henry Smith and mate William Leggett of the 'Crane' were both killed in the attack whilst William Smith, John Nixon, Harry Hoggart, Arthur Rea, Albert A Almond, John Ryder were wounded (Skipper's son John Alfred Smith, on his first time at sea, was the only man on board the 'Crane' to escape unscathed). #SUBHEADING# The Rescue#SUBHEADINGEND# With the 'Crane' about to go under and the 'Mino', 'Moulmein', 'Gull', 'Snipe' and 'Majestic' all badly damaged efforts got underway to rescue the survivors and transport them to the nearby mission ship, the 'Joseph and Sarah Miles'. Crew from the 'Gull' including Charles Beer (mate), Harry Smirk (chief engineer), Edwin Costello (boatswain) as well as Arthur Rea (engineer on the 'Crane') and William Smith also of the 'Crane' all helped rescue survivors from the sinking ship and later earned Albert medals for gallantry. Once the survivors had been safely put on board the 'Joseph and Sarah Miles' the Gamecock fleet limped its way back to Hull with the bodies of Henry Smith and William Leggett on board the 'Moulmein'. By the 25 October news of the attack was well known and the Royal Navy had been put on full alert ready to intercept the Russian Baltic fleet; Britain and Russia were on the brink of war.
