THE RUSSIAN OUTRAGE 283 



Beer, Smirk, Arthur Rea, engineer of the Crane, Smith, 

 the mate, and Costello received the Albert Medal for 

 gallantry. With the exception of Costello, who was 

 prevented by illness from visiting London, the men 

 attended Buckingham Palace on the morning of Saturday, 

 1 3th May 1905, and the decoration was conferred upon 

 them by Edward vn., who had been deeply interested in 

 the outrage. Smith, who took charge of the Crane when 

 the skipper was killed, refused to leave her till every 

 man had been taken off. Rea showed unyielding courage 

 when, in spite of the fact that the little ship was actually 

 foundering, he groped back to the engine-room, which 

 was in total darkness, and tried to put the engines on 

 to full speed ahead. The stokehole was flooded with 

 water, and Rea could do nothing. He went on deck, 

 where the skipper was lying dead, and all the survivors 

 were wounded except the boy. 



Such, told briefly, is the story of the Dogger Bank 

 outrage an event which became officially known as the 

 " North Sea Incident." It was alleged, on the part of 

 the Russians, that there was reason to suppose that Japa- 

 nese destroyers were lurking in the North Sea Russia 

 and Japan were then at war but there was nothing 

 whatever to justify the supposition, still less to mistake 

 peaceful fishing-vessels for ships of war of any sort. 



The news of the occurrence threw the whole country 

 into a state of dangerous excitement. The King 

 telegraphed to the Mayor of Hull, speaking of the " un- 

 warrantable " action of the Russians ; " urgent represen- 

 tations " were at once made by the Foreign Office to the 

 Russian Government, and such was the general clamour 

 that the Czar sent a message expressing regret and 



