286 NORTH SEA FISHERS AND FIGHTERS 



Fournier, of the French Navy. The report of the Com- 

 mission established the British case, declaring that there 

 was no complicity on the part of the British trawlers, 

 fixing the responsibility of the cannonade on Admiral 

 Rozhdestvensky, and describing his proceeding as 

 unjustifiable. The report plainly stated that there were 

 no torpedo-boats present on the Dogger Bank on the 

 night of the incident, thus discrediting entirely the 

 positive statements of Russian officers on this important 

 point. 



Nearly two years after the cannonade a statue was 

 unveiled at Hull in memory of the lost. It represents a 

 fisherman, and is about 18 ft. high. The inscription is : 

 " Erected by public subscription to the memory of 

 George Henry Smith (skipper) and William Richard 

 Leggett (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." 



