A NAVAL HERO (?) DISGRACED.

Temuka Leader, Issue 259, 20 April 1880, Page 2

A NAVAL HERO (?) DISGRACED.

Towards the end of December a highly sensational prosecution was concluded by the Naval Tribunal at St, Petersburg. The accused was a captain of the first class, Baranoff, naval aide-de-camp to the Czar, who commanded the steam corvette Vesta during the late Russo-Turkish war, and the prosecution was instituted by the Russian Ministry of Marine- Those who followed the narrative of the war as it was told from day to day in the newspapers will remember (says the Times) an engagement which was fought out in the Black Sea between the Vesta and the large Turkish war steamer Fedj'-Bulend, and according to the official accounts, ended by the Vesta’s complete victory. The -victors, and especially Captain Baranoff, received great ovations in Russia and unprecedented rewards and distinctions both from the Russian people and the Czar. Tne German Emperor conferred on Baranoff the Cross for Military Merit, and the Shah of Persia gave him tho Order of the Lion and the Sun, The second officer, also, of the Vesta, Captain and Lieutenant Foshdestvensky was amply rewarded and decorated. It would seem that all the parties might have been content to rest on their laurels ; but it fell otherwise. Suddenly’ St. Petersburg society was surprised by a serious of articles in the Novoye Vremya, written by Lieutenant Rosh-, destvensky, in which h® declared that there had been no fight at all between the Vesta and the Fedji-Bulend, but that the Russian corvette had simply. ( saved herself from capture by a hasty • Hight and greater speed, etc. Captain Baranoff naturally felt himself aggrieved by such statements (or disclosures), and brought his lieutenant before the Naval Tribunal. But this Court, after keeping tho matter in suspense for eleven months dismissed BaronofPs complaint as without foundation* The captain addressed a letter to the Ministry of Marine complaining of this decision, and accusing tho Naval Tribunal of partiality and prejudice. But the Marine Department, having considered the whole matter, came to the conclusion that itself had been ill treated by Baranoff, and directed him to be tried by court martial. The sentence was that Baranoff was dismissed tho service. He is forty two years of age, and was chief i, of the Naval Museum, with an annual salary of 5280 roubles (about L 790), Ho had no less than nine Russian and four foreign orders.