The Dogger Bank Incident.

Waikato Argus, Volume XXIV, Issue 3752, 8 April 1908, Page 2

The Dogger Bank Incident.

The following throws an interesti ing though belated light on the famous Dogger Bank incident:— "W.P." writes from Lucknow, under date January 15, to the Aberdeen Free Press a series of articles entitled "Round the World." He says: — "Before closing I will give your readers a very interesting incident. On board the Macedonia I met a Mr Leslie, of the firm of King and Co., of Bombay and London. He told me that some years ago he had given Hall, Russell, and Co., of Aberdeen, an order for a powerful tug with powerful searchlights and two funnels. When ready for sea a crew of some 20 Japanese were got ready from London to take her out to Bombay. Mr Leslie said that in the bay at Aberdeen she experimented for a week and then left for Bombay, the crew being told to exercise themselves with the searchlight on their way out. They did so. It was the time of the Russo-Japanese war. The boat went by the Dogger Bank, no doubt showing her searchlight outside of it. It is supposed that they had been seen at night by some of the Russian cruisers, who at once advised St. Petersburg that a Japanese gunboat with a crew of some 60 Japanese had been seen off the Dogger Bank. The incident came to be magnified until the admiral was advised to look out for a whole fleet of Japanese gunboats. Hence came the great Dogger Bank smash, which cost Rusisa some £70,000, also the cost of an expensive conference at Paris. So much for Aberdeen and the Dogger Bank incident. I saw the boat at Bombay. She is called the Rose, and is giving great satisfaction."