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Auction: 9033 - Orders, Decorations, Campaign Medals & Militaria
Lot: 42

The Scarce Albert Medal First Class, For Gallantry in Saving Life at Sea to Arthur Rea, Second Engineer of the Trawler Crane, Which Was Shelled and Sunk by the Russian Baltic Fleet in the Infamous Dogger Bank ´North Sea Incident´, 21-22.10.1904, When the Fishing Fleet From Hull were Mistaken for Torpedo-Boats From Japan; Despite Being Seriously Injured Rea Showed Unyielding Courage Working in the Engine Room Throughout, Preventing the Crane´s Boilers Exploding Until All Were Rescued Albert Medal, First Class, For Gallantry in Saving Life at Sea, gold, bronze, and enamel, the reverse officially engraved ´Presented by His Majesty, to Arthur Rea, Second Engineer of the trawler "Crane", of Hull, for gallantry and devotion to duty when that vessel was sinking in the North Sea after damage by the gun fire of the Russian Fleet on the 21st-22nd October, 1904.´, extremely fine Estimate £ 8,000-10,000 A.M. First Class London Gazette 16.5.1905 Arthur Rea, Second Engineer, of the steam trawler Crane, of Hull (listed jointly with William Smith, Mate of the steam trawler Crane [awarded the Albert Medal First Class]; and to Charles Beer, Mate; Harry Smirk, Chief Engineer; and Edwin Costello, Boatswain, all of the steam trawler Gull [all awarded the Albert Medal Second Class]) ´For gallantry in saving life at sea as detailed below:- The steam trawler Crane was so badly damaged by the gun fire of the Russian Baltic Fleet in the North Sea on the night of the 21st October and the morning of the 22nd October last, that she began to sink. The skipper and the third hand of the vessel had been killed, and, with one exception, the surviving members of the crew were all wounded. The mate, William Smith, was severely wounded while on his way to assist the injured boatswain, and when he found that the skipper was killed, took charge of the sinking vessel. He subsequently signalled for assistance, and when the boat from the steam trawler Gull arrived he assisted in getting the wounded and the bodies of the dead into the boat, and was the last to leave the Crane just before she sank. As the Chief Engineer had been wounded and rendered insensible soon after the firing began, the Second Engineer, Arthur Rea (22 years of age) took charge of the engines, and, although the lights had been extinguished, he went into the stokehold to discover the cause of a loud report and an escape of steam. He was knocked down by a shot on his way but went on, and finding the stokehold more than a foot deep in water and steam blowing from the engine side, looked at the gauge glass and pumping additional cold water into the boiler partially drew the fires with the object of averting an explosion. He also set the pumps of the vessel working, and after reporting that the vessel was sinking, went a second time into the darkened engine room and stopped the engines. Although wounded he did not stop working till he left the ship. In answer to signals of distress from the Crane, Charles Beer, Mate, Harry Smirk, Chief Engineer, and Edwin Costello, Boatswain, of the steam trawler Gull, after the firing, which had been heavy and sustained, went in a boat to the Crane, and succeeded with great difficulty in rescuing the wounded from the rapidly sinking vessel, and in bringing away the dead bodies of those who had been killed.´ ´The Incident´ On the night of the 21st October, 1904, The Crane, was fishing peacefully out in the North Sea at Dogger Bank. The newly-built 168-ton trawler, under the command of Skipper George Henry Smith, with a crew of nine, including the Mate William Smith (no relation to the Skipper), Chief Engineer John Nixon, Second Engineer Arthur Rea, Third Hand William Richard Leggett, and Boy Joseph Alfred Smith (the 16 year old son of the Skipper), was one of thirty steam-trawlers of the Gamecock Fleet, which for ten years had trawled on the same ground. The regulation lights were burning and other lights were showing, for many of the crews were gutting and boxing the fish in readiness to ferry to the homeward-bound carrier in the morning. Shortly before midnight the Russian Baltic Fleet appeared on the horizon, under the command of Admiral Z.P. Rozhdestvensky. Russia was at War with Japan, and the fleet, which had been solemnly blessed by the Tsar, had sailed from the Baltic on 15th October 1904, enroute to the Pacific Ocean. Morale in the Russian fleet was low. Due to the distance to be covered, almost 16,000 miles, every available space was used to store coal. Necessities were cut down to a minimum and even food and water were sparse. Many of the sailors were convinced that they would be attacked by the dreaded Japanese torpedo-boats and perish, and Rozhdestvensky was known to have fits of uncontrollable rages. Due to fog and sea haze the fleet was well spread out, and almost 50 miles from the nearest recognised shipping lane. That very morning the Warship Kamchatka had reported that she had broken down, and had been attacked by a torpedo-boat. Now on full alert and not sure of their own positions, the officers and men of the Russian Fleet were very edgy, with signals being flashed from ship to ship. The fishermen looked with interest at the warships, some of them pausing in their work- it is not every day that battle squadrons pass. Suddenly a bugle rang out in the night, and instantly guns and machine-guns rapped and rattled, and upon the helpless fishing-craft a hail of missiles fell. For ten minutes the broadside blazed frantically upon the peaceful little trawling vessels, an industrious fleet spread over an area of seven or eight miles, unarmed, utterly defenceless, and unable even to flee. Eventually the Russian Fleet continued its progress south towards the Straights of Dover, leaving a trail of destruction in their wake. The Mate of the Crane, William Smith, said of the attack: ´We had just hauled and shot away again, and were in the fish-pound cleaning the fish and passing jokes about the war vessels, which we could see quite plain, and heard their firing, when suddenly something hit us. The third hand said "Skipper, our fish-boxes are on fire; I´m going below out of this", and walked forward. The skipper, who was on the bridge, laughing at him for being frightened. We were hit again forward, and someone called out and said "The bosun is shot". I went forward to look, and found the boatswain bleeding and a hole through our bulwarks, and the fore companionway knocked away. I went to tell the skipper. Before I got aft a shot went through the engine-casing, and I began to feel frightened. I could see that the skipper was not on the bridge. I went aft, passed the chief engineer, who was bleeding, gave him my neckcloth to stop the blood, went right aft and saw the skipper lying on the grating. I said, "Oh, my God, he is shot!" I picked him up and saw that his head was battered to pieces. I dropped him, rushed down the forecastle, and saw the boatswain lying on the floor, with his head battered in. Another shot came and hit us, I do not know where. All hands were shouting out they were shot. I jumped on the bridge to blow the whistle, but that and the steampipe were knocked away. I tried to alter the wheel, but the wheel-gear was smashed. I then found we were sinking. I went to the boat, cut the grips, plugged her up, and put the painter on the winch to heave her aft, but found some of the winch smashed. Then something hit me on the back. I saw the Gull launch her boat. I dragged the skipper forward and got the third hand up on the deck and went for the chief engineer. He was unconscious. Then the boy came to me and said "Where is my father?" That was a pill I could not swallow. For the life of me I could not tell the boy what had happened to his father.´ As the life boat from the Gull approached the Crane, William Smith called out ´hurry lads, we are crippled and sinking´. The mate of the Gull, Charles Beer, and the Bosun, Edwin Costello, got aboard the Crane and helped pass the injured to the engineer Harry Smirk in the lifeboat. The lights had all been extinguished and the vessel was in darkness. 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, in order to give the boilers the chance to cool and prevent them from exploding. 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. Smirk was then called aboard to help in getting the body of the skipper into the boat, and to assist in retrieving William Leggett´s body from the forecastle, were there was a hole the size of a man in the side of the vessel. William Smith was the last man to leave the Crane, and as soon as the lifeboat drew away the vessel sank. Rea was seriously injured, with a two and a half inch deep wound to his pectoral muscle, in which a piece of shell was embedded. The only crew member of the Crane to escape serious injury was the skipper´s son, Joseph Alfred Smith, whose arm was grazed by one of the Russian shots. The boy had gone to sea for the first time. Few North Sea men have had a sterner baptism than his. The news of the incident aroused great passion. The King telegraphed to the Mayor of Hull, speaking of the ´unwarrantable´ action of the Russians; ´urgent representations´ were at once made by the Foreign Office to the Russian Government, and such was the general clamour that the Tsar sent a message expressing regret and promising ´complete satisfaction, as soon as the circumstances were cleared up.´ In due course the Russian government paid £66,000 in compensation, with Rea receiving £400. In 1906 the Fisherman´s Memorial was unveiled at Hull in memory of the lost. The inscription reads: "Erected by public subscription to the memory of George Henry Smith (skipper) and William Richard Legget (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." Rea and William Smith were both invested with their Albert Medals by the King at Buckingham Palace, 13.5.1905; when the Russian Baltic Fleet did make it to the Pacific Ocean it was annihilated by the awaiting Japanese torpedo-boats. The Albert Medal First Class awarded to William Smith was sold at Spink on the 23rd April of this year.

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£17,000