In October 1904, during the Russo-Japanese War, Russia dispatched its Baltic Fleet, renamed the Second Pacific Squadron, on an arduous journey to the Far East. Wracked by rumors that Japanese agents had laid mines in the North Sea and deployed stealthy torpedo boats in European waters, the Russian crew succumbed to extreme paranoia. Misunderstandings were compounded by primitive, untested wireless telegraphy equipment, which amplified false distress signals and phantom sightings.
On the night of October 21, in a dense fog over Dogger Bank, the jittery Russian admiral mistook a fleet of peaceful British civilian fishing trawlers for Japanese warships. The warships opened fire, spending thousands of rounds of ammunition over twenty chaotic minutes. In the smoke and confusion, the fleet not only shelled helpless British fishermen, killing two, but also fired upon their own vessels, damaging the cruiser Aurora and killing a Russian sailor and a chaplain.
The absurd blunder nearly provoked a war between Britain and Russia, forcing the Royal Navy to shadow the panicked Russian fleet down the Atlantic.