Statutory Address: St Barnabas Court, Hessle Road, Hull, HU3 4BE
Coordinates: 53°44’07″N 0°21’46″W
Description of Location –
The memorial is located on the Hessle Road-Boulevard crossroad junction, opposite the Hull Fishing Heritage Centre. Hessle Road was the traditional home of much of Hull’s fishing community due to its close proximity to the docks, particularly St Andrews (‘Fish Dock’).
Details –
Erected: 1906
Listed: Grade II Listed
Monument Type: Memorial
Associated Site(s): Not applicable
Inscription(s): “Unveiled by Lord Nunburnholme August 30th 1906”
“Albert Leake sculptor Hull”
“R.A.O.B. Erected by public subscription to the memory of George Henry Smith (Skipper) and William Richard Leggett (Third Hand) of the ill fated trawler “Crane” who lost their lives in the North Sea by the action of the Russian Baltic Fleet October 22nd 1904 and Walter Whelpton (Skipper) of the trawler “Mind” who died from shock May 13th 1905.”
Description: A stone statue of a fisherman with his left arm reaching upwards to the sky and holding a pair of binoculars in his right. Situated upon an inscribed pink stone pedestal (a reference to the R.A.O.B is included as Skipper George Smith was a member). It is a memorial to the men who lost their lives during the Russian Outrage (or North Sea Incident) whereby inexperienced sailors in the Russian navy mistook a group of trawlers from Hull fishing off Dogger Bank as Japanese torpedo boats during the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905). There was an outpouring of grief both nationally and from the Hessle Road community after the incident, with a mile long procession being held in Hull.
Additional Resources –
“Fishermen’s Memorial at Junction with Boulevard,” Historic England, 21 January 1994, https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1197743.
“The Russian Outrage: The Aftermath,” Hull Museums Collection, accessed 1 January 2023, http://museumcollections.hullcc.gov.uk/collections/theme.php?irn=1072.
“The Russian Outrage: Under Attack,” Hull Museums Collection, accessed 1 January 2023, http://museumcollections.hullcc.gov.uk/collections/storydetail.php?irn=1071.
Alec Gill, Hull’s Fishing Heritage: Aspects of Life in the Hessle Road Fishing Community (Barnsley: Wharncliffe Books, 2003), 43.
British Trawlers Shelled by Russians, (1905, United Kingdom: British Pathé), available at https://www.britishpathe.com/asset/196879/.
The Board of Trade, North Sea Incident: (21-22 October 1904) (London: Wyman & Sons Ltd., 1905), accessed 1 January 2023, https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.32044103232666&seq=5.