A NAVAL HERO ? DISGRACED.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume VII, Issue 1073, 16 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 read from day to day in the newspapers will remember an engagement which was fought out in the Black Sea between the Vesta and the large Turkish war steamer Fedji-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. The German Emperor conferred on Baranoff the Cross of Military Merit, and the Shah of Persia gave him the Order of the Lion and the Sun. The second officer, also, of the Vesta, Captain and Lieut. Roshdeatvensky, was amply rewarded and decorated. It would seem that all the parties might have been content to rest on their laurels ; but it fell out otherwise. Suddenly St. Petersburg society was surprised by a series of articles in the Novoye Vremys, written by Lieut, Roshdestvensky, in which he declared that there was 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 flight 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 the matter in suspense for eleven months, dismissad BaranofTs complaint as without foundation. The captain addressed a momorial to the Ministry of Marine complaining of this decision, and accusing the Naval Tribunal of partiality and prejudice. But the Marine Department, having considered the whole matter, came to the conclunion that itself had been ill-treated by Baranoff, and directed him to be tried by court-martial, The sentence was that Baranoff was dismissed the service. He is forty-two years of age, and was chief to the Naval Museum, with an annual salary of 5,280 rouble (about £790). He had no less than nine Russian and four foreign orders, — Times.