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Speaker: Roger Dence, King’s College London
Chair: Dr Alan James, War Studies Department
During the Russo-Japanese War 1904-1905, many neutral merchant ships sought to evade Japanese naval patrols to bring supplies to, or escape from, Russia’s principal Far Eastern outposts at Port Arthur and Vladivostok. One notable example was the Norwegian steamship Tungus (1903), under long-term charter to a German trading house in the region, which made several successful voyages between Asian continental ports and Vladivostok. In the same conflict, the Tungus undertook two separate charters for a Japanese shipping company, replacing its vessels taken up for war duties. The case of the Tungus highlights the opportunities and challenges facing neutral merchant vessels in the conflict.
Bio
Roger Dence is an independent maritime history researcher and a member of the Society for Nautical Research. He received an MA in the History of War at King’s College London, having worked previously in technical journalism, in high-technology fields in public relations, marketing and management roles, and as a lecturer in management education.
This seminar is part of the long-running ‘King’s Maritime History Seminars’ hosted by the Laughton Naval History Unit (on behalf of the British Commission for Maritime History and the Society for Nautical Research)