The Red Crusader incident (Danish : Red Crusader-sagen) was a 1961 maritime dispute between Denmark and the United Kingdom over fishing rights.
On 27 April 1959, the British and Danish governments exchanged notes in Copenhagen establishing temporary regulations on fishing around the Faroe Islands. [1]
On 29 May 1961 at 17:39, the British fishing trawler Red Crusader was detained by the Danish frigate Niels Ebbesen for fishing in the waters off the Faroe Islands after a chase. [2] [3] Instead of heading towards Tórshavn, as instructed by Niels Ebbesen, Red Crusader headed for Scotland. The frigate pursued the trawler, and fired warning shots to no avail. Niels Ebbesen then fired an aimed shot, damaging Red Crusader. [4] The commander of the frigate was E. Sølling and the captain of the trawler was a Mr. Wood. [5]
On 15 November 1961, the British and Danish governments established an adversarial international commission of inquiry into the incident under the auspices of the Permanent Court of Arbitration. [6] This was the first international commission since the Tavignano inquiry in 1922. [7]
Proceedings were divided into a written and an oral stage. [7]
The commission delivered its report in March 1962 and found no evidence of illegal fishing. Further, the commission found that the Niels Ebbesen had used excessive force, beyond that justified by international law in firing on the trawler. [8]
Tórshavn, usually locally referred to as simply Havn, is the capital and largest city of the Faroe Islands. It is located in the southern part on the east coast of Streymoy. To the northwest of the city lies the 347-meter-high (1,138 ft) mountain Húsareyn, and to the southwest, the 350-meter-high (1,150 ft) Kirkjubøreyn. They are separated by the Sandá River. The city itself has a population of 14,099 (2024), and the greater urban area has a population of 23,194, including the suburbs of Hoyvík and Argir.
The Cod Wars were a series of 20th-century confrontations between the United Kingdom and Iceland about fishing rights in the North Atlantic. Each of the disputes ended with an Icelandic victory.
The Royal Danish Navy is the sea-based branch of the Danish Armed Forces force. The RDN is mainly responsible for maritime defence and maintaining the sovereignty of Danish territorial waters. Other tasks include surveillance, search and rescue, icebreaking, oil spill recovery and prevention as well as contributions to international tasks and forces.
The Dogger Bank incident occurred on the night of 21/22 October 1904, when the Baltic Fleet of the Imperial Russian Navy mistook civilian British fishing trawlers from Kingston upon Hull in the Dogger Bank area of the North Sea for Imperial Japanese Navy torpedo boats and fired on them, also firing on each other in the chaos of the melée.
Whaling in the Faroe Islands, or grindadráp, is a type of drive hunting that involves herding various species of whales and dolphins, but primarily pilot whales, into shallow bays to be beached, killed, and butchered. Each year, an average of around 700 long-finned pilot whales and several hundred Atlantic white-sided dolphins are caught over the course of the hunt season during the summer.
The Turbot War was an international fishing dispute and bloodless conflict between Canada and Spain and their respective supporters.
ICGV Ægir is a former offshore patrol vessel of the Icelandic Coast Guard. Built by Aalborg Værft, in Denmark, she is the lead ship of the Ægir class and has one sister ship of an improved design, ICGV Týr. The ship entered service in 1968 and participated in the two last Cod Wars against the United Kingdom. Ægir primarily conducted patrols, search and rescue, fishery inspections, general law enforcement and counter-terrorism operations in the Icelandic exclusive economic zone. In 2020, the patrol vessel was taken out of service and sold two years later.
The British occupation of the Faroe Islands during World War II, also known as Operation Valentine, was implemented immediately following Operation Weserübung the German invasion of Denmark and Norway. It was a small component of the roles of Nordic countries in the war. In April 1940, the United Kingdom occupied the strategically important Faroe Islands to forestall a German invasion. British troops left shortly after the end of the war.
HMS Troubridge was a T-class destroyer of the British Royal Navy that saw service during the Second World War. Post war she was converted into a Type 15 frigate.
The Danish Realm, officially the Kingdom of Denmark, or simply Denmark, is a sovereign state and refers to the area over which the monarch of Denmark is head of state. It consists of metropolitan Denmark—the kingdom's territory in continental Europe and sometimes called "Denmark proper" —and the realm's two autonomous regions: the Faroe Islands in the North Atlantic and Greenland in North America. The relationship between the three parts of the Kingdom is also known as The unity of the Realm.
Being part of the Kingdom of Denmark, the foreign relations of Faroe Islands are handled in cooperation with the Danish government and Government of Faroe Islands.
This is a brief overview of historical warfare and recent developments in Iceland. Iceland has never participated in a full-scale war or invasion and the constitution of Iceland has no mechanism to declare war.
British–Danish relations are foreign relations between the United Kingdom and Denmark. The United Kingdom has an embassy in Copenhagen and Denmark has an embassy in London. Both countries are full members of Council of Europe and NATO. In addition, both countries' royal families are descended from the House of Glücksburg.
The Overseas Patrol Squadron is a front-line squadron of the Royal Navy with responsibility for patrolling the UK's Extended Fisheries Zone, both at home and around British Overseas Territories. The squadron, with headquarters at HMNB Portsmouth, is equipped with eight of the River-class patrol vessels.
The 1993 Cherbourg incident were a series of maritime incidents which took place from 26 March to 2 April 1993 between the British Royal Navy and French fishermen as a result of a fishing rights dispute in and around the Channel Islands waters.
Several states have claimed interests over the sea bed adjoining Rockall, an uninhabitable granite islet which is located within the exclusive economic zone (EEZ) of the United Kingdom. Ireland, Denmark, Iceland, and the United Kingdom have all made submissions to the commission set up under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).
HMS Annan was a River-class frigate built for the Royal Navy but was transferred to the Royal Canadian Navy before commissioning. She served with the Royal Canadian Navy during the Second World War and saw action primarily as a convoy escort in the Battle of the Atlantic. She was returned to United Kingdom following the war and quickly sold to Denmark, who renamed the vessel Niels Ebbesen. She was primarily used as a training vessel until 1963 when she was broken up in Odense. She was named for the River Annan in Scotland in UK and Canadian service and Niels Ebbesen in Danish service.
Operation Safari was a German military operation during World War II aimed at disarming the Danish military. It led to the scuttling of the Royal Danish Navy and the internment of all Danish soldiers. Danish forces suffered 23–26 dead, around 40–50 injured, and 4,600 captured. Of the roughly 9,000 Germans involved, one was killed and eight wounded, although the number may have been 11 killed and 59 wounded.
The Spanish fishing trawler Sonia sank off the Cornish coast of England on 20 October 1984. On 19 October, in Irish territorial waters off the coast of County Wexford, the Sonia had been spotted by the Irish Naval Service patrol vessel Aisling and was suspected to be fishing illegally. The Sonia was ordered to halt and prepare to receive a boarding party, but did not comply.
The fishing vessel Antares was a pelagic trawler based in Carradale, Kintyre in the United Kingdom. She was fishing off the coast of the Isle of Arran on 22 November 1990 when she foundered with the loss of four crew members after her trawl line was snagged by Royal Navy Trafalgar-class nuclear powered submarine HMS Trenchant. An investigation by the Marine Accident Investigation Branch concluded that the accident had been caused by "a partial breakdown in both the structure and the standards of watchkeeping on board Trenchant".