ABSTRACT
In February 1920, as the Russian White Army fled from Arkhangelsk and Murmansk, a group of British and Belgian soldiers jumped aboard the Russian steamship Lomonosoff and escaped to safety. The group later claimed they had saved the ship. Suing for a salvage award in a British court, their case would become a touchstone in the annals of maritime law. But was the Lomonosoff really saved from Russia, or was it stolen? If it was stolen, from whom was it stolen – from its non-Bolshevik Russian owners, or from the government in the Russian north? Did the north have a government at the time the ship was stolen, or was it in a state of anarchy? If it had a government, was it a Bolshevik one? And if the Bolsheviks had been in control, was their government recognized by the British courts? Finally, there was the question of whether saving oneself by using others’ commandeered property is really an act of ‘salvage’. These questions and others were at stake in the momentous court case, which this paper explores using newly uncovered documents from British and Belgian archives.
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Jeff Eden, Rescuers or Pirates? The Steamship Lomonosoff’s Escape from Murmansk and the 1920 Trial (2025) 46 Journal of Legal History 225-248. Published online: 2 June 2025.
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