The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1920-08-16

ISH|P NOW UNDER A
RUSSIAN REGISTRY
BECOMES CENTER OF.
SERIOUS MOMENT
BETWEEN Z NATIONS
The Rogday, Formerly Of
Great Lakes Merchant
Flotilla, Was Seized
by the Russ

San Francisco, CAL. Aug. 16.-Ths
Hogday, transport Of the Russian vol
unteer fleet, which arrived in San
Francisco harbor from New York
Via. MANI .illo for bunkers on Janu-
ary "a has become the central figure
IN new international situation in
volVng two extinct Russian govern.
ments, the Kerensky and Kolchak re-
glme, and the United States.
The history of the Rogday includes
service on the Great Lakes las well
as duty as freight carrier and trans
port for the Russian government in
the Russian volunteer fleet. She serv-
ed on the Great Lakes as the Nevada
and was constructed by the Manitow-
&C Shipbuilding and Drydock company
at Chicago.
The Rogday is a steel screw propeller
steamer with a net tonnage OF l,O1S
tons, or gross tonnage OF 2,2l2 tons.
She is electrically lighted, equipped
with wireless telegraph and has three
decks. Duluth, Mimi, was the home
port of the Rogday while under Amer
lean registry. Her registry was
changed to Russian at the time Of
her sale to Russia.
Following litigation in federal courts
here, the Rogday was ordered handed
over to Commander Gordeney, repre-
sentative of the Kolchak government.
who was the Rogday's captain when
she put into port at San Francisco.
on the morning OF Saturday, July
"a, boarding party under the lead
ership of Lieutenant Commander Benk-
levsky, d. c., went aboard the Rogday
which was moored in China Basin,
and seized the transport.
Captain Mily Gordeney, deposed com.
mander of the Rogday in a statement
following the seizure of the transport
said he was commissioned by the
Kolchak government known as the
old Russian government, in October,
1919 and was to proceed from New
York via. the Panama Canal TO San
Francisco, thence to Vladivistok. Ar
irving at San Francisco in January,
1920, was told to discharge my
cargo and send it to Seattle. My
cargo was worth 100000 and my
ship 100000, but l had no control
over the cargo, hence / did as l was
ordered to do on advice from the
embassy.
But in February the embassy wired
me that Admiral Kolchak was dead
and that the old Russian government
had fallen, adding that was TO
give up my ship. This l refuse to
do, as l considered til" the ship be-
longed to the Russian people and not
to any party which CHANGED to be in
power.
Later this year Benklevsky came
aboard several times trying to urge
me to leave my ship, but refused.
He is al assistant naval attache OF
thhe Russian embassy at Washington.
He came aboard Friday. July 23,
the day before the seizure and told
me at that time he was going TO Del
Monte a summer resort near san
Francisco. on pleasure trip, He said
lfldt hh~
at san Francisco, was also going
ont of the city. He did this to throw
me off the track. as the next morn
iffg he Gale aboard at o'clock
armed.
United States naval officers at
Mare Island, Cal, following the selz-
ure of the Rogday by Benklevsky ana
his followers declared that the status
of the transport should be determined
by the American state department be-
cause Of the international question
concerned insofar as Captain Benk'
levsky claimed to be a representative
of the Kerensky regime, which is the
only Russian government recognized
by the Unved States.
Although each faction involved in
the controversy has charged the other
with being in some manner connected
with the bolshevist government in
Russia, each in turn vigorously denied
that it sought possession Of the Rogday
in behalf of the soviet regime.