| |
| History | |
|---|---|
| Name |
|
| Owner | Akashi Motojiro (1905) |
| Launched | 1883 |
| Fate | Destroyed by explosives 1905 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type | Steamboat |
| Tonnage | 315 tons |
SS John Grafton was a steamship that was used in an unsuccessful attempt to smuggle large quantities of arms for the Finnish resistance to the Imperial Russian regime in 1905 during the Russo-Japanese War. The matter later came to be known as the "Grafton Affair".
When Finland had become a grand duchy in the Russian empire in 1809, Finland was allowed to keep its own laws, language and religion. In the end of the 19th century this position was threatened, as Russification policies were suggested and attempted. The Russification campaign resulted in resistance of which the arms smuggling by John Grafton was a part. Eventually no military action resulted at the time, though Finland did eventually declare independence on 6 December 1917 following the October Revolution in Russia.
John Grafton was a 315-ton ship built in 1883. It was bought by Japanese army officer and intelligence agent Akashi Motojiro in 1905 to aid an armed uprising in Finland. This was done nominally in the name of a sympathetic London wine merchant. The ship sailed to Flushing and on 28 July and the ship was renamed the Luna. The wine merchant sold the ship to a non British firm on this day, but did not report it. However, a subsequent inquiry conducted by the Maritime Department of the Board of Trade in September was able to retrospectively remove the ship from the English register of shipping, avoiding embarrassment when its subsequent activities came to the attention of the Russian authorities.