the fishing grounds under an unstable joint sovereignty understanding, but the respective fishery captains were given what were described by the local press as "autocratic powers". These powers were given to the captains by the Newfoundland government, granted via yearly act of the Newfoundland Legislature. In 1900, the bill was rejected in an attempt to force the British to act over what was seen as an encroaching and overbearing French presence. The British prepared to defend the area against the three French warships sent to the area each year. Colonel T Henry McCallum was appointed as governor of the colony. McCallum had already built a reputation for organising the defence of colonies, having previously fortified Singapore and Hong Kong. Fifty men were taken aboard as part of a local naval reserve force, with the hope of expanding the force to as many as 1,000 within a few years. There were also plans to turn St. John's into a naval fortress, akin to that of Halifax, Nova Scotia. Lord Astor incident Tensions between Russia and the UK were heightened after the Dogger Bank incident of 1904, and on 9 May 1923 a trawler from Hull—the Lord Astor—was seized by a Soviet gunboat off the coast of Murmansk for alleged illegal fishing. The trawler was captured after the fishery protection sloop returned briefly to Norway to re-coal and resupply. Godetia was soon relieved by under Captain Evans, commander of the fishery protection cruiser squadron. 1950s —from the Scottish region of the Fishery Protection Squadron—was sent to Lossiemouth on 1 June 1953, to act as reviewing ship for a "Coronation fleet review" involving about 70 fishing vessels from the ports of Hopeman, Burghead and Nairn, as well as Lossiemouth proper. A Fleet Air Arm helicopter gave a demonstration of air-sea rescue operations as part of the display. On 17 April 1957, the Glasgow Herald reported that several East Anglian herring drifters (based at Aberdeen) were encountering trouble with Russian fisherman, who were intentionally fouling the nets of the British in the fishing grounds 40 miles off the coast of Norway. The Ocean Starlight (Yarmouth) lost 50 nets, the George Spashett (Lowestoft) lost 42, and the Ocean Sunlight (Lowestoft) lost 14. The skippers lodged complaints with the Fishery Board Officer at Aberdeen, and it was considered "possible that a fishery protection vessel may be sent". About a year later, in April 1958, was sent