ship and try to return by sledges and boats. On 14 August 1874 the expedition reached the open sea and on 3 September finally set foot on Russian mainland. Between the centuries Crete Rebellion In late 1896 a rebellion broke out on Crete, and on 21 January 1897 a Greek army landed in Crete to liberate the island from the Ottoman Empire and unite it with Greece. The European powers, including Austria-Hungary, intervened, and proclaimed Crete an international protectorate. Warships of the k.u.k. Kriegsmarine patrolled the waters off Crete in blockade of Ottoman naval forces. Crete remained in an anomalous position until finally ceded to Greece in 1913. The Boxer Rebellion Austria-Hungary was part of the Eight-Nation Alliance during the Boxer Rebellion in China (1899–1901). As a member of the Allied nations, Austria sent two training ships and the cruisers , , , and and a company of marines to the North China coast in April 1900, based at the Russia concession of Port Arthur. In June they helped hold the Tianjin railway against Boxer forces, and also fired upon several armed junks on the Hai River near Tong-Tcheou. They also took part in the seizure of the Taku Forts commanding the approaches to Tianjin, and the boarding and capture of four Chinese destroyers by Capt. Roger Keyes of . In all k.u.k. forces suffered few casualties during the rebellion. After the uprising, a cruiser was maintained permanently on the China station, and a detachment of marines was deployed at the embassy in Peking. Lieutenant Georg Ludwig von Trapp, who served as a submarine commander during World War I and became famous in the musical The Sound of Music after World War II, was decorated for bravery aboard during the Rebellion. Montenegro During the First Balkan War Austria-Hungary joined Germany, France, the United Kingdom and Italy in blockading the seaport town of Bar (Antivari) in the Kingdom of Montenegro. European naval arms race Among the many factors giving rise to World War I was the naval arms race between the British Empire and Imperial Germany. Germany enhanced her naval infrastructure, building new dry docks, and enlarging the Kiel Canal to enable larger vessels to navigate it. However, that was not the only European naval arms race. Imperial Russia too had commenced building a new modern navy following their naval defeat in the Russo-Japanese War. The Austro-Hungarian Empire and the Kingdom