The Aftermath of The Dreadnought Hoax

Adrian Stephens vividly described a caper perpetrated by some of his Cambridge friends and his sister Virginia in his essay "The Dreadnought Hoax." It was as an elaborate hoax as any of the pranks pulled by Frank Abagnale Jr. in the movie "Catch Me If You Can." In 1910, Anthony Buxton, Guy Ridely, Duncan Grant, and Virginia Woolf imitated foreign diplomats from Abyssinia by dressing up in elaborate Eastern robes, mustaches, false beards, and blackened faces. Horace Cole and Stephens attempted to look like British foreign office officials. Cole and Stephens learned some Swahili to convince the Admiralty that they were real interpreters. They got so involved in their roles that they almost forgot it was a hoax. Stephens wrote: "We were almost acting the truth. Everyone was expecting us to act as the emperor and his suite, and it would have been extremely difficult not to" (35). This group duped the Royal Navy into letting them inspect the H.M.S. Dreadnought, one of Britain's most important warships. They were shown secret areas of the ship and were even able to fool one of the officers on the ship who knew Virginia and Horace Cole, yet did not recognize them.

The group's secret was revealed when someone leaked a photo and sent a letter into the newspaper, Daily Mirror. The ruse proved to be an embarrassment to the Royal Navy and the Foreign Office because Cole and his friends were known pacifists. The Navy became an object of ridicule, because many thought the sailors were stupid to be duped by Cole and his friends in the first place. The Royal Navy tried to retaliate by having Cole arrested, but Cole and his friends had not broken any laws. Then the Navy sent two officers to cane Cole, but Cole jested that the Navy officers should be caned instead because they were the fools. He was finally given six taps on his hindquarters and six ceremonial taps were given by him in return. One positive outcome of the incident was that security was tightened on the British naval ships after the incident. In fact, when the real Emperor of Ethiopia, Menelik II visited England, he requested to see the Royal Navy ships. His request was denied by a senior Admiralty officer to avoid further embarrassment.

To Cole, Stephens, and other members of the Bloomsbury group, the H.M.S. Dreadnought, was a symbol of British imperialism which they felt England should be renouncing. It was a reminder of the past - the Victorian Age. Most of the Bloomsbury Group were against war of any kind, yet Stephens did acknowledge that he did not want to demean the bravery of the naval officers. He stated: "Bravery is as much a matter of professional pride to them as is the quality of his potatoes to a greengrocer" (43). This seemed to be his way of apologizing for his part in the hoax.