Yesterday, we had a 101-st anniversary of Dreadnought hoax - a practical joke by a Bloomsbury Group, beautifly portrayed by Robert K. MAssie in "Dreadnought"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dreadnought_hoax

 

 

That is great and I've never heard of it before!

I have; the particular term involved emerged more recently regarding scandals with the Italian Prime Minister.

Bunga.

I'm ashamed of not known previously that story

I like this part, remembers me other similar military stories:

In Weymouth, the navy welcomed the princes with an honour guard. An Abyssinian flag was not found, so the navy proceeded to use that of Zanzibar and to play Zanzibar's national anthem.

Not directly naval related, but military and militarism related, this other one-person very famous hoax, the Captain of Kopenick (now a Berlin borough), some four years earlier, and perhaps inspiration of the Dreadnought hoax:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelm_Voigt

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Captain_o...B6penick_(play)

Very interesting. There have been some great hoaxes over the years.

 

Köpenick is now part of Treptow-Köpenick; there was a big merger of Berlin boroughs in 2001, which has also pretty much erased the old Berlin Wall line from the city's map.

I'm ashamed of not known previously that story

I like this part, remembers me other similar military stories:

In Weymouth, the navy welcomed the princes with an honour guard. An Abyssinian flag was not found, so the navy proceeded to use that of Zanzibar and to play Zanzibar's national anthem.

Not directly naval related, but military and militarism related, this other one-person very famous hoax, the Captain of Kopenick (now a Berlin borough), some four years earlier, and perhaps inspiration of the Dreadnought hoax:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelm_Voigt

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Captain_o...B6penick_(play)

 

Hahaha, an "amiable scoundrel".

I've read about Voigt somewhere, but I don't remember where exactly. Perhaps Dennis Showalter in his "Tannenberg: Clash of Empires" wrote something about this scam.