Mike Baker

A civilian vessel gets too close to a warship, the warship responds, eh, end of story.

Except, that's not quite how Russia says this unfolded.

Moscow says the crew first tried to contact the yacht by radio.

When that didn't work, the defense ministry says, quote, "...signal flares were fired and sound signals were issued in an effort to get the vessel's attention."

Moscow says that after all that, the yacht still didn't change course.

Defense officials claim the distance between the two vessels continued shrinking until they were less than 500 feet apart.

At that point, according to the Russian account, the commanding officer made the decision to, quote, fire warning shots from small arms across the yacht's course.

The yacht then altered course and moved away.

Now, it's worth noting that British authorities have not confirmed that account from the Russian Defense Ministry.

In fact, the UK Defense Ministry says it is currently investigating the incident.

A British official familiar with the matter, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the encounter occurred 20 nautical miles south of the Isle of Wight and outside British territorial waters.

The official confirmed that the Royal Navy patrol vessel HMS Mercy was monitoring the Russian warship at the time.

Now, on its own, a dispute between a warship and a civilian vessel, well, that would be noteworthy enough.

But some of you history buffs know this could have been something else entirely.

Look no further than, of course, the Dogger Bank Incident of 1904, or the Dogger Bank Incident of 1904, depending on what part of the country you're from.

For those of you not familiar, this incident unfolded during the Russo-Japanese War.

We are dipping back in history, aren't we?

When a ship of the Russian Baltic Fleet mistakenly opened fire on British civilian fishermen after misidentifying them as Japanese torpedo boats.

Oops.

Well, three fishermen were killed in that incident, several others wounded, and the event brought Britain and Russia dangerously close to war.