Russia's Supreme Court upheld a lower court's acquittal of a former navalcaptain turned environmentalist, Alexander Nikitin , who had been tried for spying.
In 1875, a British navalcaptain named Sir Frederick Evans finally began crossing some of these phantoms out, removing no fewer than 123 fake islands from the British Admiralty Charts.
To the students of war, the conflict seemed to vindicate Captain Alfred Thayer Mahan, an adviser to McKinley, who had in 1890 written a book preaching the importance of naval power.