Dogger Bank

Dogger Bank, extensive flat sandbank near the middle of the North Sea, between England on the west and Denmark on the east. It has an average breadth of about 65 km (40 mi) and is about 255 km (160 mi) long. The water is generally less than 37 m (120 ft) deep and towards the English coast is little more than 15 m (50 ft) deep. The bank has been a commercial fishing ground for centuries; cod, plaice, and herring are especially abundant.

The Dogger Bank has been the site of several naval engagements. During a conflict related to the American War of Independence, a British fleet routed (1781) the Dutch here. In 1904, during the Russo-Japanese War, the Russian Baltic squadron, under Admiral Zinovy Rozhestvensky, fired by mistake upon a British fishing fleet and killed two men. The incident was arbitrated by an international commission, and Russia paid damages. During World War I, a British fleet under the command of Vice-Admiral Sir David Beatty defeated (1915) a German fleet commanded by Rear Admiral Franz von Hipperin in the Battle of the Dogger Bank.