On Monday, 21 November 2016 20:42:16 UTC, Rod Speed wrote:

He should have been charged and jailed for doing that.

He was a man of honour.

Soon after midnight on Saturday 6 October 1901, Lightoller, accompanied by two shipmates, quietly rowed to the fortress and climbed its tower. They accessed the fort by means of the lightning conductor and hoisted a makeshift Boer flag on the tower.

They loaded a cannon with 14 lb (6.4 kg) of blasting powder and a similar amount of fine-grain powder and rammed in a harmless wad of white cotton waste. They lit a 50 ft (15 m) fuse, and while escaping in desperation, their small rowboat was found to have been holed by rocks.

The three managed to row to shore, run through Government House grounds, and reach Circular Quay by the time the cannon went off with "a huge flash", followed by "a crash like thunder" ... "just as the Post Office clock had struck the hour of 1 a.m."

Lightoller's plan was to fool the locals into believing a Boer raiding party was attacking Sydney and had captured Fort Denison. When the heavy gun went off, the resounding bang blew out windows and woke residents, who leapt from their beds to see what was happening. When a Boer flag was found fluttering in the dawn breeze there was panic.

The local press dismissed the episode as "a foolish and mad brained business", for which the culprits were never found.The only reported damage was the breakage of some windows at Fort Denison. Lightoller's only admission was to the line's Marine Superintendent, "Daddy" Hewitt in Liverpool, who laughed, tore up Lightoller's resignation, and told him to get back to his ship..