44 Ë The Russo-Japanese War
was done on the boat, and a new crew hired. Four days later theSiriusleft Marseille,
arriving in Nikolo, Greece, where additional crew members were taken on.⁹¹
Successfully navigating through the Turkish Straits on 16 November with the help
of bribes and the implicit sympathy of Turkish o cials, theSiriusreached the Black
Sea the following day and proceeded to the Caucasus coast, avoiding an encounter
with enemy forces. On that day Dekanozishvili telegraphed to Batumi and Ti is that
the boat would reach the coast between 21 and 24 November. Considering that a large
garrison of Russian troops was stationed in Batumi at the time, a decision was made
for theSiriusto discharge its freight in Poti, a Black Sea coastal port in Georgia and
fty- ve kilometers north of Batumi. On 22 November the boat stood sixty-four kilo-
meters from the port. Waiting for night, the boat navigated to a point previously agreed
upon and sent a signal by lighting lamps to alert the rebels to its arrival,⁹²though only
on 24 November did the rebels nd theSirius. Taking advantage of the general chaos
of the time, they managed to unload 226 barrels of weapons and 330 of ammunition
using longboats. They then asked the captain to wait for further unloading until 27
November, by which time they promised to return with empty longboats. If they could
not return by then, the captain was authorized to dump the cargo and return home.⁹³
Meanwhile, one of the longboats loaded with weapons was blown o course by a
storm into Poti Bay, whereupon it was decided to unload the boat there. But a brawl
broke out between the Socialist Federalists and Social Democrats over the weapons,
during which the barrels were opened. The rebels were not familiar with the foreign
weapons, and one of them, loading a ri e, accidentally set o some shots. Alarmed,
Port authorities called in military units,⁹⁴and the Poti detachment of the Black Sea
Border Control Brigade and the rebels exchanged re. As a result, on the night of
27 November, seven hundred ri es were con scated in Poti.⁹⁵A gunboat was then
deployed to capture a fully loaded longboat, reportedly with twelve hundred ri es
and ammunition.⁹⁶(Some of the weapons seized by the Russians were subsequently
bought back by rebels from Russian soldiers!) One longboat, however, succeeded in
delivering its load (sixteen hundred ri es and ammunition) to Gagra, Abkhazia, where
the weapons and ammunition were hidden at the estate of Prince Aleksander Inal-
ishvili (Inal-ipa) in the village of Alakhadzy.⁹⁷There they were divided up and deliv-
91 “Stoom-Journaal van het Stoomschip Sirius,” 5 and Nozadze, “gardasrul zhamta ambavni da sak-
meni,” 123.
92 Nozadze, “gardasrul zhamta ambavni da sakmeni,” 124–125, 130–131.
93 Nozadze, “gardasrul zhamta ambavni da sakmeni,” 130–31 and Tugushi, “giorgi dekanozishvili,”
147–148.
94 Tugushi, “giorgi dekanozishvili,” 146.
95 GSCHA, f. 13, op. 29, d. 5, l. 2.
96 GSCHA, f. 13, op. 29, d. 5, l. 3. See also M. Tugushi, “giorgi dekanozishvili,” 146.
97 Sakhokia, “tsimbirshi. mogonebani 1905 ts’lis revolutsiis droidan,” 28—29, 38.