Although the ships suffered no material damage and no human casualties occurred, Britain issued a formal demand for "an immediate and public apology from the Albanian Government".

[1] Following the third incident, Albania, under prime minister Enver Hoxha, dispatched a telegram to the United Nations complaining about an incursion by the Royal Navy into Albanian coastal waters.

[4][23] On 9 December 1946 Britain sent a note to the Albanian government accusing Albania of laying the mines and demanding reparations for the May and October incidents.

Britain demanded a reply within fourteen days, mentioning that in the event of an Albanian refusal to pay reparations the matter would be referred to the UN Security Council.

[1] The British government did not find this response satisfactory and it eventually brought its case to the International Court of Justice, having failed in its attempt to involve the Security Council in the matter.

[1][4][11][24] The gold, looted by the Axis powers from Albania during World War II, was stored in the vaults of the Bank of England and was awarded to the Albanians by the US-UK-France tripartite commission in 1948 after it was retrieved by the Allies.

[1][4][3] Enver Hoxha, in his memoirs about his first meeting with Joseph Stalin, claimed that the whole affair was concocted by the British as an excuse to conduct naval patrols near Saranda.

He also criticised the presence of the Royal Navy in the region, writing that "There was no reason for these ships to be sailing along our coast, they had not notified us about such a movement.

[6] On 2 November 2009 a team of US and Albanian researchers announced that they found what they believe to be the bow segments of HMS Volage in the Corfu Channel under approximately fifty metres of water.

[30] In May 2013, a special edition of Archaeology Magazine entitled "Shipwrecks", specifically, the article "Righting a Cold War Wrong: Where was HMS Volage?"

This claim was further reinforced by James P. Delgado, Director of Maritime Heritage for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

[31] The International Court of Justice ruling in the case established a precedent regarding whether a violation of territorial sovereignty is justified intervention.

The United Kingdom claimed it was justified in entering Albanian territorial waters on 12 and 13 November 1946 to secure evidence needed to support its case.

Intervention is perhaps still less admissible in the particular form it would take here; for, from the nature of things, it would be reserved for the most powerful States, and might easily lead to perverting the administration of inter-national justice itself.

But to ensure respect for international law, of which it is the organ, the Court must declare that the action of the British Navy constituted a violation of Albanian sovereignty.