Rising Sun and Tumbling Bear is correct, Rozhestvenskii did order Rear Admiral Felkerzam's newly-christened Third Pacific Squadron to make the transit via the Canal. There were several reasons for this.

One rationale was that Felkerzam's ships were both lighter and unable to carry as much coal as the main battle line under Rozhestvenskii's flag. There was a fear that these smaller ships would hamper the already complicated logistics of the voyage. Moreover, there was also a fear that the heavily-laden battleline might also find itself aground in the narrow waters off Suez because the amount of coal taken aboard had increased their draft.

But it was more than just practical matters of logistics that underlay the division of the fleet. The same fears that inspired the Dogger Bank incident were still at play and there was a fear that the Japanese could have naval forces in the restricted waters of the Mediterranean. Felkerzam's ships were not only a tad more maneuverable, they were also expendable for the whole fleet. His ships were either older ones or auxiliaries.

The expendable nature of Third Pacific Squadron also reflected the fear that Britain could prevent the whole enterprise. Rozhestvenskii was afraid that the British control over the Canal meant they could use whatever pretext to detain or even seize the battlefleet. The 1888 Convention of Constantinople sanctified the Canal as an international waterway and guaranteed rights of access. But the Convention also had provisions governing the transit of warships and ships of belligerent powers that limited their loiter times in the Canal or coaling at Canal ports. The British, as the de facto controlling power of the Canal, had the power to interpret the Convention's provisions. They had already done so during the Spanish-American War when they narrowly interpreted the Convention to minimize the time Spain's warships spent coaling and refitting while making a transit to the Philippines. The Dogger Bank incident certainly did not endear the Russian fleet to the British and there was a fear that the British could interpret the Convention against Russia's interests. Moreover, the Convention was still a relatively untested treaty and it was unclear from Rozhestvenskii's perspective whether or not the British would abide by it or if the Egyptian government would alter the rules for coaling.

So even if Dogger Bank did not alter the Convention, the bad blood the incident created between Britain and Russia had the potential for British to use the Convention against Russia. This, coupled with the already severe logistical problems of the fleet, meant that sending Felkerzam's more expendable and lighter ships to transit the Canal was a calculated risk on the part of Rozhestvenskii and one that paid off. The British did not unduly delay or pester Felkerzam's detachment and the transit showed Britain's commitment to the Convention. Unfortunately, the subsequent Japanese triumph at Tsushima negated this small victory.