U-boat victim among rare trawler auction paintings

2 hours ago

Eleanor MaslinEast Yorkshire and Lincolnshire

News image — The Nil Desperandum was painted in 1911 by Alexander Harwood

David Duggleby Auctioneers A trawler boat is painted in watercolour and making its way through the ocean with steady waves. A person can be seen at the front of the boat. Seagulls can be seen flying behind it and the sky is yellow. Another boat can be seen in the distance. — The Nil Desperandum was painted in 1911 by Alexander Harwood

A rare painting of a Hull trawler sunk by a U-boat in World War One is among several marine works going to auction.

The watercolour portrait of the Nil Desperandum, Latin for 'never despair', was painted by Alexander Harwood in 1911.

The Victorian trawler is among the paintings by marine artists from Hull and East Yorkshire included in the auction at David Duggleby in Scarborough.

Dominic Cox from the auctioneers said paintings of old trawlers had been "thrown away over the years" but the Nil Desperandum was saved by a local enthusiast, and was now seen as "very rare – and very collectable".

David Duggleby Auctioneers A man with glasses and a stripy shirt is holding up a gold frame on to a wall that shows a dark and stormy painting of boats upon the water. It depicts the Dogger Bank Incident. — The auction includes a painting of The Dogger Bank Incident of 1904 by Adrian Thompson

The painting of Nil Desperandum depicts the 140-ton screw steamer that was used in a World War One attack on the North Sea fishing fleet.

It appears in Humber Steam Trawling colours with a Hull fishing number, as it was created two years before it left for Scarborough, the auctioneers said.

In 1916, the vessel was in a fleet of trawlers fishing 20 miles (32km) off the Yorkshire Coast when they were attacked by a German submarine.

Disaster struck with 11 Scarborough trawlers, five from Grimsby and others from Hull, Hartlepool and Whitby, being sunk after the crews were ordered to abandon ship.

The trawler was built at Cook, Welton and Gemmell's shipyard in Hull in 1889 for the Humber Steam Trawling Company and sailed out of Hull for a quarter of a century before it was sold to Scarborough's Progress Steam Trawling Company in 1913.

David Duggleby Auctioneers A painting with dark yellow, orange and brown tones depicting several boats surrounding each other with an abandoned barrel in the water at the front. — Henry Redmore's view of Hull Docks in Victorian times will also go under the hammer

Cox said: "No-one died in the attack but it devastated the Scarborough trawling fleet and resulted in all fishing operations off the Yorkshire coast being halted."

He described the painter Harwood as a "self-trained artist, who actually spent years as a dockworker".

"He was prolific but much of his output has been lost – sold by the fishing families or even thrown away over the years when interest in pictures of old trawlers waned," he added.

Adrian Thompson's painting from 2004 of the Dogger Bank Incident of 1904 is also among those going to auction.

It captures the moment when the Russian navy mistook Hull fishing trawlers for Japanese navy torpedo boats and fired on them during the Russo-Japanese War.

The paintings will go under the hammer at 11:00 BST on Friday.

Listen to highlights fromHull and East Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, watch the latest episode of Look North.

Download the BBC News app from the App Storefor iPhone and iPad orGoogle Play for Android devices