The watercolour of the Nil Desperandum joins lots by famous Hull and East Yorkshire marine artists
Painting of the Nil Desperandum by Alexander Harwood(Image: davidduggleby.com)
A rare painting of a Victorian Hull trawler that was sunk in a devastating First World War attack on the North Sea fishing fleet is to go under the hammer in an auction after turning up in a private local collection. The Nil Desperandum was a 140-ton screw steamer that was built at Cook, Welton and Gemmell’s Hull shipyard in 1889 for the Humber Steam Trawling Company.
She sailed out of Hull for a quarter of a century before being sold on to the Progress Steam Trawling Company of Scarborough in 1913. Nil Desperandum was in a fleet of trawlers that were fishing just 20 miles off the Yorkshire coast in September 1916 when they were attacked by a German submarine.
Nineteen boats – 11 Scarborough trawlers, five from Grimsby and others from Hull, Hartlepool and Whitby – were sunk after the crews had been ordered to abandon ship. Dominic Cox, of auctioneers David Duggleby, said: “Surfacing under the cover of darkness the U-57 caught the unarmed trawlers cold, many of them with their nets in the water.
“They were sunk one after another, all by gunfire with the exception of the Nil Desperandum which had a bomb placed in the engine room. 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.”
Dominic said: “The watercolour portrait of the Nil Desperandum – the ship’s name being Latin for ‘Never Despair’ – was painted by Alexander Harwood (1851-1922) in 1911. That was two years before she departed to Scarborough, and so she appears in Humber Steam Trawling colours with a Hull fishing number.
“Harwood was a self-trained artist, a man who actually spent many years as a dockworker. He did not even begin painting until he was in his forties but his fishing boat portraits quickly became fashionable with the owners and skippers who operated the new steam trawlers.
“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. Fortunately, Harwood’s paintings of the Nil Desperandum and the Greyhound, another Hull trawler, were saved by a local history enthusiast many years ago. They are now very rare – and very collectable.”
Friday’s Fine Paintings auction at David Duggleby’s Scarborough saleroom has a spectacular entry of the work of some of the most famous Hull and East Yorkshire marine artists of the past 200 years. The auction includes a pair of paintings by John Ward (1798-1849), the outstanding Hull artist of the Georgian period.
His oil on panels entitled Becalmed and Dead Calm were first exhibited at the Hull and East Riding Exhibition in 1829. They are expected to make £3,000-£5,000. Meanwhile, a strikingly moody painting of Hull Docks by Henry Redmore (1820-1887), a mass of sailing vessels in a view that has been described as “Turner-esque” is expected to make several hundred pounds as is a painting by another 19th Century giant, William Frederick Settle (1821-1897), an 1874 watercolour of a British man of war among shipping.
The 20th Century Hull and East Yorkshire artists in the sale include Walter Goodin, Graham Kingsley Brown, Michael J. Whitehand and Jack Rigg. The auction also has a particularly fine collection of the work of Adrian Thompson – seven maritime paintings, three steam railway pictures and a Monte Carlo view – a collection that was amassed by a close friend of the artist.
Dominic said: “One of the most striking Thompson paintings takes us back to another astonishing North Sea tragedy – the Dogger Bank Incident of 1904 – when during the Russo-Japanese War, the Russian Navy mistook Hull fishing trawlers for Japanese Navy torpedo boats and fired on them, and each other! Two fishermen died, six more were injured, one fishing vessel was sunk, and five more were damaged.”
Adrian Thompson painted the picture in 2004 to commemorate the centenary of the incident. Viewing of the Fine Paintings auction is taking place at David Duggleby’s Vine Street Salerooms in Scarborough throughout this week including the morning of the sale, Friday June 5, from 9am until the start of the auction at 11am.
The catalogue is available on the firm’s website at davidduggleby.com
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