Lot 20169 – 1904 Five postcards concerning the Hull outrage. F

1904 Five postcards concerning the Hull outrage. Firstly an artist’s impression of the Russian outrage on Hull fishing fleet, October 1904, on postcard sent from Ardrossan to Saltcoats (Scotland). On the night of 21/22 October 1904 the Russian Baltic Fleet, while in the North Sea on its way to the Far East, ran into a group of trawlers from Hull fishing off the Dogger Bank and poured hundreds of shells into them believing them to be enemy torpedo boats. The Russian fleet then steamed on its way regardless of the casualties and damage it had inflicted. This outrage brought Britain to the brink of war with Russia . Crowds demonstrated in London and the British Royal Navy made ready to intercept and engage the Russian fleet. War was averted when, after an International North Sea Inquiry Commission, the Russians agreed to compensate the families of the dead and wounded and to replace the trawlers lost or damaged in the incident. In May 1905 this ill-fated Russian fleet, renamed The 2nd Pacific Squadron was annihilated in the Battle of Tsushima (Sea of Japan) in the greatest naval disaster of modern times. The other postcards depict the funeral procession for the trawlermen killed in the incident and the Inquiry Commission in Paris January 1905 showing the British Delegation, trawler company owners and senior management at the back, with managers, captains and fishermen on the steps below. A rare card but heavily creased. And finally two postcards showing the damaged trawlers themselves