The world is cruel, and the only morality in a cruel world is chance.: March 2018

Images may not be in sequence.

The squadron arrived at Kronstadt Island on Monday 9 June to a gun salute from Russian destroyers, thousands of pleasure boats with flags flying, and crowds of cheering Russians thronging the quayside opposite. Pictured are HMS Princess Royal and the Russian cruiser Admiral Makarov.

Russian destroyer Zabaykalets with the British squadron in the background.

HMS Blonde (source)

HMS Boadicea

HMS Lion

HMS Queen Mary

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The tsar entertained Admiral Beatty and his officers to lunch at Peterhof, and at a garden party at the summer villa of Grand Duke Boris Vladimirovich at Tsarskoe Selo the girls all plied the British officers with questions. The inquisitive Anastasia was the most demanding; "her childish voice rang out above the hum of conversation", recalled Meriel. "You will take me up into your conning tower," she implored, and added mischievously, "Couldn't you let off one of the guns and just pretend it was a mistake?"

Цветинский. 11 Июня. Среда.
Утром был урок музыки. В 11 ч. я с Georgie и Изой пошли пешком в Большой Дворец, который ему показывали. Завтрак был большой, с 11 английскими офицерами- моряками. В 3 ч. мы 4, Мама, Папа и Georgie поехали к д. Борису в сад, где т.Ducky и д. Кирилл устроили garden-party для англичан. Их было человек 50. Несколько атаманцев, стрелков, гусар (был Борис Голицин). Много дам. Очень было хорошо. Сидели под большими зонтиками. Очень тепло. Чай пили у нас на балконе. После возились у Georgie в комнатах. Обедали 2 Папа, Мама, Georgie и т. Ольга. После обеда Georgie уехал в Москву, а мы проводили т. Ольгу на моторе пол дороги до Петергофа. (Diary of Tatiana Nikolaevna - 1914, ГАРФ Ф. 651 оп. 1 д. 317 л. 37-38; Следствие длиною в век)

Georgie came to stay with his cousins at Tsarskoe Selo, during which time the officers of the Shtandart thought he paid a lot of attention to Tatiana, with whom he agreed to exchange letters.

Photo by MaritimeQuest (source)

The Russian Imperial Family on board of, probably, one of the Royal Navy ships. Admiral David Beatty is present (fourth from the right, standing) as well as Tsar Nicholas II (seventh from the right, standing). Q 69052

On the last day of the squadron's official visit, 14 June, a morning of brilliant sunshine and cloudless skies, the imperial family returned the admiral's visit, dining on board HMS Lion, after which the girls were shown round "every corner" of the ship by four eager young midshipmen who had been specially chosen by him. One of them, Harold Tennyson, remembered the thrill and honour: "I showed round Princess Olga, who is extraordinarily pretty and most amusing. The most cheery and pretty quartette I have met for some time, and roared with laughter and made jokes the whole time. If only they were not Princesses, I should not mind getting off with one!"

Nicholas II: When Maria turned 15, I took her aboard the British squadron that came on a friendly visit to our capital. We observed command cruiser ‘Lion’ and cruiser ‘New Zealand’. Brits were hospitable and amiable and showed us everything we displayed interest in #Romanovs100

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Alexandra Feodorovna on board HMS New Zealand. The New Zealand coat of arms is on the top left.
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A farewell ball for 700 guests was to be held later that evening on board the Lion and New Zealand specially roped together for the purpose, but much to the visitor's dismay Alexandra refused to allow her daughters to attend. Meriel Buchanan noticed a look of "wistful regret" on the faces of the British officers as they said goodbye to the four Romanov sisters.

The girls, as always, accepted their mother's decision "without demur or argument", though they had looked a little "crestfallen" and when Olga boarded the imperial launch taking them back to Peterhof "she looked back at the big grey ship, and waved her hand to the officers standing to attention on deck". She smiled, but there were tears in her eyes. It was a moment that, decades later, Meriel Buchanan would recall with an intense regret tinged by hindsight: "Happy voices, smiling faces, golden memories of a summer afternoon, of a world that could still laugh and talk of war as something far away."

"Seeing off the English squadron", 20 June 1914

"Проводы Английской эскадры", 20 июня 1914 года