Lot 907

Egypt-Israel 1967-1974, 'The Yellow Fleet' in The Great Bitter Lake - Collection letters and postcards forming the history of the Yellow Fleet with a nice description of the situation, consisting of 18 reply-postcards (10 Dutch and 8 German) and 25 letters, all with special cancels of the Bitter Lake Association and party (21) with privately made 'stamps' incl. genuinely used on correspondence and C.T.O. letters. Also 2 bills of cargo. A unique lot with modern postal history, please view! In 1967, in the aftermath of the Six-Day War, fifteen ships became stranded in the Suez Canal. As Israel took control of the Sinai Peninsula, Egypt blocked the canal to prevent Israeli access. The ships dropped anchor in the Great Bitter Lake, where desert winds covered them in sand, earning them the nickname 'The Yellow Fleet'. With no way out, the crews created their own floating society. They set up a postal service with handmade stamps and even held their own version of the Olympics in 1968. While most sailors were eventually evacuated, the ships remained—rotating crews kept them afloat until the canal reopened in 1975.