07.07.2024 Scarpa Flow Museum on Hoy

Today I stayed at home with Morgan and Bill (the new boy). Master and Missus were booked on the 9.30 car ferry from Houton to go over to Hoy and the newly refurbished Scarpa Flow Museum. There is a new café there now as well. Apparent the the journey on the ferry only takes 30mins. and the sea was calm. The museum is virtually on the quayside so not far to drive. Missus will take over the commentary now). When they walked in one of the curators asked us if we wanted to visit the café first or the museum, we said café, we were dying for a coffee by then! So we had a coffee and a cake each and felt fortified for the museum visit. We were glad we had done the visit that way round as there was so much to see in the museum. Scarpa Flow is a large deep bay surrounded by the Orkney Islands. Over millennia various fleets have used the bay in times of exploration, war and fishing. In 1812 when Britain was at war with America many ships of the Grand fleet were stationed in the Flow, and near the entrances to Scarpa Flow on land 2 Martello Towers were built, one with a nearby Battery. The Tower had a 24-pounder cannon on a circular rail on top of it. The other tower and battery are incomplete as the war with America ended. The way round the museum took you through the hall where the huge boilers were for driving the pumps. Also displays showed how the old Coal fired steam ships had stokers and a team of other men who's job was to keep moving the huge lumps of coal around to stop the ships from listing. Life was easier when the ships started being powered by oil. Once through these large machine halls we entered into a more sombre exhibition that concentrated on the two world wars and ships and lives that had been lost during these conflicts. At the end of the WW1 the German fleet were ordered into Skarpa flow while peace negotiations were taking place. they seemed to be taking a long time and the Germans thought that battle might resume, so one day eye witnesses saw the boats raise their Ensigns and then one by one they started to sink. On one board it described how a boat of Local School Children were being taken round these boats when they witnessed them starting to sink. So the German fleet were Skuttled in Scarpa flow. Word about the skuttling got round quickly and a local photographer was able to get to a view point and get some excellent pictures and was able to sell them to the Daily Sketch news paper and received £60 for them. WW2 once again saw the British fleet using Scarpa Flow and despite sunken ships and submarine nets a German U-Boat managed to get in and torpedoed the HMS Royal Oak that was moored there and sank it. most of the crew were drowned. Churchill had the Barriers built between 4 of the smaller islands to stop any enemy vessels getting in. Convoy Ships and escort ships collected in Skarpa Flow before setting off on supply missions in the North Atlantic.

Many of the German boats that were skuttled have been broken up and the metal sold off as it can be used again. Any British ships sunk are now war graves. There were many personnel items in this part of the exhibition given by the families of the service men and women as well as items from the German ships.

We had lunch in the café and then went off to find the Martello Tower we could see from the museum. Having found that we then went to find the look out were the WRNS worked in WW2. This was right at the top of a hill with a superb view across the water and other islands in Skapa Flow. By the afternoon it had turned cold and rainy.

We caught the 16.15 Ferry back from Hoy. The sea was quite calm. Missus had bought me a badge to wear. It is now on my jumper.