I spent the night in the camp site on the Ness of Stromness, which I found out the following day had been a serious gun emplacement in the Wars.
I like Stromness. You can feel the weight of its history when walking down the main street: all the sea faring, search for the North West Passage, the Wars, and for the Australians,Eliza Fraser.
And it’s got a great museum. For instance:
One of the torpedoes that sank HMS Royal Oak (more about this on 29th and 30th May) and, even better?…
a necklace of human teeth presented to Jack Renton by the Chief of Sulufou in Melanesia. Not quite so exciting, a selection of scrimshaw:
While I was there someone came in with a WWII German map of Scapa Flow and there was a great discussion about how accurate they had been…
The museum also told the tale of the scuttling of the German fleet after the German defeat in WWI. They were all herded into Scapa Flow and the Allies were squabbling about who should get what ships (my interpretation). There were skeleton crews on board and the Germans agreed a secret signal which when given all the water cocks would be opened in all the German ships and military were caught completely unaware and were unable to do anything about it. Between the wars a lot of the ships were salvaged and some of the salvage was sold back to Germany….
I didn’t go into the Stromness Hotel but it was HQ for the military in the War(s)
A waiting teddy
Login’s Well, used for watering ships, including for the Hudson Bay Co, Captain Cook and Sir John Franklin
Stromness’s Scurvy hospital
Stromness high street
The modern port
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