News
Memories by Allan Taylor
02/11/2006 10:02:00
MUCH has been said, and written about, the loss of many good men who went down to the sea in ships in and around the Orkney Islands. Men who never returned to see their loved ones.
Big ships like the battleship HMS 'Royal Oak' launched in May 1916 -
the seventh ship to carry that name - and lost in Scapa Flow with over
800 lives. Then there was the cruiser, HMS 'Hampshire', launched in
1905, which saw service in the China Sea until 1915. She was
transferred to the northern patrols and in June 1916, close to the
Birsay coast, she struck a mine and sank while en-route to Russia with
Lord Kitchener on board. All but twelve hands were lost.
But what of the men on the small boats?
Men from Burray for example, who before the First World War fished for
the 'silver darlings' from Scalloway to Yarmouth in herring drifters up
to 100 feet long. They rode out the Atlantic swells round to the
westward or dodged a sudden squall in the close reaches of the North
Sea on slippery decks with no shelter from what the sea was throwing at
them, and other hazards.
Carried on board, if light was needed, was carbide, in a drum. If a
drum was broken adrift and water got in, there was an explosion on
board and this caused many injuries and deaths.
With the outbreak of the First World War, 6.25% of the Burray male
population were in the service and of them most were in the Royal Navy
Reserves (RNR). Many of their Drifters were taken over by the Navy, the
men were dressed up in bell bottom sailor suits, and many were lost at
sea.
My own grandmother, Eliza Taylor (born 1874), lost her son Tom Allan,
my uncle, in Scapa Flow on board a hospital ship, the 'Karia Parra',
and of her eight sisters, all had their husbands or sons in the RNR.
Agnes (born 1877) lost her husband James Copland in Holm Sound and her
son James Copland was lost with the Drifter 'South Esk'.
During the First World War fishing drifters were taken over by the Navy
and converted into minesweepers by paravanes, an apparatus towed by the
boats, fitted on each side of the bow and towed on a long wire cable
with saw-edged jaws.
This cut the moorings of a submerged mine and brought it to the surface where it could be sunk by rifle fire.
On the day in question, the 'South Esk' was sweeping along with the
'Olive' in Auskerry Sound. John Spence, a close neighbour of James
Copland was watching the 'South Esk'. They were winching in a sweep and
he saw the mate hold up his hand to the winchman to stop hauling, but
by the time the winch stopped the mine blew up and John Spence said he
saw the bow of the 'South Esk', even though it was a small ship, rise
and sink like a liner. (It is most likely he had been relating it to
paintings of the 'Titanic' a White Star liner that hit ice off Cape
Rose in April 1914 with the loss of 1500 souls .)
John Spence launched his dinghy and took a Newfoundland boy with him in
the boat. As the stern of the 'South Esk' sank, a man with his legs
blown off and surrounded by blood floated off and John Spence said the
Newfoundland boy screamed like a child. Alas, only three of the crew of
six were saved. The nameboard of the 'South Esk' came ashore below
James Copland's house and a neighbour, John Budge, gave it to the
grieving mother.
The 'Shapinsay', a small local cargo boat came here in 1950. She was
originally built as a trawler in 1913, and named the 'North Esk'.
Then there was the loss of the 'Laurel Crown' as told to me by Andrew Petrie (born 1915) at Little Ward, Burray.
His father, Dod Petrie, was skipper of the 'Laurel Crown' and his wife
was Florence Taylor (born 1891), another sister of my grandmother. With
the outbreak of the First World War, Dod Petrie got a letter telling
him he had a job on board the 'Seria' of Longhope, but the letter
arrived too late because by this time he had joined the minesweeper
'Swallow'. Then he got the choice of a trawler, the 'Dover Castle', but
he preferred the drifters, so when the 'Swallow went on refit he went
on the 'Laurel Crown', a wooden Fraserbrough drifter belonging to Frank
West.
The night before he was lost, he and his friend Danny Ward another
Burray man, met up and both bought a boot cleaning outfit and after
their evening ashore went back to their drifters.
In the morning, the 'Laurel Crown' was out off the Birsay land on a
sweep for mines in the area where the 'Hampshire' was lost. Other
drifters taking part in the sweep were the 'Guiding Star', 'Concordia'
and the 'Betsy Slater' and there could have been others.
Captain Clements, who was in charge of the drifters left Stromness, for
Ness Battery, to stop them sweeping off Marwickside by firing a shot
across their bows but they were too late. Susie, another Taylor sister
and twin sister of Flora, Dod Petrie's wife, lived in Marwick and she
and her husband were walking along the beach that fine June morning.
They were watching the drifters doing their sweep when there was a huge
explosion putting the gravel up at their feet. This was the 'Laurel
Crown' which, on a veer, caught two mines in her sweep resulting in
both mines coming up together and blowing the men and the boat to bits
only leaving body parts and bread floating on the sea. The only item
they could recognise of the crew of six was the engineer's uniform. The
engineer was Thomas Albert Baker, a Stromness man.
Folk in Stromness knew about the loss before morning from Danny Ward,
when he came into Burray pier, but no-one told Dod Petrie's wife before
morning. Florence always said that night she had had a bad dream that
she was out at sea and there was fish all around her.
Aggie, who lost her husband James Copland in Holm Sound and her son
James Copland in Auskerry Sound, married a Wilson from the coast about
1920 and went to live in Banff.
Another sister, Margaret, married Alex Findlay from Cullen. He had a
Zulu boat, the 'Edzell'. His father and brother wanted him to put money
in with them as they were building a new drifter the 'Christmas Morn'
in 1914 at the cost of £3000, but his wife Margaret did not agree as he
was doing well on his own.
How many other local men were lost through the cause of war, I don't
know, but the Taylor sisters shed many a tear during the First World
War, and I have heard many stories from my father Sandy Taylor who
salvaged ships in Scapa Flow.