EPILOGUE

A few notes remain to be added to the preceding pages to complete the story of Scapa to the present time. The war necessarily left its aftermath at Scapa, as elsewhere, and although much of the "clearing up" has been accomplished, there will remain for many years visible traces of the "naval occupation" of the Orkneys.

The signing of the Armistice in November, 1918, entailed only a cessation of active hostilities, and it was not until the summer of 1919 that the reversion of the Base from a war to a peace footing really began. One of the earliest and most important operations to be undertaken after the Armistice was the clearance of the North Sea mine barrage between the Orkneys and Norway, which has already been briefly referred to. This entailed a sweep over an area of 6,000 square miles, and the destruction of over 70,000 mines. The American Minesweeping Detachment, to which the major portion of this task was allotted, arrived in Kirkwall in April, 1919, and by the end of September of that year their task had been successfully accomplished, and the northern gateway was open once more to the mercantile traffic of the world.

The mines which had been laid in the smaller areas around the entrances to the Flow were exploded simultaneously in sections—a very much simpler task, as these were connected electrically to shore stations. The photographs on p. 140 give some idea of the force of the explosions, which were audible for miles around. It is of interest to note that the buoy shown on the left of the photograph on the lower part of p. 140 marks the resting-place of the German submarine which was sunk in this minefield a few days before the Armistice.

The removal of the booms and the release of the boom defence drifters and trawlers was completed before the end of 1919. The fishermen who formed the crews of these vessels, incidentally, deserve to be recognised for their work during the war, the monotony and isolation of which made their task one of the least enviable at the Base.

The raising of the barrier at Clestron (see p. 39) proved a more formidable operation. The ice-breaker "Sviagator," early in 1920, made the unique experiment of crushing some of the hurdles to a sufficient depth to allow vessels of medium draught to pass over with safety, but it was not until the summer of 1920 that the removal of the hurdles was undertaken and completed by a salvage company, and the rails shipped south.

The raising of the "block" ships, which had been sunk in some of the narrow channels leading into the Flow, appears to have presented almost insuperable difficulties, mainly owing to tidal currents, and there does not seem to be much likelihood that the vessels in Burra and Water Sounds will ever be raised. In Holm Sound, however, one of the sunken ships, S.S. "Aorangi," was successfully salved by the East Coast Wrecking Company on 8th September, 1920, and beached near the churchyard at Holm.

Of the temporary shore establishments at Scapa very little now remains, and the buildings which are still standing have nearly all been converted to meet peace-time requirements. The "miniature base" at Lyness is in the hands of caretakers, and the completion of the wharf (on which £300,000 has been spent) has been stopped, whilst the control of the Naval Area, which since February, 1920, had been in the hands of Captain Alan G. Bruce, R.N., C.B., D.S.O., was on 1st December, 1920, removed to Invergordon.

The air stations at Houton, Smoogro, Caldale, and Stenness have been closed down or removed, whilst the seaplane station at Scapa has been acquired by the Orkney County Council as a tuberculosis hospital. Nearly all the shore batteries have been dismantled, the guns removed, the searchlights withdrawn, and the huts sold or demolished. Only at Hoy (Stromness) are the batteries intact, but these are in charge of a civilian caretaker. The Royal Marine Station at Carness (near Kirkwall) remains, but as a smallpox hospital under the Orkney County Council.

Various schemes have been under consideration for the removal of the sunken German ships, but at present they still remain as they sank on the memorable 21st June, 1919—a constant source of danger to ships passing through the narrow channels where they lie. It remains to be seen whether steps will eventually be taken to remove the more dangerous of these vessels, or whether they will remain as a permanent memorial of one of the most dramatic episodes of naval history.

PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY BILLING AND SONS, LTD., GUILDFORD AND ESHER