Orkney and the Sea
An oral history
Edited and compiled by Kate Towsey

“From fishing to the lifeboats, from gathering spoots on the shoreline to life on a whaling ship, Orkney people talk about their memories and experiences of Orkney and the sea.”

Between June 2000, and May 2001, Orkney Heritage invited young people between the ages of 16 and 25 to take part in voluntary work which would be of benefit to the community. Through this Millennium Volunteers project, grant-aided by the Millennium Lottery Fund, the volunteers would first learn the basics of oral history research and the technicalities of sound and video recording. They would then travel all over Orkney recording people whose lives had been closely connected with the sea.

As a result, eight volunteers amassed a rich collection covering much of the 20th century, from the herring fishing and kelp industries to the modern diving and fishing industries, Coastguards and Lifeboats.

A large and handsomely produced paperback book and a CD record entitled Orkney and the Sea, an oral history, edited and compiled by Kate Towsey, the project co-ordinator, have now been published to give the public a taste of the range and quality of the collection.

The book begins with childhood memories: “We were in boats before we could walk,” remembers Captain Robbie Sutherland of Stromness. Willie Groat was taken from Longhope to Flotta to be baptised: “ . . . because it was a very dry spring and summer there was no water in the spring at the well near the Kirk. My father went down to the shore and he filled the baptismal bowl with salt water. So I was baptised with salt water . . . He told me that before he died.”

In the section on the shore, Geordie Costie remembers kelp burning in Westray: “I remember the pits being burnt and you had what is known as a kelp rake . . . a long bit o’ iron with a wooden handle because when it was hot it was just molten and it was very hot, a beautiful substance . . . ”

Seabirds’ eggs were traditional fare. Jimmy Groat remembers of Copinsay: “Before the First World War . . . and a lot of men in Deerness went down and they put a man down on a rope, all along the high cliffs . . . my father used to work at it . . . you never just got two the same colour . . . they were awfully bonny shells.”

Inshore fishing was widespread early in the century. Marcus Hewison of Westray recalls:

“I loved the fishing. It’s a grand healthy life. Up in the morning and early away. It’s grand. The smell o’ the sea, a creel coming up with a lobster flopping, the tail banging about, it is a grand sound, a grand sight. I loved the fishing but it just got the way that it wasna worthwhile.”

Women played a vital role on dry land, as Jenny Tulloch of North Ronaldsay recalls: “When the men went to the herring, when they had the big boats, the women would bake and they took their supply of food with them for the week. Bannocks, they used to make bannocks.”

The inter-island ferries were fewer and slower than the modern ro-ro service. Harcus Scott of Westray remembers travelling to Kirkwall in order to attend school in Stromness: “ . . . You were just on board for the day. The first thing you did when you got aboard was order your breakfast and order your dinner and you just settled down for a day on the sea . . . ”

Dangerous sea trips are recalled at length. Captain John Burgher served as a deckhand on Earl Thorfinn in 1953 when she was caught by a hurricane and blown to Aberdeen: “ . . . it’s just lucky we werenay all drowned. It was more than the ship was game for . . . [the passengers] were just hanging on below . . . there was no contact [with the shore] at all, nobody knew where we were. . . ’

Shipwrecks were sadly frequent; many Orcadians have served on the Lifeboats and as Coastguards. Helen Manson, from a family of South Ronaldsay Coastguards, recalls: “ . . . he said ‘You phone Lossiemouth’ and I did. They didn’t believe, they didn’t know there were women in the Coastguards. Very much surprised voice on the other end of the phone ‘Oh, we weren’t aware there were lady Coastguards’.”

While the islanders saved seafarers, they could also benefit from wreckage and cargo. Willie Mowatt of South Ronaldsay remembers: “I was at the shipwreck, the ‘Gunnaren’, a Swedish vessel . . . she was a general cargo; motor cars, wireless sets, everything and that one was loaded with fruit, what an amount of fruit was loaded in that one. Apples and figs and God knows what . . . I went with my father and grandfather . . . Enormous of boats lying about that boat and stuff being lowered over the side . . . ”

This small selection gives some idea of the store of memories preserved by the Millennium Volunteer project; personal memories which enrich and enliven our understanding of the sea life of Orkney. The recordings are now part of the Orkney Library Sound Archive.

The book is well illustrated with black and white photographs, There is an exhibition in the Orkney Museum to launch the book and the accompanying CD – now on sale at bookshops and museums – and, at £15, a bargain and fascinating reading for anyone interested in Orkney life.

Orkney and the Sea, an oral history, edited and compiled by Kate Towsey, published by Orkney Heritage.

Bryce Wilson