Will Your Anchor Hold?
By Captain R. L. Sutherland

When Captain Robbie Sutherland’s brother, Bill, died in 1995, Robbie inherited a mass of family documents and photographs, which he set about sorting and editing with the intention of publishing a small book for circulation amongst family and friends.

The task grew in scope and the result is Will Your Anchor Hold? - a moving testament to the strength and resilience of an Orkney sea-faring family amidst the trials and tribulations of a tough but happy life, set against the backdrop of an idyllic island childhood followed by the hardship of the war years.

The book describes the joys of family summers in Stronsay, where “boredom was unknown,” under the watchful eyes of his beloved grandparents, John and Tina Leslie, who were a constant example of the goodness and the simple, unpretentious faith which were to be a great influence on the author and his brothers and sisters.

Reminiscences of some of the characters who lived in The Station, Stronsay, are particularly vivid, and there is great poignancy, too, in the account of the loss of his uncles, John and James Leslie, in separate tragedies at sea.

Life in Stromness, in the family home, Alquist, is also lovingly described, in particular the influence of his hard-working parents, and the atmosphere of love and support in which the family was nurtured.

Robbie, as the youngest of the eight siblings, had the opportunity to study and learn from the others.

Separate chapters pay tribute to the colourful lives of each of the Sutherland family, and they are portrayed with great affection and honesty. There is also a tribute to Robbie’s uncle, Captain Alexander Sutherland – Master of the Axinite and a well-known local character.

Many of the people and places in the book will be familiar to local readers, and, as always with Robbie’s work, his unique take on life and the immense honesty and integrity he brings to his perceptions, ensure an absorbing read. There are universal truths throughout the book, and the author’s message – to learn from the people and events of the past – comes across loud and clear.

But this is not confined to family forebears. There is also a fascinating section of the book dealing with some of the significant triumphs and disasters of World War Two. As Walter Forrest puts it in his comprehensive foreword: “The history of the family merges into local history and the history of the community merges into the history of the nation.”

Abandoned

For the younger reader, some extraordinary heroes are introduced, perhaps for the first time. The larger-than-life Irishman, Captain Fogarty Fegen, showed enormous personal courage, dying while defending his convoy in a hopeless battle against the might of the German Navy.

This is set against the infamous circumstances of Convoy PQ17, which, on the orders of Admiral Pound, was abandoned to its fate. The supremacy of the Germans at sea at this time is a sobering thought.

As the author points out - if Hitler had concentrated his forces there, instead of moving his army into Russia, with disastrous consequences, the outcome of the war might have been different.

The sense of bleakness and uncertainty during that time – that we were surviving on a wing and a prayer – comes across vividly.

It explains why the rallying speeches of Churchill were so effective. Morale, and the sense of personal determination and courage, were essential. They gave rise to the great heroes, and the infamous mistakes of those times.

Future ages

As Robbie says: “The lessons of the past are learned through the heroic actions of such people. God help any nation which neglects to study its past. It is the very essence of our present and future ages.”

The Sutherland brothers acquitted themselves well during that time, including the author, who was awarded a commendation for gallantry. His brother, Bill, won the Military Medal at El Alamein. The author’s point is that, despite many ups and downs throughout their lives, the family were fitted for life because of their upbringing and the example of their parents and grandparents. One does good because it is “simply the right thing to do,” and not because one wants to be praised for it. The strength of these family ties “brought Bill and I back from the brink.”

In Robbie’s case, it was the vision, or hallucination, of the faces of his father and brother Johnnie, when he was at his lowest ebb in the grip of alcoholism, that saved him and shamed him into turning his life around and starting again.

A battle as hard-fought and won as the worst of any war.

Much of the autobiographical detail of the author’s life is described more fully in his first book, Romiosini.

Will Your Anchor Hold? is not intended as a description of his own life, but as a lasting record of the Sutherland and Leslie families, to be handed on to future generations. Robbie has painstakingly put together a rich tapestry from the family documents, and used the writings of his brother, Bill, to good effect, along with other family letters and documents, and a large selection of photographs. It will be a book to be treasured by subsequent generations of the family, and a rattling good read for those outside the Sutherland clan.

PB