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Fascinating pictures show the end
of the We are indebted to an exiled Orcadian for this fascinating selection of pictures from the past, which show the scuttling of the German fleet after the First World War. The photographs were sent to us by Stanley Norquoy, who lives in Anderby Creek, Lincolnshire, although they were passed to him by an acquaintance who lives nearby in the county. Stanley writes: “I was born in 1929 at Shore Street, in a house overlooking Kirkwall Bay which is no longer there, and now forms part of the BP oil depot. “My dad was John (Nucky) Norquoy, who played and captained Orkney for many years at football. “My brother Billy also played for the county at the end of the war. I didn’t get that far, but did play in goal for Thorfinn, as did my brother, in 1945-46. “I have these photographs from a gentleman in Bourne, Lincolnshire, whose father actually took them during the scuttling of the German fleet. I hope they are of some interest.” It was the longest day - June 21, 1919, that more than 50 warships went to the bottom of Scapa Flow. According to Howard Hazell’s The Orcadian Book of the 20th Century, the greatest scuttle in history was all over in just four hours. “The momentous events were watched by hundreds of Orcadians from the shores of the Flow.” The ships had been interned since the Armistice of November 1918, and having first been taken to the Firth of Forth, made their way to Scapa Flow. The scuttle was ordered by Vice-Admiral Ludwig von Reuter, who, it later emerged, had planned the action for a month. A casualty list of nine Germans had died, with another eight injured, while the 1,800 who survived were immediately dispatched to Invergordon as prisoners of war.
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© The Orcadian Limited, Hell's Half Acre, Hatston, Kirkwall, Orkney, Scotland |
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