German navy ended the life of a smithy
By Allan Taylor
(Story dated February 12, 2004)

Doris Stout's drawing of the New Breckan smithy.

Before the wireless, television or computers and tractors were heard of, the local smithy, where the blacksmith plied his trade from morn till night, was where the farming folk gathered after their day’s work on the farm.

Ploughshares would be placed in a sack and off the farmer would trudge to the smithy.

Local gossip would be exchanged and the current state of farming discussed.

While this went on, the blacksmith carried on working. In the spring he would toil on late into the evening, not finishing until 9 or 10 o’ clock.

The smithy in my thoughts was John Isbister’s smithy at New Breckan, Bimbister, Harray.

John served his part of the parish for many a long day until his death at 76 in 1930.

The smithy was closed for a time until it was re-opened by a young blacksmith, John Wilson, from the parish of Firth.

John was born in 1905, the son of David and Elizabeth Wilson, Ouraquoy, Heddle.

He worked the New Breckan smithy until he built his own smithy at the other side of the road.

This is long gone and where it stood is now the house known as Hammersmith.

But John’s skill is still remembered for his making of tuskers which did not break the peat at the heel when cut.

John always marked his tuskers with three file marks, making a Wilson tusker easily identified and much sought after.

Just before the 1939-45 war, John decided to close down the smithy and, like so many Orcadians, seek a life at sea.

This he did by acquiring a job as an engineer with the Blue Star Line.

By 1942 he was sailing as 3rd engineer on the S.S. Tacoma Star, a fairly old ship.

Built in Belfast in 1921, she was a twin-screw steam engine ship, launched as the Wangaratta. She was purchased for £63,000 by Blue Star Line in 1930 and renamed the Tacoma Star.

The Tacoma Star, which was sunk with all hands.

On Sunday, September, 3, 1939, Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain broadcast the following message: “This country is at war. It is vitally important you should carry on with your jobs.”

How many of our British Merchant Seamen in the far-flung corners of the world’s oceans heard this message it is not known. What we do know is that the supreme sacrifice was great.

John Wilson and his fellow crew were among those who made the supreme sacrifice.

The Tacoma Star and her crew of 85 and nine gunners were under the command of Captain R. G. Whitehead. The ship was in Liverpool Docks on May 3, 1941, when she was severely damaged during an air-raid.

The ship slowly sank to the bottom of the dock. She was later raised and repaired.

On January 4, 1942, she left Montevideo in South America unescorted, bound for Hampton Roads in the United States of America, eventually to join a North Atlantic convoy bound for the United Kingdom.

Sadly, this never happened, for on February 1, 1942, 62 years ago, a distress signal was picked up from the Tacoma Star 38 miles east of Hampton Roads. She had been torpedoed by U-boat.

John Wilson, the Ouraquoy smithy, who lost his life in the Atlantic Ocean.

Ships were sent to search for survivors but no trace was ever found of men, lifeboats or wreckage.

The Tacoma Star had been sunk by the German submarine U-109, ending the life of John Wilson and 93 others.

John’s name appears on a simple war memorial in Firth kirkyard as well as being remembered with honour on the Tower Hill Memorial in London.

The submarine which sank the Tacoma Star, U-109, was built in Bremen and commissioned on December 5, 1940.

Her last commander was Obit Joachim Schramn.

She was sunk by depth charge on May 4, 1943, south of Ireland with the loss of all hands, 52 men in all.