THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE BASE
Some slight apologia seems necessary to-day for the publication of a book of war reminiscences (even though they be mainly photographic), when so many personages, from Admirals and Generals downwards to the humbler ranks of W.A.A.C.'s and lady typists in Government offices, have seen fit to record in print their experiences during the Great War. This little album is being published at the suggestion of various friends in the Naval Service, with whom the writer has come into contact during the five years he has been associated with the Royal Navy at the Grand Fleet Base at Scapa Flow, and, it is hoped, may reach a wider circle of those to whom the name "Scapa Flow" has hitherto conveyed but a hazy notion of islands shrouded in perpetual northern mist—somewhere north of Scotland, c/o G.P.O., where for five years the Grand Fleet kept its monotonous vigil in readiness for "the Day," and where finally it had its reward when, in November, 1918, the German Fleet was ignominiously escorted into the waters of the Flow, whose defences its submarines had more than once endeavoured, unsuccessfully, to penetrate.
Various writers—e.g., "Bartimaeus" and the author of "In the Northern Mists"—have written vivid pen pictures of the everyday life of the Navy, and the photographs reproduced in the following pages, besides recalling many monotonous—and some pleasant—times to those who served at Scapa during the war, may help to supplement these books by presenting the actual environment and life of those whose "lawful occasions" necessitated so long a sojourn in these northern waters.
To many "Scapa" is a name (judging from the warmth of their remarks when the subject is mentioned) that they would like to eradicate for ever from their book of remembrance. Their feelings are expressed in a parody of a well-known song which appeared in the Orcadian of the 5th December, 1918, entitled—
SCAPA FLOW
(A Hymn of Hate).
Have you ever heard the story of how Scapa got its name?
If you haven't then you're slow, because it's earned a world-wide fame.
It has caused a lot of howling amongst our tars at sea,
So I'll tell to you the story as a sailor told it me:
Sure a little bit of wastage fell from out the sky one day,
And it fell into the ocean in a spot up Scotland way.
And when the Sea Lords saw it, sure! it looked so bleak and bare
They said, "Suppose we start to build a Naval Base up there."