A few notes remain to be added to the preceding pages to complete the story of Scapa to the present time. The war necessarily left its aftermath at Scapa, as elsewhere, and although much of the "clearing up" has been accomplished, there will remain for many years visible traces of the "naval occupation" of the Orkneys.
The signing of the Armistice in November, 1918, entailed only a cessation of active hostilities, and it was not until the summer of 1919 that the reversion of the Base from a war to a peace footing really began. One of the earliest and most important operations to be undertaken after the Armistice was the clearance of the North Sea mine barrage between the Orkneys and Norway, which has already been briefly referred to. This entailed a sweep over an area of 6,000 square miles, and the destruction of over 70,000 mines. The American Minesweeping Detachment, to which the major portion of this task was allotted, arrived in Kirkwall in April, 1919, and by the end of September of that year their task had been successfully accomplished, and the northern gateway was open once more to the mercantile traffic of the world.
The mines which had been laid in the smaller areas around the entrances to the Flow were exploded simultaneously in sections—a very much simpler task, as these were connected electrically to shore stations. The photographs on [p. 140] give some idea of the force of the explosions, which were audible for miles around. It is of interest to note that the buoy shown on the left of the photograph on the lower part of [p. 140] marks the resting-place of the German submarine which was sunk in this minefield a few days before the Armistice.
The removal of the booms and the release of the boom defence drifters and trawlers was completed before the end of 1919. The fishermen who formed the crews of these vessels, incidentally, deserve to be recognised for their work during the war, the monotony and isolation of which made their task one of the least enviable at the Base.
T. Kent.
Salvage Operation on S.S. "Aorangi" in Holm Sound.