1
T. Kent.
2
The raising of the barrier at Clestron (see [p. 39]) proved a more formidable operation. The ice-breaker "Sviagator," early in 1920, made the unique experiment of crushing some of the hurdles to a sufficient depth to allow vessels of medium draught to pass over with safety, but it was not until the summer of 1920 that the removal of the hurdles was undertaken and completed by a salvage company, and the rails shipped south.
The raising of the "block" ships, which had been sunk in some of the narrow channels leading into the Flow, appears to have presented almost insuperable difficulties, mainly owing to tidal currents, and there does not seem to be much likelihood that the vessels in Burra and Water Sounds will ever be raised. In Holm Sound, however, one of the sunken ships, S.S. "Aorangi," was successfully salved by the East Coast Wrecking Company on 8th September, 1920, and beached near the churchyard at Holm.
Of the temporary shore establishments at Scapa very little now remains, and the buildings which are still standing have nearly all been converted to meet peace-time requirements. The "miniature base" at Lyness is in the hands of caretakers, and the completion of the wharf (on which £300,000 has been spent) has been stopped, whilst the control of the Naval Area, which since February, 1920, had been in the hands of Captain Alan G. Bruce, R.N., C.B., D.S.O., was on 1st December, 1920, removed to Invergordon.
The air stations at Houton, Smoogro, Caldale, and Stenness have been closed down or removed, whilst the seaplane station at Scapa has been acquired by the Orkney County Council as a tuberculosis hospital. Nearly all the shore batteries have been dismantled, the guns removed, the searchlights withdrawn, and the huts sold or demolished. Only at Hoy (Stromness) are the batteries intact, but these are in charge of a civilian caretaker. The Royal Marine Station at Carness (near Kirkwall) remains, but as a smallpox hospital under the Orkney County Council.