July 8, 2000
At sea, en route
to Orkney (Seal Islands). After
breakfast, the mandatory lifeboat drill was conducted followed by an
introduction to ship's staff in the lounge. The morning lecture was on
"linguistic archeology:" the search for the original European language,
by Tom Heffernan. We noted that the lounge chairs had been modified by the
addition of steel platforms surrounding the feet which greatly reduced their
tendency to tip over in a seaway. This
had been a problem in our previous voyage.
July
8, 2000; N58º 59' Kirkwell harbor,
Orkney.
The ship arrived
in the late morning and anchored outside the tiny small-boat harbor.
Zodiacs shuttled us ashore as a piper played.
We bussed to St. Magnus, an 11th century red sandstone cathedral.
The burial crypts from the time of the Black Plague (which killed 40% of
the local population) feature the skull and crossed bones device.
Going back in time we went on to Maes Howe, a burial chamber entered by a
4' high 25 ' long passage. The
interior has numerous examples of runic writing incised into the stones, which
form the dome. The chamber is dated
to 2900 BC but, unfortunately was looted by Vikings in the 12th century, who
broke through the roof.
A
Stonehenge-like formation of erect stones in a large circle, called the Ring of
Brodgar, is down the road. Its purpose has not been deciphered, but may be astronomical.
Going even further back in time, we visited Scara Brae, a buried
collection of stone-age houses with stone furniture at the water's edge.
The site was discovered in 1850 when a storm uncovered the walls beneath
several feet of sod. It has been
dated between 3100 BC to 2500 BC, which predates the pyramids.
We drove
back past Scapa Flow, a harbor on the Western side of the main Island (called
“Mainland”, locally). Scapa Flow is where the German fleet was interned following
the Great War (WWI) while the conference at Versailles tried to decide what to
do about them. A total of 74
warships were at anchor, when their Admiral suddenly scuttled his whole fleet,
surprising the English, before they could make their decision. Seven wrecks still lie on the harbor bottom providing sport
for Scuba divers.
A few days
later, David Cothran and diver Tove Peterson showed us some underwater video
they made of the Dresden, a 5000 tonne cruiser, that was among those sunk in
June 1919. They also dove on the
ship, F2,
a WWII casualty. She had been surrendered to the English at the end of the
second war and was anchored in Scapa Flow.
The locals, who refer to themselves as Orcadians (Orkney Islanders),
stole nearly everything salvageable. Someone
eventually cut off one of the seacocks for its bronze and, of course the F2
sank. In 1968, a barge, attempting
to salvage her sunken guns was caught in a storm and, itself, sank alongside the
original wreck. No further salvage
attempts have been made.
At the
start of the second war, a German submarine sneaked into Scapa Flow and sank the
British Ship Royal Oak, with the loss of 800 lives.
The site has not been salvaged. It
remains a cemetery for those who lost their lives.
Today, Stromness
on Scapa Flow, shelters a terminal for the transfer of North Sea oil.
It rained on the
way back to the ship in the Zodiacs so everyone was cold, wet and late dressing
for the Captain's welcome aboard dinner. A
local band, called Hullion came aboard to provide entertainment for the cocktail
party. They played traditional
Scottish and Orcadian music, which to our untrained ears sounded suspiciously
like Irish tunes.
July 9, 2000; N59º 32', W001º
35’ Fair Isle
Anchored off Fair
Isle (formerly Far Isle) and took a Zodiac ride with Olle to see the Skuas,
Kittiwakes, Cormorants and Puffins perched on a sheer cliff.
Watched two Skuas tear a poor Puffin to bits.
Dinner.
Landed at a
jetty and hiked to the top of the cliffs to see the Puffins close up.
Then
caught a ride over to the community house where tea was served. Bought some painted coasters as mementos.
We visited one of the local churches and a tiny museum before heading
back to the Zodiac beach. Tove and David were diving in the water at the base of the
cliff doing, some underwater photography among the kelp beds. Their video will be shown
later, back aboard ship. Reviewed some of our own videotape in the cabin.
The new external microphone is quite sensitive and not quite so directional as we
might have hoped. The stereo effect of people speaking behind the camera is
quite extraordinary through headphones. It
may not be so dramatic through speakers. In
some respects it is a bit distracting. I shall be careful about when to use the external microphone.
The ship
weighed anchor a few minutes before noon. A two-hour cruise brought us to the Isle
of Mousa where an archeological relic called the Mousa Broch is situated.
We took a Zodiac ashore to climb about it and also to walk over to the
far side of the island where seal swam amongst the rocks.
Mousa Broch is a circular tower, perhaps 40-50 feet across and about the
same in height. It is double-walled with space between the walls including an
old narrow stairway that some of the more intrepid among us climbed to the
summit. That's me standing in front of
it. From the outside, the Broch
looks a bit like one of the cooling towers used at some nuclear power plants.
There are hundreds of such towers throughout northern Scotland.
They date from 2300 to 1400 years ago, before the time of the Vikings.
It is speculated that they were watchtowers, signaling towers, or
defensive structures. The
watchtower thesis seems far-fetched, as they’re not situated on the top of the
local geography, rather near the bottom of the terrain.
A
short cruise beyond Mousa took us to a bird nesting spot, Noss Island, where
there were hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions of Guillemots (Murres) Skuas,
Puffins, Fulmars, Cormorants, Gulls and Gannets nesting against the ledges of
cliffs 180+ meters high. We
Zodiaced into some caves and watched close up as a pair of Skuas dissected their
prey, perhaps a Gannet. The birds wheeled overhead, dive-bombing us.
One unfortunate guy in another Zodiac happened to have been changing film
when a bird made a bull’s eye right into the camera.
Our final stop for a full day was alongside the wharf at Lerwick, the capital of Shetland.
It began to rain at dinnertime.
July 10, 2000;
N60º 09’, W 001º 09’ Dockside at Lerwick, Shetland
The day dawns
sunny but windy with whitecaps in the harbor.
We are bussed to a variety of sites in Shetland, spending some time at a
Pictish (made by the Picts) Broch at Jarlshof.
The Picts inhabited these lands before the Vikings in the late Iron Age,
around 1500 years ago, but seem not to have had metal tools until later.
Jarlshof contains a variety of sites that date more than 4000 years from
the Neolithic period (2300 BC) through the Bronze Age and the Norse occupation
around 1000 AD up to the 17th century. The various occupations overlap and
required some explanation to separate.
We oohed
and aahed over Shetland ponies grazing nearby and had tea in the hotel.
The buses allowed us a half hour for shopping in Lerwick before the ship
cast off at noon. We got some plush
puffins for the grandnieces. By
now, the winds had grown to a full gale and we were promised a bumpy ride out in
the North Sea. As it happened, the
seas were bow on and the principal motion was a pitching moment of about 7-8
seconds with the ship's bow burying itself into the sea every third time as we headed
for Norway. This is fortunate, as
the ship is without her stabilizers, which are undergoing repair. A beam sea
would likely have induced a substantial roll. We will take 24 hours for the
crossing with a 1-hour time change at midnight.
The staff has rope handholds deployed across open areas in the ship for
extra security as it is difficult to stand without holding on to something.
The extra Zodiacs in the foredeck have been lashed down.
Their normal storage area is being modified to house some kayaks.
We hope they don't plan any kayak trips in the arctic. (They did and we
enjoyed them.)
At 1600 (4
PM) the ship was at N60º 24’, E000º 09’, having crossed the meridian on a
course of 60º at 11 Kts. The ship's anemometer showed the wind from 62º (almost head
on) at a speed of 55 Kts. I don't
imagine that the ship's forward motion has been subtracted, so the true wind
speed is likely 44Kts. (Later, I
confirmed that this is true.) The sun is shining, temperature 55º and spume is
blowing across the forward deck as she occasionally buries her bow. Chief Officer Frank Donath is on duty. He shows me our position on chart 4010.
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