No 64. Unloading Ship. 23rd Jan. 2010

A long time ago, but yesterday too. Rain On My Window (Tears in My Eyes) will be an ongoing tale of my early memories of life shared by my younger brother David on Whitehall Farm in Stronsay, Orkney, of our childhood on a working farm in the 1930s before we lost our innocence.



FOTO OF EARL THORFINN AT STRONSAY PIER.

No 64. UNLOADING SHIP. 23RD JAN.2010

Unloading ship was one of our adventures. Sometimes the Thorfinn was as much as two hours at a pier, both going out with unloading cargo for each island, about the same sometimes loading going in to “The Toon”. This was of course before the days of roll-on roll-off ferries with containers for everything. No fun at all now, just touch and go.

Our two hour entertainment was always at Kettletoft Pier at Sanday. Eday was a shorter time for a smaller Island. We did not see the unloading for that length of time in Stronsay as we had no need to be on the pier until nearer sailing time if we were going on the ship, though Stronsay as well as Sanday could be a two hour stop in it’s own right. Many times we were there for some of the time with our father, though never allowed to go down the one mile to the Village on our own. The pier was not really too safe. Peter Burr, originally from Tongue in Sutherlandshire and father of Peter Burr who used to live in Janetstown before finally moving to Tongue, our butcher in Stronsay and one of our general merchants, was drowned when he unfortunately reversed his lorry over the unguarded edge. His passenger, a Williamson whose first name I cannot recall, got out of the cab, surfaced and survived. A sad day.

But going to Westray we could be spectators for that two hours at Sanday, a larger island than Stronsay, more people, more cattle. That time gave us an excuse to go up the pier to the Post Office and visit the shop owned by the Sinclairs, our Uncle Bill in Westray’s in-laws. They served teas which we made use of if we had a long stopover. Good teas too with home baking. And they never took a penny from we boys, family like.
Unloading at the Islands was a hotch-potch of a great variety of goods. Heavy rope slings were greatly used and much of the cargo was stowed in the hold already in the slings ready for lifting out. A man at the hatch controlled everything, watching below to see if a lift was ready and signalling by hand to the winch man when to lift. No walky talkies then, just good team work.
Feeding stuffs loomed large as the egg industry was then going great guns in Orkney. Even during the War feed supplies were available but on ration, eggs were needed to feed the Nation. So we got our allotment. Mostly Bibbys and BOCM. Slings of empty egg boxes were lowered onto the pier, to be later filled and returned to Kirkwall. All eggs were free range production which was all we had before modern intensive methods came in Post-war, so called factory farming. Wooden henhouses were spread all over the landscape and some in gardens at the back of the Village, free ranging over father’s fields over the back garden walls but I guess he got paid in kind one way or the other.
At Drummond Park Hostel in Inverness during the War Years we often had scrambled eggs using dried egg powder. To farm boys used to our own fresh farm eggs it was not our first choice. The dried egg powder was shipped across the Atlantic from the USA at dreadful cost in men and ships. We should have been more grateful to get it, but fresh eggs from home was indeed Manna from Heaven. The Postal Service did wonders during the War, many a parcel of this and that from the farms was sent to friends in the towns and still arrived fresh enough, mostly!! Our School Hostel staff from Mr Frewin down were very kind to all us boys in dealing with gifts of food from home. He was also my Maths Master at Inverness Royal Academy..
Imported feed to the Islands such as Stronsay was essential to augment our own limited grain resources. Pigs also needed considerable imports. And cattle cake. The feed came in hessian bags weighing 11/2 cwts, about 75 kgs today. Now illegal to lift that weight under H&SE rules but a man who could not lift that bag on his own was not of much use. And many a woman could do just as well, sometimes better!!
Odd wooden crates were landed for various purposes. Bags of flour for our two bakers in the Village, Jock Stout and Swanneys. Slings of timber for the two joiners we had, Cheemie Morrison at Hillcrest who made that new cart for our father and Jock Mitchel in the Village. Sometimes a farmer got a load of timber for doing his own building work, as did our father for the Madhoos at Airy.
Iron for the two Island blacksmiths, one in the Village and one in the South End. Drums of 45 gallons of paraffin or petrol, paraffin for farmers’ tractors and petrol for Davie Chalmers at the top of the pier to pour into his tank with it’s hand cranked pump. Tar in 40 gallon barrels for various uses. There was one time when the roads were being tar sealed for the first time and a large number of tar barrels came to Stronsay. That must have been pre-war as the roads were done while I was still in the North School. The quarry over the road was going full blast, the rattle and thump of the stone crusher punctuating our day. The empty barrels were much in demand, being cut open, flattened, and used as one would use corrugated iron sheeting. Many a hen house or small shed was so made. A pretty adaptable people.

Boxes and boxes of groceries for various shops. Flour and sugar came in big bags, not today’s pretty pretty plastic wrapped minuscule packets. Various sacks of dried fruits, peas, beans, salt.. A scoop was a very necessary part of a shop’s fittings!! And a weighing machine. Large boxes of tissue wrapped apples and pears from California and from New Zealand for the shops.
Livestock came ashore, some in slings under the belly though most walked up or down a heavy wooden gangway depending on the height of the tide. It was slung into place by the ship’s derrick with men steadying it from swinging. A new horse, a cow for milking, a young bull for some farm in the Island. Young calves for some farm or other needing a calf to replace a casualty, or just to bucket rear if milk was plentiful in summer. No powdered calf milk in those days. Safely esconsed in a small sack with the neck securely tied with bindertwine but not too tight to throttle them, their legs in the bag safe from kicking. John T Flett of Quanterness, doyen of Orkney cattle dealers, was the source for many. Some were sent from the Auction Mart in Kirkwall. Young calves were quite plentiful as many a person then kept a milking cow for their own use and the week old new-born calf was sold.
Davie Miller was in charge of the pier, held the key to the store, did all the paper work. Married to a Caithness girl, their daughter Daveen was in my class and we vied for top place. I will give her best, she was usually top, but not always. The storeshed was enlarged in my memory, an extension being built on to one end, but never big enough.

And the passengers were always of interest, some for that particular Island, some passing by, some on business. Even while the Thorfinn was not yet alongside the pier, someone would see their friend on board and wave vigorously each way, a hanky often used as a flag. Seemed to be a matter of pride as to who would see whom first!! I do well remember, coming home for school holidays from Inverness, looking as we approached the pier to see if our father was waiting, though he definitely was not one of those waving a hanky!!