Orkney Image Library

Early 70's

They were I believe Danish, the vessel on the left is the Kami S237 and the one of the right is the Chupea S198. There were 6 vessels involved in the incident which saw the vessels ashore under the end of Cromwell Road and Shore Street which is now the sliproad from the corner up to Cromwell Road. The local Coastguard co-ordinated the rescue and I believe there was no loss of life and all vessels were refloated with only minor damage. I know all this because I have at the CG station the same picture and a pewter tea pot presented to the CG with 'In Gratefull Memory of the Action' and dated 8th November 1971 engraved on it. (Whether this was the date of the action or the presentation I wouldn't be sure But I'm now determined to find out.) For those interested the other vessels were: Rosslau S449, Anne Strande S455, Tistelon HG270 and Fano GG9.

Just wondering if the Rosslau, Anne Strande, Tistelon or Fano were Dutch please?

They were Danish, my father Allan Taylor was a coastguard at the time and attended the incident at the pier and remembers it well

Thanks Sandra, I can also confirm they were Danish and the date was definitely 8th November 1971. Apart from the names of the vessels I know very little about the incident. How many of them came ashore? What other difficulties were there to contend with etc.

Sandra and Ian, do you also know the name of the coaster on the picture. She was built by a German shipyard by the looks of her.

The ' coaster' is the St Rognvald. See pic 124

In fact I think she's rather the St Magnus - ex City of Dublin - of that period.

The late Robin Dennison, who was staff coxswain on the Kirkwall Lifeboat 'Grace Paterson Ritchie' at the time, was awarded the RNLI Bronze Medal for outstanding seamanship whilst going to the aid of these four vessels.

It's Danish fishing boats from Skagen.

I was a crew member on the Grace Paterson Ritchie on that mission where the late Coxswain Robin Dennison was awarded a Bronze Medal for the rescue of the 4 Danish fishing vessels and their crews of twenty.We were all awarded framed certificates from the RNLI. The date was 8th November 1971.

I've recently seen colour cine footage of those boats going ashore and the lifeboat going out to help them. The lifeboat crew did a fantastic job.

Nearest Cargo vessel is indeed "St Magnus" ex City of Dublin but "St Rognvald" is also at the West side of the pier astern of the North Isles vessel "Orcadia"

The Danish boats came from Skagen in Denmark. My father was the owner and skipper of S127 Anne-Stranne. I remember that one of the other fishing boats hit Anne-Stranne on the side, but nothing serious happened.