Orkney Image Library

Yes Stuart, they were cleverly made, we cut up all the wans fae the boom slab at Lyness and the wans at Houton, they were made from a very hard spring steel , we used a gullitene cutter at Houton and bits used to fly when you cut them , don't ken how we never got hurt wi it. that wid been about 1956-7 era... they were very good for creel bows...

Stuart I saw you taakan photos o the Boom nets when yae were at Lyness hid wiz no surprise tae see this ane on the site!!.

Since speakan wae you and your Dad I have been askan a few here aboot as tae how these nets were made and so far all I have been told is ,Oh hid wiz weeman that made them, as though that accounts for there secret construction.
Somebody must know more than that.
In a old war film John Wayne is seen in a diving suit cutting them way a pair o tin snips!! must hiv been some good tin snips is all I can say!!.
I do mind fisher men using the wire for creel bows but dont know how they cut them they had tae stay in the shape they were as it was not possible tae bend the wire, folk called it Grimit steel whatever that was!!.

A big thank you tae guys like John Budge, Allan Besant, and Jimmy Hamilton for sharing their knowledge and that of their parents, grandparents and that which others passed on to them.

Young eens reading this take note and store the knowledge to pass on to others - how many times I wish I'd paid more attention to detail about wartime in Orkney and in the coal mines from my father!

Information on the 'knitting' of these nets seems to be hard to find. There is a site on the great electric interweb that describes WW1 anti-submarine nets, but it refers to the meshes being 'formed by four-way cross connectors', not interwoven rings. It says the wire used was '2 1/2 inch circumference special reinforced flexible steel wire, with a breaking strain of nearly 20 tons and specially lubricated internally during manufacture to resist the action of sea water'. As John Budge says, someone must know more - maybe a relative of one of those redoubtable weemen.

Thanks John. I'm back up to Orkney next week for the Magnus Festival. Doing Rousay and Egilsay this time so not sure if I'll get to Hoy. (Might not be welcome after breaking doon on the Hoy Head last time. Everyone had to tae reverse off at Houton !) If you bump into Jimmy (Bothy man o Rackwick) you might want to have a blether wi him about those nets. It seems the only wans on display anywhere are at the gates to the museum. There are still piles of them all over the place. You should git together and salvage a load before the scrap men git hed o them.

Well I cant say how they made them, but each ring was made from a long length of the galvanised hardened steel, how they handled it to form a ring is easy to understand, but how they formed them once the were linking them together into the final product must have been hard graft, I really cant think they were done by machine of any sort, as each ring had to be linked to the next to form the net, I feel they must have been hand made. I also searched the internet without any joy on them.It was hard work cutting them up for scrap, My Father took on the contract from Pounds of Portsmouth to cut up all the boom defence equipment at Lyness and Houton, and shipped it away mostly to Ghent in Belgium..

An afterthought on my last comment, Pounds of Portsmouth only had part of the scrap at Lyness, Arnott Young, Glasgow Shipbreakers bought the rest, but my Father took on all the cutting up and shipping of the scrap, there was about 10 men employed during the contract.

Father and the late Bob MUIR from Cornersquoy Orphir were employed by Arnott Young of Troon cutting up boom defence gear at Houton and block ships at the Barriers with a puffer SS TOPMAST NO4 REGISTERED IN BELFAST

Yes Bob, we had a few local boys aboot Houton working wi us, roughly 1957 era, cutting and hauling the scrap away for shipment, long time ago tho and canna mind their names.

My father and Bob Muir were at Houton in 1947/48 about the time part of he road roller fell off Scapa Pier and and sank the Longhope boat

To answer John's point about not knowing how the fishermen cut the steel for creel bows, my father used to do this with nothing more than a hacksaw but he always carried plenty of spare blades! He'd cut single strands off the braid and use a length of string to measure the exact length he needed.

As has already been said, these came away in a curved shape and it was impossible to straighten them but with the one end driven into a hole on the wooden creel base, he could then pull the hoop into a tighter curve and get the other end in a hole on the opposite side of the base.

If you google - women at war british pathe submarine nets- you'll see these nets being made briefly,not sure where they are bound for but I was surprised at who was making them.(Steven maybe you could do a link.thanks)

WOMEN AT WAR

[There you go - Steven]