Orkney Image Library

Well done Ian. Would you like to take the original and have a go with it? There is no sign of the photographer. I think it might have been a wedding. I must go to the registrar office soon and see if there was a wedding in Cava.

I too wondered if a wedding might be involved. (That thing on the left-hand man's lapel might be a nosegay, though the left lapel is usually used for that, and the 'thing' could equally well be part of the water damage.) I'm certainly willing to have a go at the original, Willie, but how are you proposing to get it to me if it's still behind glass? A high-resolution email? It might be worth checking first whether the Orkney Archive has a copy. My wild guess would be that the photographer might be Ellison; I've seen a few pics by him that had something of the same 'feel' about them.

Easy, come and collect it. Just click on my name and we can arrange it.

Having now, thanks to Willie, seen the original photo I can add a little (more accurate) detail. The small dinghy is not ferrying passengers one at a time; on the contrary it seems to be almost dangerously overloaded. People are being helped aboard the ship while a few are still in the dinghy. The thing on the man's lapel is water damage, not a nosegay, but I'm still sure this is a wedding party leaving the island. The object on top of the suitcases looks like a floral spray, and the Hoy Head is liberally bedecked with Union Flags, half-a-dozen being visible in this view, not counting the 'Pilot Jack' at her bow. (Surely she can't really be calling for a pilot?) I no longer think it likely that George Ellison was the photographer - as a visitor fae sooth, albeit a regular one, he is hardly likely to have been the official wedding photographer, an invited guest, or just lurking about on Cava on the off-chance someone might get married.

I think I was wrong about being a passenger on this vessel. There must have been at least one steam-powered Hoy Head after this one. The one I was on would be the vessel bought by the company at the end of WW2. She had an enclosed wheelhouse I'm sure.

I think it would have been this one Ian, she only had a wheelhouse put on her later in life, unless you might be thinking of the Orcadia, she came after the Hoyhead and was also steam...

No Ian, there was no steam powered " Hoy Head" after this one although there was an ex Admiralty MFV which was re named the " Hoy Head" much later on. The " Hoy Head" in the picture served the South Isles from 1896 until 1956 under the ownership of R. Garden, W.J. Garden, Robert Garden LTD., Stromness & South Shipping Co., Swanson & Towers and Bremner & Co.

The " Hoy Head" was relieved on the South Isles run by the "S.S Orcadia" ex " Playfair"( I think that this will be the ship you are referring to) . She was built in 1905, but only lasted on the South Isles run until 1958. Between 1947 and 1956 the " Hoy Head " was used as back up

Thanks Fred and Jimmy. As a teenager I was a passenger on both the Hoy Head and the Orcadia, so, given that the Hoy Head's wheelhouse would have been added by then, I was right the first time! I remember looking down into her engine-room, as the engineer came up for air, and thinking it wouldn't be my first choice of working environment.

Having stumbled onto picture #15139 more or less by accident, I now wonder if my original guess that George Ellison might have taken this one isn't correct after all.

The photographer was in fact Robert H. Robertson and the original glass plate negative is part of his collection held at Orkney Library & Archive. Another photograph of this same group is also in the collection and has the title "S.S. Hoy Head at Hoy" on the plate, so perhaps not Cava. Is that not Graemsay in the near background and the Orphir hills behind? The original plate has a wider view which perhaps makes it easier to place.

Interesting input David. Was there no suitable pier on Hoy at that time?