The Orkney Image Library
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My drawing, made today 17 Jan 2013, is a reasonably accurate representation of a ship with an Orkney connection. Know what it is?
Picture added on 22 January 2013 at 20:00
This picture is in the following groups
Mystery places or things or people
Mystery places or things or people
I think that she is one of the Prince Line, but not sure which one.
Added by Fred Johnston on 23 January 2013
Anna Salen?
Added by Grant on 23 January 2013
possibly Eastern Prince..
Added by Jimmy Hamilton on 24 January 2013
Yes Fred, she's the Eastern Prince (or supposed to be; I must have had a rush of blood away from the head when I drew those davits: they'd make lowering a boat a trifle difficult). I'll explain the Orkney connection if no-one else comes up with it soon.
Added by Ian Hourston on 24 January 2013
Not Anna Salen, she's flying the red duster. Sometimes I write down the first thing that pops into my head.
Added by Grant on 26 January 2013
Was it one of the block ships sunk at the barriers?
Added by Jack on 26 January 2013
What about MV Western Prince? wrecksite.eu says "On the 14th December 1940 when on route from NEW YORK for LIVERPOOL carrying a cargo of 3,384 tons base metal, 1,864 tons foodstuffs & 511 tons of general cargo she was torpedoed by German submarine U-96 and sunk 400 miles W of the Orkneys. 116 persons were saved from a total of 169."
Added by Jim Eunson on 28 January 2013
Captain Charles Smith, of Stromness but sired by Walls parents, was her master.
Added by Fred Johnston on 28 January 2013
I read a bit somewhere aboot her.. was the Orkney connection her Master? An Orcadian..
Added by Jimmy Hamilton on 29 January 2013
No point prolonging this. The strongest connection between Eastern Prince and Orkney is the fact that her Master for several years, including the whole of WW2, was a Stromness man, my uncle Charlie Smith. I believe he took the ship into Scapa Flow once, shortly before the outbreak of WW2, but it may have been the somewhat smaller ship he'd skippered previously - the Javanese Prince. Employed as a troopship throughout the war, Eastern Prince had the dubious honour of providing accommodation and support for Winston Chuchill's staff at the momentous Yalta Conference of Feb 1945, at which it was decided how Europe would be divided for administrative purposes among the about-to-be victorious Allied Powers immediately after the war. (President Franklin Roosevelt of the USA was a sick man and seemed unable to resist Stalin's demands that virtually all of what we now call Eastern Europe should come under Soviet control, so Churchill was outnumbered - but you knew that already.)
I'm having a scale model built of Eastern Prince, ideally as she would have looked at the time of Yalta. She was a DEMS (Defensively Equipped Merchant Ship) and I'd like the model to have all guns, Carley Floats, additional deck houses and so forth in place. If anyone can suggest sources of photos, plans etc I'll be forever grateful.
I'm having a scale model built of Eastern Prince, ideally as she would have looked at the time of Yalta. She was a DEMS (Defensively Equipped Merchant Ship) and I'd like the model to have all guns, Carley Floats, additional deck houses and so forth in place. If anyone can suggest sources of photos, plans etc I'll be forever grateful.
Added by Ian Hourston on 30 January 2013
I've done (with help) a bit more 'research' on the wartime version of Eastern Prince and will submit a picture. Still wide open to helpful suggestions for the scale model.
Added by Ian Hourston on 14 April 2013
I also exaggerated the length of time during which Charlie Smith was Eastern Prince's master. It's now clear he took over some time in 1941, not at the beginning of WW2.
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Added by Ian Hourston on 25 October 2014
Stromness
