It was finally decided by the German naval officers to destroy the ships if the treaty was unacceptable. When the treaty was signed much to Germany's consternation the officers agreed to scuttle the ships on the date of the rumored accord.

On June 21st the ships were to be put beyond the victors reach. As a classroom of children arrived just to view the huge array of ships one by one the entire fleet was scuttled. An experience they would never forget.

The British quickly began dives to retrieve the wealth of iron and other metals from the sunken vessels. This was a long process and one of the last ships recovered by the British firm of Cox and Danks was lifted from the sea bottom just when Second World War began.

Today there are battleships, cruisers and other valuable wrecks being recovered and charters and divers from various local Diving Centres send crews. There are also paid for diving holidays arranged to salvage the long lost materials.

A window on Victoria Street in Stromness holds a wealth of bottles from the scuttled ships. A sign says: "These are remnants from the German fleet scuttled in Scapa Flow at the end of World War I".

The shops continued to intrigue us. One that caught my fancy was a store that seemed to be a combination of butcher and flower shop. The street names and lengths were as irregular as the streets themselves. We briefly passed Graham Place but quickly moved to an even shorter street called Dundas.

As we approached another shop we found the name Drever & Boyce. We didn't know whether it was the original name with new owners, as many shops we had seen, nevertheless it was imperative that we stop here as one of Glenn's Orcadian family names is Drever. The shop was very small and although I am sure I am not completely accurate it seemed to me that standing at the front counter one could reach merchandise from all sides. Peter Drever was the owner and a charming jovial man. Peter and Glenn found they are third cousins.

As they talked I looked around and found several items I recalled seeing in my grandmother's kitchen, but are no longer available in the states. Peter told us that he planned to retire in about 18 months so we felt fortunate in our timing. Glenn mentioned the photograph he had taken on a previous trip to Sanday, one of the outer islands. Here as we walked through LadyKirk Cemetery, we had discovered a tombstone for the Drever Family. When Glenn offered to send Peter some material about the family that had migrated to Canada he said, "I wouldn't mind", which is a common expression here. Glenn asked for his address and Peter laughed his rich hearty laugh and handed Glenn his "calling card." This was a shipping label from the shop itself.

I wouldn't mind --- Here's my visiting card ---

To give us his address, Peter handed Glenn what he called his calling card.

Glenn took this picture of Peter Drever and me outside of his shop.

Glenn looked very much out of place in the community for both in height and coloring he differed from most of the people we met. We were told this was a result of the number of shipwrecks and some permanent visitors from other countries, especially Spain.

As we walked we passed the library we saw a sign reading "Stromness Public Library: the gift of the late Marjorie Skea of Corrigall, Stromness l905". A collection of Orcadian books is housed there.

A sign had previously informed us that the Stromness Museum preserves the best material on the history of the lifeboat in Orkney. It is run by the Orkney Natural History Society. Among the items displayed along with old photographs of Stromness are ship models, whaling tools, and records about the importance of the Hudson's Bay Company, Scapa Flow and the German fleet.

Much of the natural history of the area including fossils as well as a minimal display of stone age exhibits from Orkney are preserved at the museum. According to some books the islands possess the greatest displays of archeological material in all of Europe.

As we left the museum we found an unforgetable scene across the road. A Stromness grandfather and his granddaughter sat peacefully on a bench by a wall of a fantastic stone building.