Model boat donation prompts Orkney Museum appeal

A recent donation to the Orkney Museum has prompted staff to appeal for any information that could help identify the mystery model boat builder.

During a clear out, Bill Webster discovered a model of a Tribal Class destroyer, which his father, Jack Webster, had bought while stationed in Orkney during World War Two.

Bill was able to share a wealth of information about his father – but not who actually built the model boat – so Ellen Pesci, the Museum’s new Social History Curator, is keen to try and identify the builder and slot the final piece of the jigsaw together.

Ellen said: “What we do know is that the builder was an old man in early 1944, a former boat builder who was no longer fit to carry out his trade. He must have been active in the Scapa district, probably living in the vicinity of the camp. Do you have any idea who this man might have been?”

The Museum is able to share some details about Jack and how he came to own the model boat, which he bought as a gift for his son.

Jack was born in Scarborough on 10 October 1909. Following the outbreak of World War Two he was called up in January 1940, but it was decided that he was better employed on essential war work in Yorkshire.

During the first year he installed tank traps, pill boxes and gun emplacements along the Yorkshire coast. Some of the gun emplacements were dummy ones, with telegraph poles painted to look like gun barrels. The second year saw him working on the building of a listening station at Scarborough and a radar station on the Yorkshire coast. He was then sent to Redesdale in Northumberland, where he continued to install defences.

In 1942 Jack was sent to the Royal Marine Engineers, doing exactly the same work as he had been doing as a civilian. After his training he was sent to Iceland to construct defences before being stationed at Scapa Camp, Scapa Flow (at Scapa beach) in Orkney in 1943.

Jack was a joiner to trade. An officer asked him if he had any experience of fitting greenheart wooden piles to a pier. The pier at Scapa, he was informed, was damaging ships that tied up alongside it as it was bare stone. Jack said that he did have experience in fitting such piles, but that he needed specialised tools to do the job. He drew up a list of the tools that he needed and set to work with two other men. They worked from a raft, which could rise and fall with the tide.

It was when he was working on the pier that Jack met an old man who had been a boat builder but was too infirm to work. Instead, he made models of the ships that frequented Scapa Flow and sold them to sailors who were stationed there. He was also on the lookout for scraps of wood to build his models with, which the soldiers provided.

When Jack's son, Bill, was born on 2 January 1944 Jack bought a model of a Tribal Class destroyer from the old man, as a toy for his baby boy.

Jack returned to his home after the war and passed away in 2000.

If you have any information about whom the mystery model boat builder could be, please contact Ellen Pesci at the Orkney Museum, 01856873535 ext 2524, or e-mail ellen.pesci@orkney.gov.uk.