BOOK REVIEW

FAR NORTHERN DIVES GALORE
Most wreck-divers will want to get their hands on this book, which fills a big gap in wreck-diving literature. Shipwrecks of the North of Scotland is a reference guide to shipping disasters which have occurred off the North of Scotland during a little over the past 100 years.

The extent of war activities in Scottish waters during both World Wars is not generally appreciated - probably because the strict censorship that applied during these periods suppressed information from the public domain. This area saw considerable action during both the First and Second World Wars, and many wartime losses are described for the first time. A comparison of British and Allied records with contemporary German U-boat records produced very interesting results, sometimes revealing discrepancies, or errors in previously accepted views.

As an island nation, Britain has always relied on ships for exporting its own products and for importing food, oil, raw materials and other goods.

English south coast ports were shut during WW2, and a very large part of the import and export trade of the nation was routed through Scottish ports. The volume of shipping traffic around Scotland increased enormously at that time, and many ships were sunk by enemy aircraft and by U-boats. With ships being directed to sail in convoy by clear channels swept through minefields close to the land, a number sank after striking mines, while others were lost through collisions or running ashore.

Many vessels had already come to grief in these waters before the Wars, but many more were to follow during both Wars, and, to a much lesser extent, thereafter.

This book contains details of over 450 ships lost off the coast of Scotland from Stonehaven, north to Duncansby Head, then west to Cape Wrath and the Minch, and includes losses in the waters around Orkney and Shetland.

·  Shipwrecks of the North of Scotland by R N Baird (Birlinn, ISBN 1841582336) Hardback, 381pp, £25