WWI german submarine Whalefirth Voe

[G eorge]

I found a submarine story from WWI in "The North Atlantic Front" by James Miller; this story sounds so "anachronistic" in modern warfare to me, that I'd like to know more about:

Miller cites "Captain Robert Manson's unpublished memoir", p.53.

The story is about a german submarine-commander, who used to go to the sheltered Whalefirth Voe on Yell, the boat lying on the bottom for a rest and keeping watch through the periscop. When they realized that there were sheep feeding seeweed on ebbtide, they paddled ashore and captured two of them. This practice became their standard source of fresh meat. Until they captured a ram, which meat tasted bitter and made them sick.

Robert Manson, who had had his home near Whalefirth Voe happened to meet this commander in 1921 as a dockside café owner in Hamburg. And he could tell him that the stealing of "a ram at the height of the tupping season, when the beast was dangerous and its flesh would in any case be raunchy and inedible" had been the subject of great speculation at the time.

 

There is another story mentioned by Miller, p.44, concerning a mobile gun crew on Yell in action against a submarine spotted in Whalefirth Voe. This might well have been the same submarine, but the gunner crew had "neglected to bring the ammunition". Again unfortunately not dated.

 

When I tried to do some investigations, I got the information that there had been a landing team of the german submarine "S.M.U 90" on may 14th and june 5th 1918 shooting 10 sheep on Rona according to the official report.

 

I'd like to identify the Whalefirth Voe submarine, and - with luck - somebody knows more about this incident?

(Oh, I just found that somebody already had mentioned this story on http://www.shetlink.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2013&highlight=submarine+german. But there hadn't been any comment.)

[Muppet]

I've PM'd you an email address of someone who may know more about it. Hope it's of some help.

[earlofzetland]

The same story also appears in "The Shetland Isles" by A.T.Cluness. It varies slightly in that the u-boat commander is a works manager and not a cafe owner.

 

After the war, in Hamburg, the sailor made the acquaintance of a works manager in the firm of Blohm and Voss. The latter evinced great interest when he heard that he came from Shetland. "Do you know Yell?" said he. "Certainly." "Do you know Whalfirth?" "It is near my home, but do you know it?" "Many a night i have been there. I was in command of a U-boat, and when your ships at Busta got too nosy, we would shelter under the cliffs." He then made a recognizable sketch of the place from memory and went on to describe how in this lonely spot miles from anywhere some of the crew would land at night and steal a sheep. The last one they stole was a ram, and so tough they could not eat it. And then the sailor remembered the man who lost the ram.

[Tom]

The same story also appears in "The Shetland Isles" by A.T.Cluness. It varies slightly in that the u-boat commander is a works manager and not a cafe owner.

 

After the war, in Hamburg, the sailor made the acquaintance of a works manager in the firm of Blohm and Voss. The latter evinced great interest when he heard that he came from Shetland. "Do you know Yell?" said he. "Certainly." "Do you know Whalfirth?" "It is near my home, but do you know it?" "Many a night i have been there. I was in command of a U-boat, and when your ships at Busta got too nosy, we would shelter under the cliffs." He then made a recognizable sketch of the place from memory and went on to describe how in this lonely spot miles from anywhere some of the crew would land at night and steal a sheep. The last one they stole was a ram, and so tough they could not eat it. And then the sailor remembered the man who lost the ram.

 

Yeah, I've heard variants of those stories - one had the Shetlander in Germany being the one whose ram was stolen. In the other, the lad who was accused of stealing the ram met the U-Boat captain.

 

The idea of U-Boats hiding in a voe and stealing sheep to eat sounds entirely plausible. Don't know about the rest.

[G eorge]

I am delighted to report, that I got the original memoirs text of this WW1 incident. Thank you very much for your help.

This text is even more impressiv than the excerpt printed in the book.

But in the end of the day, there is no date mentioned in the memoirs.

I don't think it unusual concerning the memoirs, but this unlucky gunner crew which had "neglected to bring the ammunition", might have been well worth to have been mentioned in a military report.

May I kindly ask for the adress of a Shetland Archive or Museum to contact it with this question?

[Ghostrider]

Contact details for both are here http://www.shetland-museum.org.uk/contacts.htm