1947 15 ft. Orkney TenderDan and Ginny bought this boat from Association member, Sandy McCallum, who purchased it from an estate in the Orkney Islands in the mid 1950s.
The Orkney Islands are an archipelago of about 70 islands (21 of them inhabited) located off the northern tip of Scotland. Thriving in off shore industries, the boat builders of the Orkneys typically built large rigs for serious deep sea fishing. This boat was originally a two man rowboat for rough waters in the Orkney waters, possibly built as a launch for one of the larger vessels.
It is known that the 1 cyl. midship Stuart Engine, with the tiller rudder, was added later on, as well as the front deck to store the gas tank. Although not much is known about the actual builder of this little boat, its previous owner (before Sandy's acquisition) has a colourful history that’s worth sharing.
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The original owner was Sir Douglas Bader, a well known World War II ace pilot. Born in London, England in 1910, Douglas went through school exceeding in sports and had strong leadership qualities. Shortly after finishing high school, Bader joined the RAF and developed superior flying skills. His knowledge of the aircraft he used made him protest the use of the Bulldog planes in acrobatic stunts he was required to perform, as he felt they were too cumbersome to perform low-level stunts. His instincts were correct when his plane crashed in the early 1930’s crushing his legs, resulting in a double amputation.
During his convalescence in an RAF hospital he met Marcel Dessoutter, also an amputee, who had developed a metal alloy to use for false legs for amputee victims. Bader immediately volunteered to be fitted with double prosthetics and managed to learn to walk without the aid of a walking stick. He was thus nicknamed “Tin Legs”. He was forced to retire from the RAF in 1933 and went to work for a Petroleum company, but he dreamed of once again being in the cockpit of a fighter plane.
With the outbreak of WWII, Bader, after much persuasion, managed to once again be granted RAF fighter status. By 1940 he had become a renowned ace pilot with a confirmed kill (shot down enemy planes) of 22 – a feat virtually unheard of. His invincibility was broken, however, in 1941 when he collided with a German Messerschmit, and was captured by the Nazis and held in a P.O.W. camp. During the crash, both of his legs were mangled, and he was granted special permission for the RAF to fly over a new set of legs for him. This proved to be an inadvisable move for the Germans as Bader tried not once, but three times, to escape! His captors thusly started removing his legs in order to keep him ‘grounded’, which became a nightly routine until the end of the war in 1945.
After the war years Bader took up a new hobby – setting water speed records. He purchased the Orkney tender as his transportation to and from shore to his race boat. In 1976 he was knighted for the services he had given to amputees over the years. He died 6 years later at the age of 72.
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Read about Dan's Shepherd and Long Deck Launch