I WAS most interested to read the letter from Dr L. Constable (Issue 113) ‘Memento of a Doomed Liner’ as an aunt of mine, Mrs Annie Butterley, was on board the liner Athenia on that fateful voyage and was, thankfully, saved.
I have since written to Dr Constable and he has promised to send me information he has obtained about the Athenia and its last voyage in September 1939. Thank you for printing his letter and for the comfort and pleasure this has given me.
On the same subject, an article in the Sunday Post in 1991 told of how a Karen Johnson from Dundee had been visiting the island of Stronsay, north of the Orkney mainland, and while strolling along the shore had noticed an old upturned boat.
She took a photograph which was published in the Sunday Post and a gentleman from Kirkwall got in touch to reveal that this decaying relic has been one of the lifeboats attached to the Athenia. Caught in strong westerly winds and tides, the boat had ended up in Stronsay and was eventually used as a seafront shed.
- Mrs Edna Jones, Heddon Banks, Heddon on the Wall.