HMS Sparrowhawk or RNAS Hatston (Royal Naval Air Station) was the base where 16 Blackburn Skuas flew from on their mission to sink the German cruiser Königsberg in 1940. This was the first sinking of a major warship by air attack. The concrete slipway, which you can see to the west as your boat departs, was constructed to launch and recover seaplanes. As a boy, Richard Fresson (son of aviation pioneer Captain Ernest Fresson) was at the slipway with his father when a ‘Supermarine Walrus’ (seaplane) started to approach the slip. He thought it was surely going to crash, but he recalled his excitement and amazement as the seaplane gracefully exited the water on its wheels.
HMS Sparrowhawk Hatston 1944 courtesy of Orkney Library & Archive | Accommodation Billets at Hatston - courtesy of Orkney Library and Archive
Lying under the waves just off the Hatston shore are two fascinating shipwrecks: the Kathleen Annie and the Busy Bee. The Kathleen Annie was skippered by Frank Worsley, who was Captain of the ship Endurance on Ernest Shackleton’s famous Antarctic voyage. Read more about what happened to the Kathleen Annie and the Busy Bee here.
Wreck of Busy Bee at Hatston - Courtesy of Orkney Library & Archive | Wreck of Kathleen Annie - courtesy of Orkney Library & Archive
