Grades of sand

“I was interested in Roderick Stewart’s question in a recent column relating to Tay sand,” emails Douglas Neilson. “My uncle, John Neilson ran the Tay Sand Company, responsible for the shipments of sand to the Orkneys during the Second World War. The Tay offers two grades of sand – soft (building) sand taken from the Middle Bank near Dundee and sharp sand (for concrete) taken from upriver in pockets near Flisk.

“I agree the Orkneys have sand deposits, but, being in or near the sea, they will have much higher salt contents than river sand and this reduces the suitability for making good concrete. Furthermore, to excavate sand from river or sea, the ship dredging requires to be anchored over the deposit; tidal flows in the Orkneys can be extremely fast (hence the interest in electricity generation) and the weather unreliable – not what one wants with open hatches loading at sea!

“The tidal race was well illustrated to me on my first coastal voyage on the SS Arch Royal in 1946 from Methil to Lyness with coal. We were following a much larger steamer which required to pick up a pilot. The captain obviously had no idea of the tidal race, so he stopped his ship to pick up the pilot and his ship was quickly swung in a great big arc to port,meaning he had to complete the circle and follow us into the Flo.

“Incidentally, our coal was off-loaded at Lyness into a hulk – an old Great Lakes Steamer that had managed to make it over in convoy but suffered engine failure and sadly, would never steam again.”