Uploaded January 2024 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
On the morning of 31 January 1953, the steamship Earl Thorfinn, on her round of Orkney's North Isles, was hit by a hurricane and had to run before the wind towards Aberdeen. Captain Hamish Flett and his crew coped with mountainous seas that smashed her steering gear and conditions that destroyed other vessels that day including the Stranraer-Larne ferry Princess Victoria.
How did the ship survive, and how has marine communication developed over the years to help in such situations? Prof. Tom Stevenson tells the story in a talk for the 2023 Orkney International Science Festival.
In association with the Museum of Communication in Burntisland, and Orkney Wireless Museum
oisf.org/fest-event/the-thorfinn-and-the-hurricane
On the morning of 31 January 1953, the steamship Earl Thorfinn, on her round of Orkney's North Isles, was hit by a hurricane and had to run before the wind towards Aberdeen. Captain Hamish Flett and his crew coped with mountainous seas that smashed her steering gear and conditions that destroyed other vessels that day including the Stranraer-Larne ferry Princess Victoria.
How did the ship survive, and how has marine communication developed over the years to help in such situations? Prof. Tom Stevenson tells the story in a talk for the 2023 Orkney International Science Festival.
In association with the Museum of Communication in Burntisland, and Orkney Wireless Museum
oisf.org/fest-event/the-thorfinn-and-the-hurricane
