Episode 4

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Published on:

13th Oct 2026

Watching the outbreak of war in the flow

John Cload was in his late teens when the 2nd world war began and here, in this interview from the archives, John shares his memories of the impact of the war on the activities of the ships and boats that came to Scapa Flow and the pollution that happened as a result of ships being sunk there

Voices from Scapa Flow is funded by The National Lottery Heritage Fund, thanks to National Lottery players.

It is delivered in partnership with The Space and Museums and Heritage Highland.

Voices from Scapa Flow was produced by Adventurous Audio

Archive licenced by Historic Environment Scotland © Crown Copyright: HES

Find out more about Scapa Flow Museum and our collections

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About the Podcast

Voices from Scapa Flow
Voices from Scapa Flow tells the story of life in Orkney – and the history the islands have witnessed – from the First World War to the present day.

About your hosts

Scapa Flow Museum

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Scapa Flow Museum tells the story of a remote but immense natural harbour off the far north coast of Scotland as the centre of the British naval universe during both world wars

Discover the equally important story of how this influx of thousands of service people affected the daily lives of the people of Orkney and left a lasting legacy on the archipelago.

Adventurous Audio

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Voices from Scapa Flow is produced by Adventurous Audio.
The creative partnership behind the multi award winning Adventurous Audio is Pennie Latin Stuart and Dan Holland. We've worked together for over over 20 years and have over 50 years of audio production experience between us, producing an insane range of content, covering every conceivable topic from comedy to hard-hitting documentaries, food, the arts, science, music, sport and outside broadcasts.