It was a lovely day.  Blue sky and the sun shining. I needed to go to town for an appointment anyway but I also did some messages first.

I filled up my field at Jamieson’s Knitwear, which was looking a bit empty.  They took everything I had made so that was good but now the rush is on to try and keep up with potential buyers.

Lerwick was full.  The MS Nieuw Statendam was in port bringing 2,666 visitors.

I admired the huge ship and then wandered along the harbour to see the also newly arrived “Liberation Convoy” consisting of four fishing boats and a submarine chaser – these beautiful vessels had all taken part in the “Shetland Bus” – an incredible rescue operation during the Second World War.

From Wikipedia –

The Shetland Bus (Norwegian Bokmål: Shetlandsbussene) was the nickname of a clandestine special operations group that made a permanent link between Mainland Shetland in Scotland and German-occupied Norway from 1941 until the surrender of Nazi Germany on 8 May 1945. This link transferred agents in and out of Norway and provided them with weapons, radios and other supplies. From mid-1942, the group’s official name was the Norwegian Naval Independent Unit (NNIU). In October 1943, it became an official part of the Royal Norwegian Navy and was renamed the Royal Norwegian Naval Special Unit (RNNSU). The unit was operated initially by a large number of small fishing boats and later augmented by three fast and well-armed submarine chasers – Vigra, Hessa and Hitra.

Crossings were mostly made during the winter under the cover of darkness. This meant the crews and passengers had to endure very heavy North Sea conditions, with no lights and constant risk of discovery by German aircraft or patrol boats. There was also the possibility of being captured whilst carrying out the mission on the Norwegian coast

It was amazing to see this amazing flotilla that had come over to Shetland to commemorate VE Day as well as their special link with Shetland.

(And suddenly the cruise ship looked very out of place.)