BW in the Hebrides
After the Second World War, five series of experiments with animals at
sea were undertaken as part of the British biological weapons (BW) research
programme:
·Operation Harness (a pilot scheme) in Caribbean
waters off Antigua, Bahamas, 1948-49
·Operation Cauldron in Scottish waters off
Stornoway, Isle of Lewis, 1952
·Operation Hesperus (same location as Cauldron),
1953
·Operation Ozone in Caribbean waters off Nassau,
Bahamas, 1954
·Operation Negation (same location as Ozone),
1954-55.
Trials were conducted by Britain, overseen by
scientists from Porton Down under the auspices of the Ministry of Supply, with
the cooperation of the USA and Canada (the BW tripartite alliance). Secrecy was
a prime concern. The organisms (BW agents) tested included plague, brucellosis,
and tularaemia ('rabbit fever'). They were tested variously on monkeys,
guinea-pigs, mice and chick embryos. At the end of the 'Cauldron' series a
trawler, the Carella from Hull, passed through the danger area while the
plague organism was being tested, and was kept under covert observation while
returning to Fleetwood, and then to the Icelandic fishing grounds, until the
incubation period was over. Ministers met to discuss action, and briefings were
prepared for the PM. A Naval Medical Officer was to render medical assistance;
help was not to be sought in any foreign port. The Admiralty kept only one
complete file on the 'incident'; all other records were to be destroyed by
fire.
They had
got away with it and were set to proceed with the next, longer series,
Operation Hesperus, in the same location in the summer of 1953. The name of Carella
did not after all acquire a resonance like that of Lucky Dragon,
another fishing boat that was in the wrong place at the wrong time in 1952,
during atomic weapons tests in the Pacific.
Prior to 'Hesperus', the Ministry considered
issuing a statement about the sea trials but the PM was 'most insistent' that
there should be no publicity and nothing said unless 'some issue' was raised in
the House of Commons.
As in the previous year, no breach of security
was reported. After 1953 they seem to have left Lewis
alone as far as this kind of activity went. The Military Branch of the
Admiralty wrote to the Scottish Home & Health Department on 22 September
1953 to say that a final decision about continuing the trials was still to
emerge, but they were not expected to take place in the Hebrides in 1954. In
fact the weather had hampered activities more than in the previous year (1953
was particularly stormy even for Lewis), leading to some disappointment over
results and exasperation at delays, and the scientists and sailors were moving
to the milder climate of the Bahamas. Or as the report of the next series put
it, they had consolidated the technique that they would now work on in a
‘better place’.
Extracts from the Stornoway
Gazette
Stornoway Gazette, 6-6-52, p.4
Lewis
Football. Friendly Games.
Athletic
7, H.M.S.
Ben Lomond 2 (played on Saturday)
School “A” 6,
H.M.S. Welcome 3
Both matches against the Nay teams were
won as a result of the better condition of the home teams.
Man In “Silent Service”
Fined £10
A Leading seaman aboard H.M.S. “Ben
Lomond” whose character was given as “good” and work described as “superior”
was fined a total of £10 in Stornoway Sheriff Court last Monday on pleading
guilty to withholding information from the police, refusing to name another
sailor whom he admitted aiding and abetting to drive away a car without
permission… caught last Sunday night… car being driven in a “peculiar” manner… driver
escaped after a chase by another policeman.
Police conducted an investigation aboard
H.M.S. “Hengist” in Stornoway Harbour but no arrest was made. A Lieutenant on the “Hengist” gave
character reference; the Navy assured them that the men would be disciplined.
Their own ship was sheltering in Broad
Bay from rough weather.
[The BW
danger area was patrolled by a naval-manned tug, the Hengist, on
‘clear-range’ duties.]
Stornoway Gazette, 30-9-1952, p. 7
Letter: Ben Lomond thanks Stornoway
On behalf of the ship’s company, thanks
to all who made us welcome during last
five months, including staff of County Hotel, Mrs Muir for farewell dance,
those who were sociable when we were ashore; for very kind hospitality.
“Perhaps one day we will return to Stornoway,
which will, we hope, be in the near future, and on a better mission.”
L.J.K.
H.M.S. Ben Lomond
Near the scene of Operations Cauldron and Hesperus:
Beach on north-east Lewis,
scene of family and Sunday-school picnics in the 1950s and after.
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| The trials took place in the vicinity of Cellar Head |
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| Mothers and children on beach on the Isle of Lewis, early 1950s |
