The world’s only floating bank has been restored after two years of painstaking work.
And yesterday the boat that was a financial lifeline for some of Scotland’s remotest islands – and was the only bank in Britain whose opening hours were dictated by gale warnings and the state of the tides – was fully unveiled again.
The renovation of the former Orkney bank boat the Otter Bank was marked in her new home on Hoy yesterday.
And for the one surviving crew member it brought back both poignant and happy memories.
James Watson, who as a young bank clerk served aboard the 32ft cabin cruiser, said some of the journeys were so rough that workers threatened to resign from the bank if they had to sail on her again.
Visiting times to the islands were also posted with the proviso “Subject to tide and weather”.
The National Commercial Bank – later the Royal Bank of Scotland – ran a bank boat service to the north isles between 1962 and 1970, using the Otter Bank.
The little 6.5 tonne cruiser which had a safe on board, visited the Orkney islands nine times a week, bringing financial services to small communities.
The boat also occasionally acted as a floating ambulance, delivering pregnant mothers and emergency patients to the hospital in Kirkwall.
The boat was immortalised on film in 1967 when the National Commercial Bank of Scotland made a publicity documentary, Bank Ahead, which showed her skipper, the late Davie Irvine, and bank “manager” Willie Groat, who died earlier this year in his 90s, in action.
Mr Watson, 68, of Kirkwall said: “The trips weren’t always pleasant.
“I can remember one young woman who was so seasick that she said, ‘I’m not going out again, even if I have to resign from the bank’.”
When the maritime bank service ceased, the Otter Bank was sold. She was rediscovered on the River Mersey in the early 1990s. When the owner decided to sell her, he offered her back to Orkney.
The Heritage Lottery Fund and the National Fund for Acquisitions, along with the Friends of Orkney Boat Museum and NorthLink Ferries, provided support to purchase the boat for the Orkney Arts, Museums and Heritage collection.
Ten volunteers spent over 1,000 hours on the restoration and the Otter Bank is now at the Scapa Flow Visitor Centre and Museum on Hoy.
The museum’s Jude Callister, said: “It was an iconic vessel. It was useful and it was daring, especially when you see the size of the boat. The Otter Bank is fondly remembered by islanders.”