German's 'air mail' idea goes up in smoke

CHRISTINA Maclennan had the most unconventional delivery. On 13 January 1934, with the aid of an untrained 85-year-old midwife, she gave birth in her home on the remote island of Scarp. But the mother was expecting twins and her condition worsened as the second baby was reluctant to appear.

The tiny island had no doctor and no telephones. A resident crossed the sound to the Outer Hebridean island of Harris to get help. A doctor in Tarbert ordered the anxious mother to be rushed to the mainland. Maclennan completed the difficult journey – across the rough sea by ferry while tied to a stretcher, on the floor of a bus and over an unfinished road by private car – to Lewis Hospital in Stornoway, where she delivered the second baby … two days later and 50 miles away.

When news of the mother's challenging delivery reached the rest of the world, a young German scientist hatched an idea to help bridge the Scottish island's primitive communications links. His name was Gerhard Zucker and his invention became known as the Rocket Post.

The General Post Office was already looking into ways to improve mail deliveries to remote islands when Zucker came calling with the idea of carrying post – and perhaps eventually medicine – over water by rocket. Speaking through an interpreter, Zucker told The Scotsman that "the rocket transport would be a boon to the Western Isles."

No-one is certain about Zucker's real motivation. Was it really to improve mail services for people living on remote locales, or, as some residents believed, was he attempting to identify suitable ports to recharge German U-boats or to establish the grade of British-supplied explosives in the event of war?

"There's no doubt there were spies on the ground here," says Mark Elliott, conservation officer at Museum nan Eilean in Stornoway. "Locally, they were thought to be spies."

The idea went ahead nonetheless. With the support of the British government and the local MP, Sir Wilson Ramsay, the 26-year-old Zucker was granted permission to try his rather quirky idea. It was a simple concept: stuff a small capsule with cargo and attach it to a main rocket launcher.

Ready, aim, fire. If only it was that easy.

Zucker's first experiment across land was a success and a trial over sea was next. Two local post office representatives, officials from a private firm called the British Rocket Syndicate, Zucker and assistant Heinz Dombrowsky travelled to Scarp.

The 12 square mile crofting community was home to slightly under 100 islanders. The plan was to launch a rocket over the half-mile stretch of sea to Harris, where its contents would be retrieved and then delivered to the closest post office.

The date was set: 28 July 1934, or Latha na Rocait, the day of the rocket. The metre-long cylinder weighed 14kg and could travel as fast as 1000mph. It was loaded with 1200 letters, addressed to friends, family and dignitaries – even to King George V. Special stamps were printed for the occasion, no doubt raising the value of the envelopes.

The rocket was to launch from Scarp – through a mostly cloudy and intermittently rainy sky – to Hushinish Point on Harris. The test-firing was a disaster. Instead of flying across the sea, the missile shot up and quickly exploded into a cloud of smoke followed by a rain of confetti. Hundreds of scorched letters and rocket remnants were littered across Scarp beach. Zucker blamed the failure on the type of explosive supplied by the government, while some speculate that Westminster intentionally offered substandard matriel to dishearten the German scientist.

A second attempt three days later - this time from Amhuinnsuidh Castle on Harris to Scarp and again under a cloudy and wet sky - met with mixed results. As The Scotsman reported, "there was a flash of fire, a cloud of smoke, and when the air cleared the letters were seen strewn about the wreckage of the firing apparatus." Only a piece of the rocket was found at its intended target.

Zucker's great hope for Scarp and other island communities was scuttled in a cloud of smoke. The scientist was ordered back to Germany, where he was arrested on suspicion of co-operating with the British. He later became a member of the country's V2 rocket programme during the Second World War.

Whilst he moved to West Germany after the war to become a furniture dealer, Zucker still experimented with rockets – until disaster struck. A demonstration of his launcher in May 1964 accidentally killed three people, leading to a ban on civilian rocket research in that country.

Meantime, human life on Scarp is only a memory. Once a bustling little farming community, whose population grew to as much as 213 by 1881, it is now uninhabited. The last family moved to Harris in 1971. And although there was one recent wedding – the first of its kind in some 80 years – there will likely never be another baby delivered on the island, especially not another quite like Christina Maclennan's.

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