Editing Flotta (section)

==History==
At the turn of the 20th century, the island was a quiet rural community like many other small islands of Orkney, but its sheltered location led to three major upheavals in the island in the century.

Until 1914, Flotta was a quiet farming community. In 1910, a population of 431 included two blacksmiths, four carpenters and three dressmakers.

===World Wars===
[[File:Flotta; The Buchanan Battery (geograph 3746217).jpg|thumb|left|The Buchanan Battery on Flotta]]
{{Expand section|1=<nowiki /> details of [[Second World War]] structures such as the
*Buchanan and Innan Neb batteries
*Naval cinema
*Stanger Head signal station
*Golta Peninsula rocket base
*YMCA building|date=September 2014}}
Everything changed with the arrival of the Royal Navy in Scapa Flow at the start of the [[First World War]]. There is a photograph held by the Imperial War Museum in London that shows a boxing match taking place on Flotta in front of a wartime audience of 10,000 people.

During the First World War, the island was home to a naval base. The [[Battleship|dreadnought]] [[HMS Vanguard (1909)|HMS ''Vanguard'']] sank nearby in 1917, reputedly the worst maritime disaster in UK waters. In the Second World War, the island was again used as a military base.

1918 saw the mass exodus of Navy personnel, and 1939 saw their return. After the Second World War the island had good piers and facilities, but a slowly declining population. It took until 1970 for fresh water to be piped to the island from Hoy.

===North Sea oil===
[[File:Flotta Oil Terminal (geograph 1864141).jpg|thumb|left|Flotta oil terminal]]
In 1974, [[Occidental Petroleum]] started construction of the island's [[Flotta oil terminal|oil terminal]]. This became the second largest major oil terminal serving the UK [[North Sea]], the largest being [[Sullom Voe]] in [[Shetland]].

It took only two years from the start of construction until the first of the crude oil was pumped into the terminal, during which thousands of workers were posted at the "camp" in Flotta to complete the facility as Britain's thirst for oil was growing by the day. The [[Flotta oil terminal]] was opened by the energy minister, [[Tony Benn]] MP, on 11 January 1977.<ref name=Warner>{{cite book| last = Warner| first = Guy | title = Orkney by Air - A photographic journey through time | publisher = Kea Publishing | location = Renfrewshire | date = 2005 | pages = 48–52 | isbn = 978-0-9518958-7-0}}</ref>

The oil terminal provides the landing for the [[Piper oilfield|Piper]] and [[Claymore oilfield|Claymore]] fields pipeline system. In addition, it provides a safe facility for the receipt and transshipment of oil produced from the UK Atlantic margins.