The Kent History Forum
Maritime History => Harbours and Dockyards => Topic started by: Local Hiker on July 17, 2021, 08:34:58 AM
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https://www.facebook.com/graham.baigrie/posts/10159702177933991 (https://www.facebook.com/graham.baigrie/posts/10159702177933991)
Is this history? I am sure admin will delete if not.
The scorpions came ashore from a ship (or ships?) in the early 1800's.
They have populated the main external dockyard wall in Blue Town, Sheerness.
It is south facing so catches the sun, so it probably emulates a hot, dry rocky environment for them.
You need an ultraviolet torch to see them. They were "invisible" with no light and hard to see with a normal torch.
There were many of them, and easily seen with the UV.
It is facinating what is on your doorstep sometimes.
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The presence of scorpions in Sheerness is certainly of local historical interest. It would be interesting to learn about other non-native exotic wildlife in our county.
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I'm sure I saw on tv some time back that scorpions are also to be seen in walls around Dover but nowhere near the large population that exists in Sheerness,
http://www.jasonsteelwildlifephotography.yolasite.com/uk-scorpions.php (http://www.jasonsteelwildlifephotography.yolasite.com/uk-scorpions.php)
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There is also a colony in East Anglia IIRC at a railway sidings that imported fruit. My mother, a Bluetowner, used to talk of catching them when a child- we never believed her back then
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Didn't the Sheerness dockyard scopions come from the Cornwallis?
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Didn't the Sheerness dockyard scopions come from the Cornwallis?
No, they came in with cargoes of stone from the Mediterranean, used in the reconstruction of the Dockyard in the early 19th Century.
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Under threat now it seems....
https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2002/may/12/robinmckie.theobserver (https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2002/may/12/robinmckie.theobserver)
Admittedly, an almost 20-year old article in the good old Grauniad..