One  of  the  first  steps  taken  in  this  direction,  in  November,  1914,  was
the  towing  of  the  old  cruiser  Imperieuse  (formerly  Fisgard  I  and,  at  the
outbreak  of  the  war,  serving  as  a  boy  artificers'  training  ship,  at  Ports-
mouth) from  the  South  to  a  point  in  Long  Hope  Sound  about  two  miles
off  Long  Hope  Pier,  where,  under  the  command  of  Captain  Bertram
Chambers,  the  King's  Harbour  Master,  she  became  the  general  dep6t
ship  of  the  Grand  Fleet,  and  acted  both  as  Grand  Fleet  Post  Office  and
as  overflow  ship  to  the  Cyclops.  The  Fleet  itself  lay  in  hnes  off  the  north
side  of  Flotta,  and  the  larger  of  the  auxiliary  vessels — coUiers,  store  ships
and  ammunition  ships — ^lay  in  Gutter  Sound,  between  Long  Hope  and
Hoy  Sound.
Post  Office  work  on  the  Imperieuse  was  at  first  limited  to  receipt
and  distribution  of  incoming  mails  for  the  Fleet,  forwarding  outgoing
mails  in  bulk  to  Inverness,  where  they  would  be  sorted  and  otherwise
dealt  with,  and  sale  of  postage  stamps.
In  June,  1915,  these  arrangements  underwent  a  reorganisation.  The
civU  postal  staff  on  board  was  supplemented  by  a  naval  postal  staff,
operating  under  the  direction  of  Lieutenant-Commander  Richard  Say,
O.B.E.,  R.N.V.R.,  as  Fleet  Mail  Officer ;  ihails  collected  from  the  Fleet
were  to  be  sorted  on  the  Imperieuse — now  officially  designated  "  Fleet
Post  Office  A  "^ — letter-bags  for  direct  dispatch  to  leading  towns  in
England  and  Scotland  were  to  be  made  up  on  the  Imperieuse,  and  money
order  and  savings  bank  business  was  to  be  done.  Other  postal  facilities
were  afterwards  added,  and  it  was  claimed  that  those  eventually  made
available  on  the  waters  of  Scapa  Flow  could  scarcely  be  equalled  in  a
town  of  100,000  inhabitants.
