This lifeboat drifted ashore on a nearby island a few months after the sinking of the Athenia and was used on Stronsay for a number of years harvesting seaweed for the local Kelp industry before being converted to a summer house on the foreshore of Whitehall village, where it still is. The first incident of the U-boat war occurred just hours after the declaration of hostilities between Britain and Germany on September 3rd, 1939, when Oberleutnant Fritz-Julius Lemp, commanding U-30, attacked and sank what he took to be an armoured cruiser off Ireland. His target was in fact a 13,500-ton passenger liner carrying 1,103 civilians, including more than 300 Americans hurrying home ahead of the clouds of war. This case of mistaken identity set in motion a large-scale cover-up on the part of the Reich, and had far-reaching consequences both for the subsequent conduct of the U-boat war, and for some of the key players in the affair - Lemp. The pretence that U-boats had had nothing to do with Athenia's demise was maintained for the duration of the war. Lemp was not court-martialled for his error, but neither was he promoted from the field, as were many of his contemporaries.
The small building close by the lifeboat is an unusual stone-built public toilet dating from the 1930s, which is reached by a narrow gangway, and was flushed clear by seawater. It has fallen into a state of disrepair in recent years.