Words in Hand

Well, I'm sure you noticed how at the beginning of this extract Clark could show the central position of the Scapa Flow in relation to the British Isles. He showed the isles like this, and showed the centre point up here which is Orkney, and then he could pinpoint the exact position of the Scapa Flow. And then he could demonstrate how ships can go in any direction very easily from that point, like this. It shows the exact direction it was.

Did you notice that when he talked about ships going in any direction all over the world, this hand becomes the world and this hand becomes the different ways ships can go in relation to the world, like this? So it's very easy to use space to give this location and spatial information.

The next section of his account is maybe a little bit more difficult, and some of you may have found it difficult to follow and understand. But I'm sure if you were able to grasp the way that Clark was using space to give us vital information, you will find it more easier to follow.

Understanding his account is crucial to recognise when Clark starts talking about the Churchill Barriers in the Second World War. He puts the scuttled ships in particular positions. He's already told us about those ships being scuttled in the First World War and now we put them centrally in front of the body.

To the left he puts the British ships, hiding there during the Second World War. And to the right he places the German U-boat. So when a freak wave comes we know from the positions that the wave is going over the scuttled ships and allowing the U-boat to come in until, in the end, they torpedo the Roay – don't worry – [HMS] Royal Oak.

I wonder if you noticed in the middle of that piece that Clark changed his role – he became a commander of the U-boat and ordered the sinking of the British ship. So again, it's a changing perspective.

In the last part of that account, Clark tells us about the building of the chapel by the Italian prisoners of war. Again, you might have found some of it easy to follow once you got the basic idea of how Clark uses space to give location information. When he is talking about the building of the chapel from the Rannoch huts, he doesn't need to use signs like 'on', 'under' or 'in' very much because he is able to show what is happening by locating particular signs in relation to those huts themselves.

For example, he tells us two huts are put back to back, like this, and then welded. Where he has put the sign for 'weld' shows where the welding is in the middle of the two huts.

When he shows the front is being built up with bricks and plaster, again he doesn't have to say everything like 'the front of the Rannoch hut' as we know what he is talking about because of where he has positioned the signs beforehand, like this.

When he adds the plasterboard we can literally see him putting the sheets of plasterboard on following the shape of the hut, like this.

The sign for 'paint' gives us an idea of the detail and the position of where the painting is. So we know here he is painting up on the ceiling.

When Clark then decides to compare these prisoners of war (POWs) from Italy, these painters, with Michaelangelo he stresses that by placing them in two parts of space, like this.

Perhaps like me after you watch a story, you will probably want to go off and look at the beautiful chapel at the Churchill Barriers. Certainly, Clark seems to find it fascinating.

Well, we hope you've enjoyed this tape. We know we have crammed lots of information into this tape and we are asking you to notice a lot of details, so maybe you could just watch some of the pieces that we've shown you in this tape again – and maybe some of the other tapes – to see if you can start to notice the same way of giving information about location as given in this tape.

Bye for now, see you later.