Shipwrecks of Scapa Flow
Scuttle!
On 21 June 1919 the entire German High Seas Fleet of 74 warships was scuttled in the great natural harbour of Scapa Flow in the Orkney Isles on the orders of Rear Admiral Ludwig von Reuter. The sinking of the entire fleet over the course of a few hours was and is the single most momentous act of maritime suicide the world has ever seen. Massive dreadnought battleships and battle cruisers, the most lethal fighting machines on the planet at the time, sank to the bottom of the Flow along with smaller light cruisers and torpedo boat destroyers.
The High Seas Fleet had been interned at Scapa Flow as a condition of the Armistice of 11 November 1918, which had suspended the Great War's hostilities. The British would keep the fleet under guard as the two sides negotiated the terms of the final Treaty of Versailles. For seven long months the great ships languished at anchor until, on 21 June 1919, fearing a break down of the peace negotiations and the seizure of his fleet, von Reuter issued his pre-arranged and fateful coded order, "Paragraph 11. Bestätigen." (Paragraph 11. Confirm.)
The British Grand Fleet, which had been guarding the German ships had left Scapa that day for a torpedo firing exercise. As soon as news of the mass scuttle reached them they
charged back to Scapa Flow. By the time the last of the British Fleet arrived back however, only 3 German battleships, 3 light cruisers and a few destroyers were left afloat.
Salvage
Following the scuttling the British Admiralty at first resolved to leave the German ships to rot on the bottom of Scapa Flow as salvage experts had concluded that raising the huge ships was impossible. But then in 1924 Engineer Ernest Cox bought 26 destroyers and 2 battleships from the Admiralty for £24,000 and started raising them from the bottom. For the deeper ships, which lay upside down, he had lengthy airlocks of old boilers welded together which ran from the surface down to the wreck. His workmen would seal themselves into the airlock and then descend fixed ladders to the wreck below where they would work inside the hull sealing openings and making the ready for lifting by filling the wreck with compressed air. In 1949 the salvage firm of Cox & Danks was sold to Metal Industries who along with subsequent firms such as Nundy (Marine Metals) Ltd and Scapa Flow Salvage carried out smaller scale works, blasting into the wrecks and removing non-ferrous engine room fitments, the armour belts and torpedo tubes. The remaining wrecks all show the scars of this later work. Commercial salvage work stopped in the late 1970's and he 7 remaining German wrecks have now been protected as historic monuments to preserve them for the future.
The Bayern turrets
The 32,200-ton battleship Bayern carried eight powerful 15-inch guns set in four twin turrets. She turned turtle as she sank and came to rest on the seabed in 38 metres. In June 1935 during salvage operations a compressed air hose burst inside the hull making the hull buoyant and she rose from the seabed. The gun turrets had not yet been secured for lifting and broke free from their fastenings and were left on the seabed. Once on the surface air slowly escaped from the Bayern and moved by the tide she sank to the bottom coming to rest in a slightly different position. She was eventually raised to the surface however her four turrets remain set in line in a depression in the seabed four metres deep where her hull originally lay. A second depression in the seabed reveals where she subsequently came to rest.
SMS Kronprinz Wilhelm
The massive 575 foot long dreadnought battleship Kronprinz Wilhelm was launched on 21 February 1914. Displacing 25,388-tons she bristled with ten 12-inch guns with a range of 22,000 yards set in five twin turrets, seven 5.9-inch rapid fire casemate guns ranged along either side, anti aircraft guns and five submerged torpedo tubes. She turned turtle as she sank and now rests in 38 metres. Her Engine Room has been opened up and her 13.8-inch thick citadel armour belt, on either side and athwartships, has been removed causing the collapse of the bow. At her stern are the most accessible big guns that fired at the Battle of Jutland in 1916.
SMS Markgraf
The massive 575 foot long battleship Markgraf displaced 25,388 tons and had a beam of 97 feet. She was built at Bremen and launched on 4 June-1913. A state of the art dreadnought she carried ten 12-inch guns with a range of 22,000 yards set in twin turrets, 14 rapid fire 5.9-inch casemate guns, anti-aircraft guns and five submerged torpedo tubes, one in the bow and four in the beam. She carried a crew of 1,136 officers and men and could achieve 21 knots. Markgraf formed part of the vanguard of the Third Battleship Squadron along with her sister dreadnoughts König and Kronprinz Wilhelm and was involved in some of the heaviest fighting in the Battle of Jutland. She is the deepest of the German battleships lying upside down in 42 metres. She is also the most intact of the battleships, having initially escaped Cox&Danks attentions due to her depth and with Nundy (Marine Metals) Ltd leaving her with a view to lifting her intact Subsequent salvers blew into her engine room and removed her citadel armour belt along eitherside and athwartships, leading to the collapse of the bow.
SMS Karisruhe
The 497 feet long, 5,354-ton light cruiser Karlsruhe was launched on 31 January 1916. She carried eight 5.9-inch guns set in single mounts, two deck-mounted torpedo tubes, two submerged torpedo tubes and 200 mines, She was heavily worked by salvers with her submerged torpedo tubes at the bow being blasted and removed and her Engine Room being opened up. Her bridge superstructure was made of -inch brass plate and was blown off by salvers in one section weighing 4 h tons. Today she rests on her starboard side in 26 metres off the northerly tip of the island of Cava.
HMS Hampshire
On 5 June 1916, the 10,850-ton armoured cruiser HMS Hampshire left Scapa Flow on a voyage to Archangel in northern Russia carrying Lord Kitchener. She ran into a fierce storm as she laboured up the west coast of Orkney which forced her two destroyer escorts to abandon the passage and return to Scapa Flow. Hampshire went on alone into the teeth of the storm but shortly afterwards, off the sheer cliffs of Marwick Head, she struck a mine and sank quickly with the loss of Lord Kitchener and all but 12 of her crew of 655. Her wreck today lies upside down in 68 metres of water 1 1/2 miles off Marwick Head and is a protected war grave.
HMS Royal Oak
On 14 October 1939, U-47 slipped through the Blockships of Kirk Sound and torpedoed the massive 29,150-ton battleship at anchor in Scapa Bay. Royal Oak turned turtle on the surface within minutes and sank to the bottom with many of her crew still inside her. Many others were to die in the freezing cold water. In all 833 officers and men lost their lives in this tragedy. This wreck is a protected war grave.
Churchill Barrier Blockships
Before the Churchill Barriers were constructed by Italian POW's during WWII as a result of the sinking of HMS Royal Oak, attempts were made to seal the 4 eastern channels or Sounds into Scapa Flow by sinking Blockships. Some of these Blockships still show above the water.
Burra Sound Blockships
The western entrance to Scapa Flow of Burra Sound was sealed against enemy incursions during both wars by sinking old ships as "Blockships." Today the remains of several blockships are strewn across the seabed. Blockships were also sunk in the four eastern entrances to Scapa Flow however as a result of the sinking of HMS Royal Oak by U-47. Churchill ordered the Sounds permanently sealed by causeways constructed of 5-ton blocks of concrete — the Churchill Barriers.
F2 & YC21.
The German Second World War escort vessel F2 was a British war prize. After the war she sank at her moorings in Gutter Sound near Lyness on the island of Hoy. The barge YC21 was being used to salvage F2 in 1968 when she sank nearby carrying anti-aircraft guns from F2 in her hold. The two wrecks are often linked by a rope- allowing divers to swim from one to the other.
HM Drifter Imbat
This small 92-ton vessel was sunk in a collision on 4 February 1941 and now lies in 14 metres east of Lyness Pier in Gutter Sound.
German MTB
The broken up remains of a German WWII E-boat lie in 10 metres off Fara.
Roedean
The 1094-ton, 280 feet long, fleet minesweeper Roedean was built in 1897. She was requisitioned in 1914 by the Admiralty and converted to a minesweeper. She sank on 13 January 1915 when she hit a mine. Her dispersed remains now lie in 15 metres at the entrance to Long Hope.
Concrete Barge
S54
Remains of German torpedo-boat.
Prudentia
The tanker Prudentia sank on 12 January 1916 when she dragged her anchor in bad weather and fouled HMS Iron Duke's buoy. At the time of her sinking her tanks were filled with oil. The wreck today is carefully monitored and is off limits to sport divers due to the risk of an oil spill.
SMM Brummer
The 462 feet long, 4,308-ton fast mine-laying light cruiser Brummer was launched on 11 December 1915. She was armed with four 5.9-inch guns in single mounts, anti-aircraft guns and 360 mines. Her Engine Room has been opened up by salvage divers and in recent years her foredeck 5.9 inch gun has fallen from its mount to the seabed. She lies on her starboard side in 36 metres.
SMS Cöln (II)
The 510 feet long, 5,531-ton light cruiser Cöln was launched on 5 October 1916. She carried eight 5.9-inch guns in single mounts, four deck mounted torpedo tubes and 200 mines. Her Engine Room was blasted open to allow salvage divers to remove the valuable non-ferrous fitments. She now lies in 35 metres of water on her starboard side.
SMS König
The 575 foot long, 25,388-ton dreadnought battleship König carried ten 12-inch guns with a range of 22.000 yards set in five twin turrets, fourteen rapid fire 5.9-inch casemate guns, anti-aircraft guns and five 19.7-inch submerged torpedo tubes. König turned turtle as she sank and now lies in 40 metres of water. Her Engine Room has been opened up and the removal of her 13.8-inch thick citadel armour belt, along either side and athwartships, has led to the collapse of the bow.
SMS Dresden
The 510 feet long, 5,531-ton light cruiser Dresden was launched on 25 April 1917 and carried eight powerful 5.9-inch guns in single mounts, four deck mounted torpedo tubes and 200 mines. Built later in the War when Germany was short of ion-ferrous metals her fitments were of poorer quality metal than those ships built earlier and hence, other than her Engine Room being opened up, she has largely escaped salvage work. The rivets, which held her main foredeck to her hull, have disintegrated due to differential corrosion and caused the deck to fall outwards and downwards. She now rests in 34 metres of water on her port side.
HMS Vanguard
On 9 July 1917 the battleship HMS Vanguard blew up at anchor one mile off Flotta in a cataclysmic magazine explosion with the loss of more than 800 men. The wreck is now a protected war grave.
UB-116
The German coastal submarine UB-116 was the last vessel sunk in the Scapa Flow area during WWI, when on 28 October 1918 the sound of her engines was picked up at midnight by Royal Navy underwater acoustic detector loops and a remote control mine detonated as she passed nearby. in 1975 it was discovered that she had a live torpedo in one of her tubes and the Royal Navy carried out a controlled explosion that set of the torpedo warhead and blew UB-116 to pieces. Her well scattered remains lie in 26 metres.
HMT Strathgarry
The 113 feet long steam trawler Strathgarry was built in 1906. She was requisitioned by the Admiralty and used as a boom defence vessel patrolling the anti-submarine boom nets strung across Hoxa Sound the main entrance to Scapa Flow. She was sunk in a collision in Hoxa Sound on 6 July 1915 and was rediscovered by sport divers in the late 1980's.
James Barrie
The 666-ton Icelandic trawler James Barrie ran aground on the Louther Rock in the Pentland Firth on 27 March 1969. She remained stranded there for two days before sliding off and drifting unmanned into the Pentland Firth. She was taken in tow by the RNLI for Scapa but sank off Widewall Bay south of Hoxa Head. She now rests in 42 metres and is largely intact.
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