Scapa Flow
Encyclopedia
Scapa Flow is a body of water in the Orkney Islands, Scotland
, United Kingdom
, sheltered by the islands of Mainland, Graemsay
, Burray
, South Ronaldsay
and Hoy
. It is about 312 square kilometres (120.5 sq mi). It has a shallow sandy bottom not deeper than 60 metres (196.9 ft) and most of it about 30 metres (98.4 ft) deep, and is one of the great natural harbours/anchorages of the world, with sufficient space to hold a number of navies. Viking
ships anchored in Scapa Flow more than 1000 years ago, but it is best known as the site of the United Kingdom
's chief naval
base during World War I
and World War II
. The base was closed in 1956.
s and later texts such as the Hákonar saga Hákonarsonar
. According to the latter, King Haakon IV of Norway
anchored his fleet, including the flagship Kroussden that could carry nearly 300 men, on 5 August 1263 at St Margaret's Hope
, where he witnessed an eclipse of the sun
prior to sailing south to the Battle of Largs
. En route back to Norway Haakon anchored some of his fleet in Scapa Flow for the winter, but he died that December whilst staying at the Bishop's Palace
in Kirkwall
. In the 15th century towards the end of Norse rule in Orkney, the islands were run by the jarls from large manor farms, some of which were sited at Burray
, Burwick, Paplay, Hoy
, and Cairston (near Stromness
) to guard the entrances to the Flow.
to better face England's old enemies of France, Spain, and the Netherlands. In 1904, in response to the build-up of the German Kaiserliche Marine
's High Seas Fleet
, it was decided that a northern base was needed, to control the entrances to the North Sea
. Originally, Rosyth
was considered for the base, and then Invergordon
at Cromarty Firth
, but construction in both places was delayed, leaving them largely unfortified by the time of the First World War. Scapa Flow had been used many times for exercises in the years leading up to the War, and, when the time came for the fleet to move to a northern station, Scapa Flow was chosen for the main base of the British Grand Fleet
, even though it was also unfortified.
John Rushworth Jellicoe
, admiral of the Grand Fleet, was constantly nervous about potential submarine or destroyer attacks on Scapa Flow, and the base was reinforced with minefields, artillery, and concrete barriers starting in 1914. No German
U-boat
s were able to enter the harbour during the war, and only two attempts were made. The first, by U-18
, took place in November 1914; but the sub was rammed by a trawler searching for submarines while it was trying to enter Scapa Flow, causing the submarine to flee and then sink. The second attack, by UB-116, in October 1918, encountered the sophisticated defences then in place, was detected by hydrophone
s, and then destroyed by shore-triggered mines
before the boat could enter the anchorage.
After the Battle of Jutland
, the German High Seas Fleet rarely ventured out of its bases at Wilhelshaven and Kiel, and in the last two years of the war the British fleet was considered to have such a commanding superiority of the seas that some components moved south, to the first-class dockyard at Rosyth
.
s of the Kaiserliche Marine
's High Seas Fleet
were interned
in Gutter Sound
at Scapa Flow pending a decision on their future in the peace Treaty of Versailles
. On 21 June 1919, after nine months of waiting, Rear Admiral
Ludwig von Reuter
, the German officer in command at Scapa Flow, made the decision to scuttle the fleet because the negotiation period for the treaty had lapsed with no word of a settlement (he was not kept informed that there had been a last-minute extension to finalise the details). After waiting for the bulk of the British fleet to leave on exercises, he gave the order to scuttle the ships to prevent their falling into British hands. The Royal Navy made desperate efforts to board the ships to prevent the sinkings, but the German crews had spent the idle months preparing for the order, welding bulkhead doors open, laying charges in vulnerable parts of the ships, and quietly dropping important keys and tools overboard so valves could not be shut.
The British did eventually manage to beach the battleship Baden, the light cruisers Nürnberg, Frankfurt and Emden, together with 18 destroyers, but the remaining fifty-two ships, the vast bulk of the High Seas Fleet, were sunk without loss of life. However, nine German sailors died when British forces opened fire as they attempted to scuttle their ship, reputedly the last casualties of the First World War.
In 1922, the British Admiralty finally invited tenders from interested parties for the salvage of the sunken ships, although at the time few believed that it would be possible to raise the deeper wrecks. The contract went to a wealthy scrap metal merchant, Ernest Cox
, who created a new company, Cox & Danks Ltd, for the venture, and so began what is often called the greatest maritime salvage operation of all time.
During the next eight years, Cox and his huge, loyal workforce of divers, engineers, and labourers applied all their ingenuity to the painstaking task of sealing the multiple holes in the wrecks and welding huge steel tubes to the hulls to allow compressed air to be pumped into the ships to raise them. First the relatively small destroyers were brought to the surface and sold for scrap to help finance the operation, then the bigger battleships and battlecruisers. Cox endured terrible bad luck and frequent fierce storms which often ruined his work, swamping and re-sinking ships which had just been raised. At one stage, during the General Strike of 1926, the salvage operation was about to grind to a halt due to a lack of coal to feed the boilers for the water pumps, until Cox ordered that the abundant fuel bunkers of the sunken battlecruiser Seydlitz
be broken into to extract the coal with mechanical grabs, allowing work to continue.
Although he ultimately lost money on the contract, Cox kept going, employing new technology and methods as conditions dictated. Eventually by 1939, Cox and the company he later sold out to, Metal Industries Ltd, successfully raised 45 of the 52 scuttled ships. The last, the massive Derfflinger
, was raised from a record depth of 45 metres just before work was suspended with the start of WW2, before being towed to Rosyth where it was finally broken up in 1946.
On 14 October 1939, under the command of Günther Prien
, U-47 penetrated Scapa Flow and sank the World War I–era battleship anchored in Scapa Bay. After firing its first torpedo, the submarine turned to make its escape; but, upon realising that there was no immediate threat from surface vessels, it returned to make another attack. The second torpedo blew a 30-foot (9 m) hole in the Royal Oak, which flooded and quickly capsized. Of the 1,400-man crew, 833 were lost. The wreck is now a protected war grave
.
Three days after this submarine attack, four Luftwaffe
Junkers Ju 88
bombers raided Scapa Flow in one of the first bombing attacks on Britain during the war. The attack badly damaged an old base ship, the battleship , with one bomber shot down by an anti-aircraft battery on Hoy.
New blockships were sunk, booms and mines were placed over the main entrances, increased anti-aircraft batteries were installed at crucial points, and Winston Churchill
ordered the construction of a series of causeways to block the eastern approaches to Scapa Flow; they were built by Italian
prisoners of war
held in Orkney. These "Churchill Barriers" now provide road access from the mainland to Burray and South Ronaldsay, but block maritime traffic.
. A 30-inch, 128-mile-long underwater pipeline brings oil from the Piper oilfield
to the Flotta
oil terminal. The Claymore and Tartan oil fields also feed into this line.
The Scapa Flow visitor centre, at Lyness
on the island of Hoy, is located in the former naval fuel pumping station and a converted storage tank. Exhibits include a large, three-dimensional representation of the island and of the German ships as they were prior to scuttling. The island is accessible by local ferry several times daily from Houton
. The centre has catering facilities for day trippers.
, and is regularly listed in dive magazines and internet forums among the top dive sites in the UK, Europe, and even the world. Although other locations, for example the Pacific regions, offer warmer water and better visibility, there are very few other sites which can offer such an abundance of large, historic wrecks lying in close proximity and shallow, relatively benign diving conditions. As of 2010, at least twelve "live aboard" boats—mostly converted trawlers with bunk rooms in their former holds—take recreational divers out to the main sites, primarily from the main harbour at Stromness. Diving provides a substantial amount of trade and income for the local economy.
Divers must first obtain a permit from the Island Harbour Authorities, which is available through diving shops and centres. The wrecks are mostly located at depths of 35 to 50 metres. Divers are permitted to enter the wrecks, but not to retrieve artefacts located within 100 metres of any wreck. However, time and tide has washed broken pieces of ships' pottery and glass bottles into shallow waters and onto beaches. The underwater visibility, which can vary between 2 and 20 metres, is not sufficient to view all the length of most wrecks at once; however, current technology is now allowing 3D
images of them to be seen.
The important wrecks comprise:
, the SMS König
, SMS Kronprinz and Markgraf, which together formed the main component of the 3rd Battleship Squadron, and which took part in some of the fiercest fighting at Jutland
, lie upside down with around 25m of water over them. Although they were never raised, they have been substantially salvaged over the years, with armour plate blasted away and non-ferrous metals removed. They remain, however, extremely impressive dives, not least because of their sheer, awesome size.
s SMS Dresden
, SMS Karlsruhe, SMS Brummer
, and SMS Cöln
lie on their sides with around 16–20 metres of water over them. With the exception of the shallower Karlsruhe, they have been less heavily salvaged than the battleships and are much more accessible for divers.
, then later abandoned; the Churchill blockships, such as the Tabarka, the Gobernador Bories, and the Doyle in Burrah Sound; the U-boat UB 116; and the trawler James Barrie.
s protected under the Protection of Military Remains Act 1986
. In addition, the wreck of the , which hit a mine while carrying Lord Kitchener
north to Murmansk on 5 June 1916 and sank off the west coast of the mainland, is also a protected site. The 10,850-ton armoured cruiser, which went down in a heavy storm four days after the Battle of Jutland
with only 12 surviving from its 655 crew, lies in 70 metres of water 1.5 miles off the steep, desolate cliffs of Marwick Head, above which the Kitchener Memorial now stands as a silent memorial to those lost. Only divers of the British armed forces are permitted to visit them.
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
, United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, sheltered by the islands of Mainland, Graemsay
Graemsay
Graemsay is an island in the western approaches to Scapa Flow, in the Orkney Islands of Scotland. The island has two lighthouses.-Geography and geology:...
, Burray
Burray
Burray is one of the Orkney Islands in Scotland. It lies to the east of Scapa Flow and is one of a chain of islands linked by the Churchill Barriers.-Geography and geology:...
, South Ronaldsay
South Ronaldsay
South Ronaldsay is one of the Orkney Islands off the north coast of Scotland. It is linked to the Orkney Mainland by the Churchill Barriers, running via Burray, Glimps Holm and Lamb Holm.-Geography and geology:...
and Hoy
Hoy
Hoy is an island in Orkney, Scotland. With an area of it is the second largest in the archipelago after the Mainland. It is connected by a causeway called The Ayre to South Walls...
. It is about 312 square kilometres (120.5 sq mi). It has a shallow sandy bottom not deeper than 60 metres (196.9 ft) and most of it about 30 metres (98.4 ft) deep, and is one of the great natural harbours/anchorages of the world, with sufficient space to hold a number of navies. Viking
Viking
The term Viking is customarily used to refer to the Norse explorers, warriors, merchants, and pirates who raided, traded, explored and settled in wide areas of Europe, Asia and the North Atlantic islands from the late 8th to the mid-11th century.These Norsemen used their famed longships to...
ships anchored in Scapa Flow more than 1000 years ago, but it is best known as the site of the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
's chief naval
Navy
A navy is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake- or ocean-borne combat operations and related functions...
base during World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
and World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. The base was closed in 1956.
Viking era
The Viking expeditions to Orkney are recorded in detail in the 11th century Orkneyinga sagaOrkneyinga saga
The Orkneyinga saga is a historical narrative of the history of the Orkney Islands, from their capture by the Norwegian king in the ninth century onwards until about 1200...
s and later texts such as the Hákonar saga Hákonarsonar
Hákonar saga Hákonarsonar
Hákonar saga Hákonarsonar is an Old Norse kings' saga, telling the story of the life and reign of King Haakon Haakonarson of Norway. The saga was written by the Icelandic historian and chieftain Sturla Þórðarson, in the 1260s...
. According to the latter, King Haakon IV of Norway
Haakon IV of Norway
Haakon Haakonarson , also called Haakon the Old, was king of Norway from 1217 to 1263. Under his rule, medieval Norway reached its peak....
anchored his fleet, including the flagship Kroussden that could carry nearly 300 men, on 5 August 1263 at St Margaret's Hope
St Margaret's Hope
St Margaret's Hope, known locally as The Hope , is a village in the Orkney Islands, situated off the north-east coast of Scotland. It has a population of about 550, making it Orkney's third largest settlement after Kirkwall and Stromness....
, where he witnessed an eclipse of the sun
Solar eclipse
As seen from the Earth, a solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between the Sun and the Earth, and the Moon fully or partially blocks the Sun as viewed from a location on Earth. This can happen only during a new moon, when the Sun and the Moon are in conjunction as seen from Earth. At least...
prior to sailing south to the Battle of Largs
Battle of Largs
The Battle of Largs was an engagement fought between the armies of Norway and Scotland near the present-day town of Largs in North Ayrshire on the Firth of Clyde in Scotland on 2 October 1263. It was the most important military engagement of the Scottish-Norwegian War. The Norwegian forces were...
. En route back to Norway Haakon anchored some of his fleet in Scapa Flow for the winter, but he died that December whilst staying at the Bishop's Palace
Bishop's Palace, Kirkwall
The Bishop's Palace, Kirkwall was built at the same time as the adjacent St Magnus Cathedral in the centre of Kirkwall, Orkney, Scotland, was being constructed, and housed the cathedral's first bishop, William the Old of the Norwegian Catholic church who took his authority from the Archbishop of...
in Kirkwall
Kirkwall
Kirkwall is the biggest town and capital of Orkney, off the coast of northern mainland Scotland. The town is first mentioned in Orkneyinga saga in the year 1046 when it is recorded as the residence of Rögnvald Brusason the Earl of Orkney, who was killed by his uncle Thorfinn the Mighty...
. In the 15th century towards the end of Norse rule in Orkney, the islands were run by the jarls from large manor farms, some of which were sited at Burray
Burray
Burray is one of the Orkney Islands in Scotland. It lies to the east of Scapa Flow and is one of a chain of islands linked by the Churchill Barriers.-Geography and geology:...
, Burwick, Paplay, Hoy
Hoy
Hoy is an island in Orkney, Scotland. With an area of it is the second largest in the archipelago after the Mainland. It is connected by a causeway called The Ayre to South Walls...
, and Cairston (near Stromness
Stromness
Stromness is the second-biggest town in Orkney, Scotland. It is in the south-west of Mainland Orkney. It is also a parish, with the town of Stromness as its capital.-Etymology:...
) to guard the entrances to the Flow.
World War I
Base for the British Grand Fleet
Historically, the main British naval bases were located near the English ChannelEnglish Channel
The English Channel , often referred to simply as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates southern England from northern France, and joins the North Sea to the Atlantic. It is about long and varies in width from at its widest to in the Strait of Dover...
to better face England's old enemies of France, Spain, and the Netherlands. In 1904, in response to the build-up of the German Kaiserliche Marine
Kaiserliche Marine
The Imperial German Navy was the German Navy created at the time of the formation of the German Empire. It existed between 1871 and 1919, growing out of the small Prussian Navy and Norddeutsche Bundesmarine, which primarily had the mission of coastal defense. Kaiser Wilhelm II greatly expanded...
's High Seas Fleet
High Seas Fleet
The High Seas Fleet was the battle fleet of the German Empire and saw action during World War I. The formation was created in February 1907, when the Home Fleet was renamed as the High Seas Fleet. Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz was the architect of the fleet; he envisioned a force powerful enough to...
, it was decided that a northern base was needed, to control the entrances to the North Sea
North Sea
In the southwest, beyond the Straits of Dover, the North Sea becomes the English Channel connecting to the Atlantic Ocean. In the east, it connects to the Baltic Sea via the Skagerrak and Kattegat, narrow straits that separate Denmark from Norway and Sweden respectively...
. Originally, Rosyth
Rosyth Dockyard
Rosyth Dockyard is a large naval dockyard on the Firth of Forth at Rosyth, Fife, Scotland, owned by Babcock Marine, which primarily undertakes refitting of Royal Navy surface vessels.-History:...
was considered for the base, and then Invergordon
Invergordon
Invergordon is a town and port in Easter Ross, in Ross and Cromarty, Highland, Scotland.-History:The town is well known for the Invergordon Mutiny of 1931. More recently it was also known for the repair of oil rigs which used to be lined up in the Cromarty Firth on which the town is situated...
at Cromarty Firth
Cromarty Firth
The Cromarty Firth of Cromarty') is an arm of the North Sea in Scotland. It is the middle of the three sea lochs at the head of the Moray Firth: to the north lies the Dornoch Firth, and to the south the Beauly Firth....
, but construction in both places was delayed, leaving them largely unfortified by the time of the First World War. Scapa Flow had been used many times for exercises in the years leading up to the War, and, when the time came for the fleet to move to a northern station, Scapa Flow was chosen for the main base of the British Grand Fleet
British Grand Fleet
The Grand Fleet was the main fleet of the British Royal Navy during the First World War.-History:It was formed in 1914 by the British Atlantic Fleet combined with the Home Fleet and it included 35-40 state-of-the-art capital ships. It was initially commanded by Admiral Sir John Jellicoe...
, even though it was also unfortified.
John Rushworth Jellicoe
John Jellicoe, 1st Earl Jellicoe
Admiral of the Fleet John Rushworth Jellicoe, 1st Earl Jellicoe, GCB, OM, GCVO was a British Royal Navy admiral who commanded the Grand Fleet at the Battle of Jutland in World War I...
, admiral of the Grand Fleet, was constantly nervous about potential submarine or destroyer attacks on Scapa Flow, and the base was reinforced with minefields, artillery, and concrete barriers starting in 1914. No German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
U-boat
U-boat
U-boat is the anglicized version of the German word U-Boot , itself an abbreviation of Unterseeboot , and refers to military submarines operated by Germany, particularly in World War I and World War II...
s were able to enter the harbour during the war, and only two attempts were made. The first, by U-18
SM U-18
SM U-18 was one of 329 submarines serving in the Imperial German Navy in World War I. U-18 engaged in the commerce warfare in the First Battle of the Atlantic.Launched in October 1914, she was commanded by Kaptlt...
, took place in November 1914; but the sub was rammed by a trawler searching for submarines while it was trying to enter Scapa Flow, causing the submarine to flee and then sink. The second attack, by UB-116, in October 1918, encountered the sophisticated defences then in place, was detected by hydrophone
Hydrophone
A hydrophone is a microphone designed to be used underwater for recording or listening to underwater sound. Most hydrophones are based on a piezoelectric transducer that generates electricity when subjected to a pressure change...
s, and then destroyed by shore-triggered mines
Naval mine
A naval mine is a self-contained explosive device placed in water to destroy surface ships or submarines. Unlike depth charges, mines are deposited and left to wait until they are triggered by the approach of, or contact with, an enemy vessel...
before the boat could enter the anchorage.
After the Battle of Jutland
Battle of Jutland
The Battle of Jutland was a naval battle between the British Royal Navy's Grand Fleet and the Imperial German Navy's High Seas Fleet during the First World War. The battle was fought on 31 May and 1 June 1916 in the North Sea near Jutland, Denmark. It was the largest naval battle and the only...
, the German High Seas Fleet rarely ventured out of its bases at Wilhelshaven and Kiel, and in the last two years of the war the British fleet was considered to have such a commanding superiority of the seas that some components moved south, to the first-class dockyard at Rosyth
Rosyth Dockyard
Rosyth Dockyard is a large naval dockyard on the Firth of Forth at Rosyth, Fife, Scotland, owned by Babcock Marine, which primarily undertakes refitting of Royal Navy surface vessels.-History:...
.
The scuttling of the German fleet
Following the German defeat in the First World War, 74 shipShip
Since the end of the age of sail a ship has been any large buoyant marine vessel. Ships are generally distinguished from boats based on size and cargo or passenger capacity. Ships are used on lakes, seas, and rivers for a variety of activities, such as the transport of people or goods, fishing,...
s of the Kaiserliche Marine
Kaiserliche Marine
The Imperial German Navy was the German Navy created at the time of the formation of the German Empire. It existed between 1871 and 1919, growing out of the small Prussian Navy and Norddeutsche Bundesmarine, which primarily had the mission of coastal defense. Kaiser Wilhelm II greatly expanded...
's High Seas Fleet
High Seas Fleet
The High Seas Fleet was the battle fleet of the German Empire and saw action during World War I. The formation was created in February 1907, when the Home Fleet was renamed as the High Seas Fleet. Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz was the architect of the fleet; he envisioned a force powerful enough to...
were interned
Internment
Internment is the imprisonment or confinement of people, commonly in large groups, without trial. The Oxford English Dictionary gives the meaning as: "The action of 'interning'; confinement within the limits of a country or place." Most modern usage is about individuals, and there is a distinction...
in Gutter Sound
Gutter Sound
Gutter Sound is an inlet of the vast anchorage of Scapa Flow in the Orkney Islands of Scotland. Gutter Sound was the site of the mass-scuttling of the interned German Imperial High Seas Fleet in 1919.-Scuttling of the fleet:...
at Scapa Flow pending a decision on their future in the peace Treaty of Versailles
Treaty of Versailles
The Treaty of Versailles was one of the peace treaties at the end of World War I. It ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. It was signed on 28 June 1919, exactly five years after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. The other Central Powers on the German side of...
. On 21 June 1919, after nine months of waiting, Rear Admiral
Rear Admiral
Rear admiral is a naval commissioned officer rank above that of a commodore and captain, and below that of a vice admiral. It is generally regarded as the lowest of the "admiral" ranks, which are also sometimes referred to as "flag officers" or "flag ranks"...
Ludwig von Reuter
Ludwig von Reuter
Ludwig von Reuter was a German admiral during World War I, who commanded the Imperial German Navy's High Seas Fleet when it was interned at Scapa Flow at the end of the war. On 21 June 1919 he ordered the scuttling of the fleet to prevent the British from seizing the ships.-Early life:Reuter was...
, the German officer in command at Scapa Flow, made the decision to scuttle the fleet because the negotiation period for the treaty had lapsed with no word of a settlement (he was not kept informed that there had been a last-minute extension to finalise the details). After waiting for the bulk of the British fleet to leave on exercises, he gave the order to scuttle the ships to prevent their falling into British hands. The Royal Navy made desperate efforts to board the ships to prevent the sinkings, but the German crews had spent the idle months preparing for the order, welding bulkhead doors open, laying charges in vulnerable parts of the ships, and quietly dropping important keys and tools overboard so valves could not be shut.
The British did eventually manage to beach the battleship Baden, the light cruisers Nürnberg, Frankfurt and Emden, together with 18 destroyers, but the remaining fifty-two ships, the vast bulk of the High Seas Fleet, were sunk without loss of life. However, nine German sailors died when British forces opened fire as they attempted to scuttle their ship, reputedly the last casualties of the First World War.
The great salvage operation
Although many of the larger ships turned turtle and came to rest upside down or on their sides in relatively deep water (25–45 m), some—including the battlecruiser Moltke—were left with parts of their superstructure or upturned bows still protruding from the water or just below the surface. They posed a severe hazard to navigation, and small boats moving around the Flow regularly became snagged on them. The British Admiralty initially declared that there would be no attempt at salvage, that the sunken hulks would remain where they were; in the first few years after the war, there was abundant scrap metal as a result of the huge quantities of leftover tanks, artillery and ordnance. But by the early twenties, the situation had changed.In 1922, the British Admiralty finally invited tenders from interested parties for the salvage of the sunken ships, although at the time few believed that it would be possible to raise the deeper wrecks. The contract went to a wealthy scrap metal merchant, Ernest Cox
Ernest Cox
Ernest Frank Guelph Cox was an electrical and mechanical engineer and marine salvage expert from Wolverhampton. Between 1924 and 1931 his Cox & Danks Shipbreaking Co. successfully raised 35 of the German fleet that had been scuttled at Gutter Sound, Scapa Flow in 1919. He eventually sold the...
, who created a new company, Cox & Danks Ltd, for the venture, and so began what is often called the greatest maritime salvage operation of all time.
During the next eight years, Cox and his huge, loyal workforce of divers, engineers, and labourers applied all their ingenuity to the painstaking task of sealing the multiple holes in the wrecks and welding huge steel tubes to the hulls to allow compressed air to be pumped into the ships to raise them. First the relatively small destroyers were brought to the surface and sold for scrap to help finance the operation, then the bigger battleships and battlecruisers. Cox endured terrible bad luck and frequent fierce storms which often ruined his work, swamping and re-sinking ships which had just been raised. At one stage, during the General Strike of 1926, the salvage operation was about to grind to a halt due to a lack of coal to feed the boilers for the water pumps, until Cox ordered that the abundant fuel bunkers of the sunken battlecruiser Seydlitz
SMS Seydlitz
SMS Seydlitz"SMS" stands for "Seiner Majestät Schiff", or "His Majesty's Ship" in German. was a 25,000-metric ton battlecruiserAdmiral Alfred von Tirpitz referred to the ship as a large cruiser in his annual budgets in an attempt to reduce opposition from the Reichstag; the ship was not referred...
be broken into to extract the coal with mechanical grabs, allowing work to continue.
Although he ultimately lost money on the contract, Cox kept going, employing new technology and methods as conditions dictated. Eventually by 1939, Cox and the company he later sold out to, Metal Industries Ltd, successfully raised 45 of the 52 scuttled ships. The last, the massive Derfflinger
SMS Derfflinger
SMS Derfflinger"SMS" stands for "Seiner Majestät Schiff", or "His Majesty's Ship" in German. was a battlecruiser of the German Kaiserliche Marine built just before the outbreak of World War I. She was the lead vessel of her class of three ships; her sister ships were and...
, was raised from a record depth of 45 metres just before work was suspended with the start of WW2, before being towed to Rosyth where it was finally broken up in 1946.
World War II
Primarily because of its great distance from German airfields, Scapa Flow was again selected as the main British naval base during World War II. However, the strong defences built up during WW1 had fallen into disrepair: defence against air attack was inadequate; the blockships sunk to stop U-boats from penetrating had largely collapsed; and, while there were anti-submarine nets in place over the three main entrances, they comprised only single-stranded looped wire. There was also a severe lack of the patrolling destroyers and other anti-U-Boat craft that had previously been available. Efforts belatedly began to repair the peacetime neglect, but it was too late to prevent disaster.On 14 October 1939, under the command of Günther Prien
Günther Prien
Lieutenant Commander Günther Prien was one of the outstanding German U-boat aces of the first part of the Second World War, and the first U-boat commander to win the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross. Under Prien's command, the submarine sank over 30 Allied ships totaling about...
, U-47 penetrated Scapa Flow and sank the World War I–era battleship anchored in Scapa Bay. After firing its first torpedo, the submarine turned to make its escape; but, upon realising that there was no immediate threat from surface vessels, it returned to make another attack. The second torpedo blew a 30-foot (9 m) hole in the Royal Oak, which flooded and quickly capsized. Of the 1,400-man crew, 833 were lost. The wreck is now a protected war grave
War grave
A war grave is a burial place for soldiers or civilians who died during military campaigns or operations. The term does not only apply to graves: ships sunk during wartime are often considered to be war graves, as are military aircraft that crash into water...
.
Three days after this submarine attack, four Luftwaffe
Luftwaffe
Luftwaffe is a generic German term for an air force. It is also the official name for two of the four historic German air forces, the Wehrmacht air arm founded in 1935 and disbanded in 1946; and the current Bundeswehr air arm founded in 1956....
Junkers Ju 88
Junkers Ju 88
The Junkers Ju 88 was a World War II German Luftwaffe twin-engine, multi-role aircraft. Designed by Hugo Junkers' company through the services of two American aviation engineers in the mid-1930s, it suffered from a number of technical problems during the later stages of its development and early...
bombers raided Scapa Flow in one of the first bombing attacks on Britain during the war. The attack badly damaged an old base ship, the battleship , with one bomber shot down by an anti-aircraft battery on Hoy.
New blockships were sunk, booms and mines were placed over the main entrances, increased anti-aircraft batteries were installed at crucial points, and Winston Churchill
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, was a predominantly Conservative British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the century and served as Prime Minister twice...
ordered the construction of a series of causeways to block the eastern approaches to Scapa Flow; they were built by Italian
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
prisoners of war
Prisoner of war
A prisoner of war or enemy prisoner of war is a person, whether civilian or combatant, who is held in custody by an enemy power during or immediately after an armed conflict...
held in Orkney. These "Churchill Barriers" now provide road access from the mainland to Burray and South Ronaldsay, but block maritime traffic.
Use by the petroleum industry
Scapa Flow is one of the transfer and processing points for North Sea oilNorth Sea oil
North Sea oil is a mixture of hydrocarbons, comprising liquid oil and natural gas, produced from oil reservoirs beneath the North Sea.In the oil industry, the term "North Sea" often includes areas such as the Norwegian Sea and the area known as "West of Shetland", "the Atlantic Frontier" or "the...
. A 30-inch, 128-mile-long underwater pipeline brings oil from the Piper oilfield
Piper oilfield
The Piper oilfield is a substantial North Sea oilfield. Oil extracted from it is piped to Scotland, where it is refined at a purpose built refinery on the island of Flotta, in the Orkney Islands....
to the Flotta
Flotta
Flotta is a small island in Orkney, Scotland, lying in Scapa Flow. The island is known for its large oil terminal and is linked by Orkney Ferries to Houton on the Orkney Mainland and Lyness and Longhope on Hoy....
oil terminal. The Claymore and Tartan oil fields also feed into this line.
Scapa Flow Visitor Centre
Lyness
Lyness is a village on the east coast of the island of Hoy, Orkney.During the 1920's Lyness was briefly the headquarters of the metal salvage firm of Cox and Danks's raising of the German High Seas Fleet, scuttled by the Germans on June 21st 1919 during the Armistice.During the Second World War it...
on the island of Hoy, is located in the former naval fuel pumping station and a converted storage tank. Exhibits include a large, three-dimensional representation of the island and of the German ships as they were prior to scuttling. The island is accessible by local ferry several times daily from Houton
Houton
Houton is a settlement 5 miles southeast of Stromness on the island of Mainland, Orkney, Scotland. From here, a ferry sails to Lyness on Hoy and the oil terminal at Flotta. Nearby are the remains of the round church of St Nicholas and the Earl's Bu, the ruins of a former manor house of the Earldom...
. The centre has catering facilities for day trippers.
Scuba diving
The wreckage of the remaining seven ships of the German fleet (and some other sites such as the blockships) has become increasingly popular as a venue for recreational scuba diversScuba diving
Scuba diving is a form of underwater diving in which a diver uses a scuba set to breathe underwater....
, and is regularly listed in dive magazines and internet forums among the top dive sites in the UK, Europe, and even the world. Although other locations, for example the Pacific regions, offer warmer water and better visibility, there are very few other sites which can offer such an abundance of large, historic wrecks lying in close proximity and shallow, relatively benign diving conditions. As of 2010, at least twelve "live aboard" boats—mostly converted trawlers with bunk rooms in their former holds—take recreational divers out to the main sites, primarily from the main harbour at Stromness. Diving provides a substantial amount of trade and income for the local economy.
Divers must first obtain a permit from the Island Harbour Authorities, which is available through diving shops and centres. The wrecks are mostly located at depths of 35 to 50 metres. Divers are permitted to enter the wrecks, but not to retrieve artefacts located within 100 metres of any wreck. However, time and tide has washed broken pieces of ships' pottery and glass bottles into shallow waters and onto beaches. The underwater visibility, which can vary between 2 and 20 metres, is not sufficient to view all the length of most wrecks at once; however, current technology is now allowing 3D
3D computer graphics
3D computer graphics are graphics that use a three-dimensional representation of geometric data that is stored in the computer for the purposes of performing calculations and rendering 2D images...
images of them to be seen.
The important wrecks comprise:
The battleships
The three sister battleships of the König classKönig class battleship
The König class was a group of four battleships built for the German Kaiserliche Marine on the eve of World War I. The class was composed of , , , and . The most powerful warships of the German High Seas Fleet at the outbreak of war in 1914, the class operated as a unit throughout World War...
, the SMS König
SMS König
SMS König"SMS" stands for "Seiner Majestät Schiff" was the first of four König class dreadnought battleships of the German Imperial Navy during World War I. König was named in honor of Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany, who was the king of Prussia as well as the German Emperor...
, SMS Kronprinz and Markgraf, which together formed the main component of the 3rd Battleship Squadron, and which took part in some of the fiercest fighting at Jutland
Battle of Jutland
The Battle of Jutland was a naval battle between the British Royal Navy's Grand Fleet and the Imperial German Navy's High Seas Fleet during the First World War. The battle was fought on 31 May and 1 June 1916 in the North Sea near Jutland, Denmark. It was the largest naval battle and the only...
, lie upside down with around 25m of water over them. Although they were never raised, they have been substantially salvaged over the years, with armour plate blasted away and non-ferrous metals removed. They remain, however, extremely impressive dives, not least because of their sheer, awesome size.
The light cruisers
Having much less bulky fighting tops, the four light cruiserLight cruiser
A light cruiser is a type of small- or medium-sized warship. The term is a shortening of the phrase "light armored cruiser", describing a small ship that carried armor in the same way as an armored cruiser: a protective belt and deck...
s SMS Dresden
SMS Dresden
The SMS Dresden was a German Imperial Navy light cruiser of the Dresden class, commissioned in 1908.She was the sister ship of the famous commerce raider...
, SMS Karlsruhe, SMS Brummer
SMS Brummer
SMS Brummer was a minelaying light cruiser of the German Kaiserliche Marine; she was the lead ship of her class. Her sister ship was . Brummer was laid down at AG Vulcan's shipyard in Stettin in 1915 and launched on 11 December 1915 and completed on 2 April 1916...
, and SMS Cöln
SMS Cöln
SMS Cöln was a light cruiser of the Kolberg class in the Imperial German navy, launched on 5 June 1909 at Germania shipworks in Kiel. She was 130.5 m long, 15 m wide, and had a draught of 5.58 m. She displaced 4,350 tons and had a top speed of 26.8 knots...
lie on their sides with around 16–20 metres of water over them. With the exception of the shallower Karlsruhe, they have been less heavily salvaged than the battleships and are much more accessible for divers.
Other dive locations
Additional sites of interest include the destroyer V 83, which was raised and used by Cox as a working boat during his salvage operations, particularly on the SMS HindenburgSMS Hindenburg
SMS Hindenburg"SMS" stands for "Seiner Majestät Schiff", or "His Majesty's Ship" in German. was a battlecruiser of the German Kaiserliche Marine and the third ship of the . She was named in honor of Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg, the victor of the Battle of Tannenberg and the Battle of the...
, then later abandoned; the Churchill blockships, such as the Tabarka, the Gobernador Bories, and the Doyle in Burrah Sound; the U-boat UB 116; and the trawler James Barrie.
The forbidden wrecks
The wrecks of the and the dreadnought , which exploded at anchor during the First World War, are war graveWar grave
A war grave is a burial place for soldiers or civilians who died during military campaigns or operations. The term does not only apply to graves: ships sunk during wartime are often considered to be war graves, as are military aircraft that crash into water...
s protected under the Protection of Military Remains Act 1986
Protection of Military Remains Act 1986
The Protection of Military Remains Act 1986 is an Act of Parliament in the United Kingdom which provides protection for the wreckage of military aircraft and designated military vessels. The Act provides for two types of protection: protected places and controlled sites. Military aircraft are...
. In addition, the wreck of the , which hit a mine while carrying Lord Kitchener
Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener
Field Marshal Horatio Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener KG, KP, GCB, OM, GCSI, GCMG, GCIE, ADC, PC , was an Irish-born British Field Marshal and proconsul who won fame for his imperial campaigns and later played a central role in the early part of the First World War, although he died halfway...
north to Murmansk on 5 June 1916 and sank off the west coast of the mainland, is also a protected site. The 10,850-ton armoured cruiser, which went down in a heavy storm four days after the Battle of Jutland
Battle of Jutland
The Battle of Jutland was a naval battle between the British Royal Navy's Grand Fleet and the Imperial German Navy's High Seas Fleet during the First World War. The battle was fought on 31 May and 1 June 1916 in the North Sea near Jutland, Denmark. It was the largest naval battle and the only...
with only 12 surviving from its 655 crew, lies in 70 metres of water 1.5 miles off the steep, desolate cliffs of Marwick Head, above which the Kitchener Memorial now stands as a silent memorial to those lost. Only divers of the British armed forces are permitted to visit them.
Further reading
- Brown, Malcolm & Patricia Meehan. Scapa Flow. London: Pan Books, 2002. ISBN 1405007850.