![]() He was the commander of the German Imperial Navy’s High Seas Fleet, which was interned in the Flow with weapons disarmed and just skeleton crews on duty. Scapa Flow probably wouldn’t really factor on any ‘must-dive’ list if it wasn’t for the actions of a certain Rear Admiral Ludwig von Reuter. ![]() But believe me, you might think the one visit will be enough to ‘tick the box’, but most people I know well and truly catch the Scapa bug and can’t wait to come back. In fact, on previous trips I have taken divers up to Scapa who had never dived in UK seawater before, only inland sites, and they went on every dive the more-experienced divers in the party did.Īs for the cost – yes, it is relatively expensive (as far as UK diving goes) once you factor in fuel costs, ferry charges, accommodation, boat charter, nitrox fills and food and drink, but the diving available is like nowhere else on the planet and it really is one of those places that all divers should experience. There are various reasons why this place is not jam-packed with thousands of divers – one, it is a long old trip from just about anyway in the UK and when costs end up being similar to a Red Sea liveaboard, often the tropical destination wins hands down and two, Scapa has an undeserved reputation for being deep, cold, dark and dangerous and only suitable for highly trained techies, when in fact any Advanced Open Water Diver comfortable in a drysuit and with their Deep Specialty is more than qualified enough to dive the main wrecks (there are also plenty of sites suitable for Open Water Divers as well). I’ve made several pilgrimages up to the very northern tip of Scotland to explore this wreck-diving Mecca, which is right up there with Truk Lagoon and Bikini Atoll, thanks to the remains of monstrous German warships from World War One lying on the seabed. The virtually landlocked natural harbour that is Scapa Flow in the Orkney Islands is one of those places that many divers have heard of and long to visit, but only relatively few experience, which is a huge shame when this hotspot genuinely should be on the hit-list of every diver. Throughout all this, I tried not to think that I was underneath an upturned, 26,000-tonne German battleship that had been on the seabed for 97 years… Scapa Flow Even half-buried in the silt, the diameter of the barrel looked enormous, and we took some photographs with divers alongside to show how large these 12-inch monsters really were. Heading left towards the bow of the Kronprinz Wilhelm, the barrel protruded from the turret and just seemed to go on forever. What looked like a cave opened ominously before us, and we carefully ventured in, keeping our movements as gentle as possible to avoid causing a silt explosion.Ī wall of steel rose up, and after a couple of moments our narcosis-addled brains realised this was the side of an upturned main gun turret. Switching on our torches, we descended into the gloom, watching the metres rise steadily on our dive computers until the seabed loomed into view at 38m. In a series of appendices the various conflicting facts and opinions are laid before the reader, producing a remarkable picture of the actual events.Arriving at the bottom of the shotline, which was festooned with gigantic plumose anemones, the side of the silt-covered battleship just dropped off into darkness in front of us. The second part is the result of research in both Britain and Germany including much evidence gathered from surviving eye witnesses on both sides. This book investigates both phantoms beginning with a dramatic reconstruction of the German operation. The second phantom is that unknown ship claimed by Prien. The British Admiralty admitted only to the loss of Royal Oak. ![]() The second was the insistence of Prien that he hit two warships that night. The first was U-47 and how she slipped through the heart of the heavily defended base. There have been two 'Phantoms' of Scapa Flow. ![]() ![]() The loss of the Royal Oak was insignificant in naval terms though over 800 men perished with her, however this was a bitter blow to British moral. The U-Boat sank the old British World War I battleship HMS Royal Oak and then escaped into the North Sea. On the night of 13/14 October 1939, the German commander of U-boat U-47, Günther Prien, steered past the sunken block ships and chains which inadequately protected the British naval base at Scapa Flow in the Orkney Islands. ![]()
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