SCAPA 100
The day the fleet went down Acclaimed author and historian Rod Macdonald brings together the extraordinary events that led to the greatest act of maritime suicide the world has ever seen
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t was 100 years ago this year, on 21 June 1919, that 74 Imperial German Navy warships, interned under British guard at Scapa Flow seven months earlier when the Armistice halted the hostilities of the Great War, scuttled en-masse. Today three 25,390-ton König-class battleships, König, Kronprinz Wilhelm and Markgraf; three 5,531-ton light cruisers, Dresden, Cöln and Karlsruhe; the 4,315ton minelaying cruiser Brummer and the 924-ton torpedo boat destroyer V83, still rest in the depths of Scapa Flow – along with the four great 1,020-ton 15-inch gun turrets of the battleship Bayern and assorted masts, spotting tops, guns, pinnaces and other pieces, left on the bottom as the majority of the scuttled fleet was raised in the coming decades. Let’s jump back 100 years to see what happened…
June 21, 1919 Dawn. The slow, creeping arrival of daylight filtering over the horizon to the east heralded the beginning of another
beautiful day at the deep naval anchorage of Scapa Flow, a dramatic and windswept expanse of water some 12 miles across that is almost completely encircled by the islands of Orkney. Shielded on all sides from the fury of the Atlantic by its islands, the sea in this natural harbour was calm, with just a slight chop. Light clouds were scattered across a clear sky. The coming of daylight unveiled a majestic and formidable sight, yet one that local Orcadians had become used to over the preceding seven months. For there, at anchor in Scapa Flow, lay 74 grey interned warships of the Imperial German Navy’s High Seas Fleet. Their internment had been demanded by the Allies as a condition of the Armistice that halted the hostilities of the First World War on 11 November 1918. The larger battlecruisers were anchored in a north-south row on the west side of the island of Cava – whereas the massive battleships lay in the deep water to the north east of Cava with the cruisers moored further east in shallower water.
The smaller torpedo boats were moored in neat rows south of the island of Cava and down Gutter Sound to the west of island of Fara. These great grey German warships lay motionless at anchor, dominating the skyline with their very size and dwarfing the smaller tender vessels that chugged around them. The powerful High Seas Fleet warships had not been surrendered to the British. Instead, its finest vessels had been ‘interned’ at Scapa Flow for those seven long months as a condition of the Armistice.
The passage of steel German military leaders were pressing for surrender terms with the Allies – and the High Seas Fleet was a pawn in those negotiations. It had survived the war relatively intact and could still pose a very real threat to the Allies if the peace negotiations and Armistice were to break down and hostilities recommence. In effect, the High Seas Fleet was being held hostage.
Above: A contemporary drawing indicating the positions of the German High Seas Fleet in Scapa Flow, with a panoramic photo of the same scene 48
