Mansfield and District Scuba Diving Club
Scapa Flow
June 2024
Scapa Flow has long been a bit of a Mecca for UK divers, so I didn’t need asking twice to join a crew from Ilkeston and Kimberley Sub Aqua Club (IKSAC) heading up to the Orkneys for a week’s diving. It was my second trip there and I was looking forward to seeing a bit more of the German WW1 ships that were scuttled there in June 1919.
For those who do not know the story of the sinking of the German fleet, it makes interesting reading. In summary, during the Armistice at the end of WW1, the entire fleet of 74 boats was interned in Scapa Flow. On June 21st 1919, under the mistaken belief that peace talks had failed and/or the fleet would be handed over to the British, Admiral Reuter ordered the fleet to scuttle. The British were able to beach some ships, but 52 vessels sank to the bottom of the Flow. Most were subsequently salvaged over the next few decades, but 7 wrecks remain for the pleasure of divers like yours truly.
The journey to and from Stromness (our base for the week) is not one to be taken lightly. At around 520 miles, it takes a full tank of fuel and about 10 hours of driving. Add in a couple of stops and there’s not much left of the day by the time you get to Scrabster, where you catch the ferry to Stromness. After an overnight stay on Friday, we caught the 8:30 am ferry as foot passengers, leaving our vehicles in the car park at the ferry terminal. It was a very calm crossing so were looking forward to a decent week’s diving in the Flow itself.
The vista below was taken from a hill above Stromness and looks out into the Flow. During our week here, the midlands had something of a mini heat wave. That was not the case in the Orkneys. The weather can be mean in this part of the world and is renowned for changing very quickly. Our week there was actually pretty good until the Friday, when we had 40+ mph winds and we were unable to dive.
On arrival we were half expecting to be able to dive on the Saturday afternoon, but it was not to be. Our skipper had a prior engagement, so our first dive was on Sunday 23rd on one of the cruisers, the SMS Karlsruhe. She is always a good start to the week although pretty broken up. As with many of the wrecks, recognising bits of the structure of the vessel can be tricky, especially when the viz is poor. My advice is do some research on the dives. Don’t expect to just jump in and know where you are and how to find that bit of the wreck you are desperate to see. The Scapa Flow Wrecks site is very useful, having 3D scans of the main wrecks.
Unfortunately, the term heard most during the week when discussing the viz was “snotty”, which was very apt, with lots of small particles hanging in the water. It made getting decent photos and videos tricky. I’m grateful to others on the trip for sharing their photos with me for this blog. Most of my photos were pretty terrible. The videos weren’t too bad, but a GoPro is not a great way to take photos in UK waters like this.
I think my favourite wreck of the week was the SMS Coln, which we dived a couple of times. Another cruiser, in fact a sister ship to the Karlsruhe, it’s a little more complete, easier to navigate and provides a bit more of a spectacle. The shot below is of my dive buddy Matt at the bow. All the wrecks are festooned with soft corals, anemones and crabs. If you’re lucky you can also see some impressively-sized lobsters.
The Coln is on its side and there is generally no current to speak of out in the Flow, so on one of the dives, with my GoPro in hand, my buddy and I took a look up the mast and back. If you look at the footage below, you can fully appreciate why the term “snotty” was so appropriate.
The SMS Konig is an impressive beast and is the ship that gave its name to this class of battleship. It’s often ignored in favour of the other battleships in Scapa, the Kronprinz Wilhelm and the Margraf and this was actually my first dive on it, as we’d done exactly that on my last trip. Like the other battleships, the wreck is upside down on the sea bed, but because it has extensive blast damage from salvage operations, areas of the ship which remain hidden on the other wrecks are open to view. I will definitely be requesting to dive this wreck again on my next trip. At 40m to the seabed, there was too much to see and not enough time. This cutie was also in residence 🤩
The Kronprinz Wilhelm is arguably the main attraction for many divers. She is the shallowest of the battleships at 35m and the only one where some of the impressive 12-inch guns found on this class can still be seen. In fact, it is one of the few places left in the world where guns of this class remain accessible to relatively modestly qualified SCUBA divers. Regrettably, I didn’t get to see them this time; definitely something to remedy on the next trip.
The only other dive worthy of mentioning by name is the Tabarka. This a one of the “block ships”; a ship deliberately sunk to block an entry/exit to the Flow and thereby protect against penetration by enemy submarine. These dives have to be dived at slack water. Whilst inside the wreck you have some protection, but getting onto and away from the wreck safely whilst the full current is raging is just not a risk worth taking. It’s a negative entry to the water, just as the current drops. An experienced skipper will drop you in the water so that as you descend, you drift slowly onto the wreck. Throughout the dive you must keep one eye on the kelp outside the wreck and as soon as you start to see it move again, it’s time to get out of the wreck, “blob up” and drift away from it during your safety stop. I have had leisurely 40-minute dives on the Tabarka before. It was barely half that this time and we didn’t get to see that much of the wreck, but you are at the mercy of the tides. The surface was a pleasant place to be though, drifting in the current waiting to be picked up by the boat…
On the last day, when we couldn’t dive, some of us jumped in a mini-bus taxi and had a very whistle stop tour of some of the main islands highlights. There is a lot to see on the Orkneys. You can’t move for remnants of neolithic settlements and burial mounds, but the highlight for me that day was the Italian Chapel. Looking at it, it’s hard to believe that this was constructed from 2 Nissen huts and then transformed into the beautiful structure that can be seen today; the work of dedicated and very artistic Italian POWs in WW2.
Despite the weather, the rather cramped conditions and a leaky dry suit or two, I think we all had a great week and I hope I get the chance to return.
My admiration and special thanks to Gary Lampon for his stellar organisation skills and thanks to everyone for the good company and the giggles. It was a pleasure spending the week with you all.
Please put me on the short list for the next one 💖
Chris Kean.
