Salvage of the High Seas Fleet

When the interned German High Seas Fleet was ordered to scuttle itself in the shallow waters of the Gutter Sound inlet at Scapa Flow it was unique in modern military history. Scapa Flow was covered in oil and debris. The environmental damage caused by the scuttling was considerable.

The beached warships, the SMS Baden and the SMS Frankfurt were used by the allies as target ships. The 32,000 ton battleship SMS Baden was used by the British as a target ship. The effects of various guns were tested on her. Heavy guns up to 15inch were fired methodically into her hull and superstructure under test conditions. Aerial bombs of all sizes were used on her and evaluated. She was finally destroyed in gunfire tests off of Portsmouth on August 16, 1921. The light cruiser SMSFrankfurt was taken over by the US Navy in March 1920, placed in special commission and then sunk as a target on July 18, 1921.

British engineer Ernest Cox purchased 43 of the sunken vessels and salvaged them all to one extent or another. Starting work in 1922 he designed several revolutionary techniques that enabled him to actually raise 35 of the vessels and patch them enough to remain afloat upside-down for salvage. Several ships were towed to Rosyth for scrapping. Cox’s company Cox & Danks and later the Alloa Ship breaking Company continued the work until 1939. A number of small craft were recovered that had served on board the larger German ships as cutters and tenders. One of these, a motor launch from the German battle cruiser SMS Hindenburg renamed the Brenda is still in existence at the Shetlands Museum.

Eight of the ships remain on the bottom of Scapa Flow. These consist of the Battleships SMS Kronprinz Wilhelm, SMS Markgraf, and SMS Konig; and the light cruisers SMS Brummer, SMS Bremse, SMS Coln, SMS Karlsruhe, and SMS Dresden. They are registered as memorial monuments and are protected from further salvage efforts. Because they lie in waters only 25-45m deep they are very popular recreational scuba diving havens. These ships constitute the world’s largest and best reserve of non-radioactive steel. Since the metal that was used in the construction of these ships was forged before the advent of the nuclear age and has been shielded by its watery grave it does not contain radioactive isotopes. This is important in the construction of deep space probes and other sensitive mechanisms.

If the Kaiser only knew his High Seas Fleet still rules the waves ….in outer space.

Sources

The Grand Scuttle: the sinking of the German fleet at Scapa Flow in

1919 Dan Van der Vat, Hodder and Stoughton. 1982

The Wrecks of Scapa Flow David M. Ferguson, Orkney Press 1984

Scapa: Britain's famous wartime naval base James Miller, Birlinn Press 2000.

SMS Baden Salvaged 1919

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