Scapa Flow

 Scapa Flow - Old Man of Hoy (Orkney Tourist Board)

Kiser Wilhelm the 2^nd had decided that with the best army in the world he now wanted the best navy to go with it. Unfortunate the best and biggest Navy was already in existence, this was the Royal Navy of England. It was the biggest and best Navy in the world, never beaten in war at sea.

The intention of the great German fleet was not to go to war with Great Britton but to become allies, Germany realized been a land locked area it had the great army to protect her and if she had a smaller navy she could lay threat to Great Briton and do severe damage to her Navy. The royal Navy saw this as a threat and in 1914 Great Briton went to war.

So why in 1919 did most of the Grand Fleet of Germany end up at the bottom of Scapa Flow?  Before the time of submarines and war plains changed the terms of war, we are in the era of the battleship, most important of all the era of the greatest of these fighters the Dreadnaught.

The very first dreadnaught was built and launched in Portsmouth England. This gave rise to the term Dreadnaughts and the very first Ship of this type which gave its name to the class was indeed the HMS Dreadnaught. So what revolutionary difference was there in this class of ships? It made a jump from Reciprocating engines to turbines; it meant a change from various caliber guns to single Caliber armryment. There were also many smaller things like pressure boilers Gyroscopes torpedoes and the dreadnaught class had it all.

The HMS Dreadnaught was launched in 1906, this brought good and bad news to the British fleet, the good news was they now had a battleship that superseded all known ships, the bad news of course meant that its own navy was now obsolete. The rest of the world took note to this new ship and to the British while been proud to have it only had one.

As noted before the rest of the world was watching but the person who took most notice was Keiser Wilhelm II, he was already building a navy to challenge the British. It now became apparent that  Navies was now measured in dreadnaughts a full scale Naval arms race started, Germany was building them and Britton was building them , to the point in less than ten years from the first dreadnaught was made the navies was ready for a dreadnaught war.

Germany had the Crown Prince Wilhelm to match the HMS Dreadnaught. And today she lies on the bed of Scapa Flow. Not through war attack though.

In Fact on the bed of the Scapa Flow there is several dreadnaughts all German.

The Crown Prince Keiser Wilhelm has 10 X 12 inch guns, mounted in pairs in turrets, 2 turrets in the bow, one in the centre and two in the stern,

So why the Crown Prince Wilhelm on the bottom is, as already stated she did not sink through direct war battle, but Germany had problem of Mutiny, did this account for it?

At the end of world war one some of the most powerful ships in the world and almost the entire German high seas fleet sank in one afternoon in Scapa Flow. It is still the greatest loss of shipping ever.

The local papers stated that when the ships sank they where still manned by German crews, the crews of these great ships swam to shore. But it is also reported that in one of the papers it reads “A member of the justice crew said a German officer was roundly hated by his men was strung up to the mast and went down with the ship” In the same article it stated “several officers where tied to the mast and drowned as there ships where scuttled “This would appear to be a mutiny. This spreads light to the fact that a mutiny of German crews led to the sinking of over fifty ships that day in Scapa Flow?

But if you look at the other side of this, The Grand fleet had been made to try to give a diplomatic leverage with Great Briton.

Dr Erick Grow, a naval historian based in the University of Hull my old university had the following to say:

“There attempt to build a fleet did the exact opposite to what they intended it to do.” “What Germany hoped to achieve from building this fleet was to coheres Briton into a alliance with Germany, What it actually did was coerce Briton with its two major enemies France and Russia ““This of course meant there whole diplomatic idea had failed and this left them with a problem, What do you do with a inferior fleet in the north sea? “.

The answer seems to be nothing. When war broke out the North Sea was fought and the whole time the Kaisers fleet was held in port.

By the end of the war The Keiser who built his fleet to build an empire looses his. Keiser Wilhelm himself ends up in exile. The German navy is left in total disarray and this leads to wide spread mutiny.

It is at this point the armistice is signed and a condition of this is that the German fleet be interned in Scapa Flow. The fleet sails to Scapa Flow in agreement with a skeleton crew. All weapons are disabled so there is no chance of any fighting in reality the sailors officers and above become prisoners of there own ship in Scapa Flow. The negotiations that should have been quick in fact dragged on for months, The German sailors and crew where not allowed shore leaves in all this time. The conditions on the ships deteriated rapidly, they had rationed food supplies and very little if any news from home from there loved ones and family. It is hard enough been a sailor but with these conditions life is not easy at all.

From a letter of one German sailor who was interned in Scapa Flow wrote, “This place is so desolate that the walls say good night to each other” It has also to be remembered that the fleet was not just taken in there and sunk it remained for many months, The ships themselves where decaying, rust developing and no flag as they where under orders to lower the flag and not ever raise it again.

(SMS Baden was the only capital ship to survive the scuttle at Scapa Flow.  She was then ceded to the British who inspected her thoroughly and compared her to the equivalent Revenge class.  She was found to be a good gun platform in calm seas but rolled alarmingly in rougher conditions.  Well protected against underwater and flat trajectory fire, but inferior to Revenge against plunging fire.  She was also found to be structurally weaker than her British contemporary.)