Aftermath
Of the 74 German ships in Scapa Flow, 15 of the 16 capital ships, 5 of the 8 cruisers, and 32 of the 50 destroyers were sunk. The remainder either remained afloat, or were towed to shallower waters and beached. The beached ships were later dispersed to the allied navies, but most of the sunken ships were initially left at the bottom of Scapa Flow, the cost of salvaging them being deemed to be not worth the potential returns, owing to the glut of scrap metal left after the end of the war, with plenty of obsolete warships having been broken up. After complaints from locals that the wrecks were a hazard to navigation, a salvage company was formed in 1923, which raised four of the sunken destroyers.
At about this time, the entrepreneur Ernest Cox became involved. He bought 26 destroyers from the Admiralty for £250, as well as the Seydlitz and Hindenburg. He began operations to refloat the destroyers using an old German dry dock he purchased and subsequently modified. He was able to lift 24 of his 26 destroyers over the next year and a half, after which he began work on the larger vessels. He developed a new salvage technique whereby divers patched the holes in the submerged hulls, and then pumped air into them so they would rise to the surface, where they could then be towed to the breakers. Using this technique, he refloated several of the ships. His methods were costly, however, and the final cost of raising the Hindenburg ran to some £30,000. Industrial action and a coal strike in 1926 nearly brought operations to a halt, but Cox instead dug out the coal in the submerged Seydlitz, using it to power his machines until the end of the strike. Salvaging the Seydlitz also proved difficult, as the ship sank again during the first attempt to raise her, wrecking most of the salvage equipment. Undaunted, Cox tried again, ordering that when she was next raised, news cameras would be there to capture him witnessing the moment. The plan nearly backfired when the Seydlitz was accidentally refloated while Cox was holidaying in Switzerland. Cox told the workers to sink her again, then returned to Britain to be present as the Seydlitz was duly refloated a second time. Cox's company eventually raised 26 destroyers, two battlecruisers and five battleships.
Cox sold his remaining interests to the Alloa Shipbuilding Company, (later Metal Industries Group) and retired as the "man who bought a navy". The latter company went on to raise a further five cruisers, battlecruisers, and battleships, before the outbreak of the Second World War brought operations to a halt. The remaining wrecks lie in deeper waters, in depths up to 47 metres (154 ft), and there has been no economic incentive to attempt to raise them since. Minor salvage is still carried out to recover small pieces of steel. This low-background steel is used in the manufacture of radiation-sensitive devices, such as Geiger counters, as it is not contaminated with radioisotopes, having been produced prior to any chance of nuclear contamination.
The seven wrecks that remain are scheduled under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979. Divers are allowed to visit them but need a permit to do so. The last living military witness to the scuttling of the fleet was Claude Choules, who died on 5 May 2011 aged 110. Choules was the last known living combat veteran of the First World War.
While the rebuilding of the German Army in the 1930s was based upon the combined myths of "invincibility on the battlefield" and the "stab in the back", the attitude and actions of the High Seas Fleet at Scapa Flow became a symbol of defiance for the new recruits and officers of the Kriegsmarine.
Name | Type | Sunk/Beached | Fate |
---|---|---|---|
Seydlitz | Battlecruiser | Sunk 13:50 | Salvaged November 1929 |
Moltke | Battlecruiser | Sunk 13:10 | Salvaged June 1927 |
Von der Tann | Battlecruiser | Sunk 14:15 | Salvaged December 1930 |
Derfflinger | Battlecruiser | Sunk 14:45 | Salvaged August 1939 |
Hindenburg | Battlecruiser | Sunk 17:00 | Salvaged July 1930 |
Kaiser | Battleship | Sunk 13:15 | Salvaged March 1929 |
Prinzregent Luitpold | Battleship | Sunk 13:15 | Salvaged March 1929 |
Kaiserin | Battleship | Sunk 14:00 | Salvaged May 1936 |
Friedrich der Grosse | Battleship | Sunk 12:16 | Salvaged 1937 |
König Albert | Battleship | Sunk 12:54 | Salvaged July 1935 |
König | Battleship | Sunk 14:00 | Unsalvaged |
Grosser Kurfürst | Battleship | Sunk 13:30 | Salvaged April 1938 |
Kronprinz Wilhelm | Battleship | Sunk 13:15 | Unsalvaged |
Markgraf | Battleship | Sunk 16:45 | Unsalvaged |
Baden | Battleship | Beached | Transferred to British control, sunk as a target in 1921 |
Bayern | Battleship | Sunk 14:30 | Salvaged September 1933 |
Brummer | Cruiser | Sunk 13:05 | Unsalvaged |
Bremse | Cruiser | Sunk 14:30 | Salvaged November 1929 |
Dresden | Cruiser | Sunk 13:50 | Unsalvaged |
Cöln | Cruiser | Sunk 13:50 | Unsalvaged |
Karlsruhe | Cruiser | Sunk 15:50 | Unsalvaged |
Nürnberg | Cruiser | Beached | Transferred to British control, sunk as a target in 1922 |
Emden | Cruiser | Beached | Transferred to French control, broken up in 1926 |
Frankfurt | Cruiser | Beached | Transferred to American control, sunk as a target in 1921 |
S032S32 | Destroyer | Sunk | Salvaged June 1925 |
S036S36 | Destroyer | Sunk | Salvaged April 1925 |
G038G38 | Destroyer | Sunk | Salvaged September 1924 |
G039G39 | Destroyer | Sunk | Salvaged July 1925 |
G040G40 | Destroyer | Sunk | Salvaged July 1925 |
V043V43 | Destroyer | Beached | Transferred to American control, sunk as a target in 1921 |
V044V44 | Destroyer | Beached | Transferred to British control, broken up in 1922 |
V045V45 | Destroyer | Sunk | Salvaged 1922 |
V046V46 | Destroyer | Beached | Transferred to French control, broken up in 1924 |
S049S49 | Destroyer | Sunk | Salvaged December 1924 |
S050S50 | Destroyer | Sunk | Salvaged October 1924 |
S051S51 | Destroyer | Beached | Transferred to British control, broken up in 1922 |
S052S52 | Destroyer | Sunk | Salvaged October 1924 |
S053S53 | Destroyer | Sunk | Salvaged August 1924 |
S054S54 | Destroyer | Sunk | Partially salvaged |
S055S55 | Destroyer | Sunk | Salvaged August 1924 |
S056S56 | Destroyer | Sunk | Salvaged June 1925 |
S060S60 | Destroyer | Beached | Transferred to Japanese control, broken up in 1922 |
S065S65 | Destroyer | Sunk | Salvaged May 1922 |
V070V70 | Destroyer | Sunk | Salvaged August 1924 |
V073V73 | Destroyer | Beached | Transferred to British control, broken up in 1922 |
V078V78 | Destroyer | Sunk | Salvaged September 1925 |
V080V80 | Destroyer | Beached | Transferred to Japanese control, broken up in 1922 |
V081V81 | Destroyer | Beached | Sunk on the way to the breakers |
V082V82 | Destroyer | Beached | Transferred to British control, broken up in 1922 |
V083V83 | Destroyer | Sunk | Salvaged 1923 |
V086V86 | Destroyer | Sunk | Salvaged July 1925 |
V089V89 | Destroyer | Sunk | Salvaged December 1922 |
V091V91 | Destroyer | Sunk | Salvaged September 1924 |
G092G92 | Destroyer | Beached | Transferred to British control, broken up in 1922 |
G101 | Destroyer | Sunk | Salvaged April 1926 |
G102 | Destroyer | Beached | Transferred to American control, sunk as a target in 1921 |
G103 | Destroyer | Sunk | Salvaged September 1925 |
G104 | Destroyer | Sunk | Salvaged April 1926 |
B109 | Destroyer | Sunk | Salvaged March 1926 |
B110 | Destroyer | Sunk | Salvaged December 1925 |
B111 | Destroyer | Sunk | Salvaged March 1926 |
B112 | Destroyer | Sunk | Salvaged February 1926 |
V125 | Destroyer | Beached | Transferred to British control, broken up in 1922 |
V126 | Destroyer | Beached | Transferred to French control, broken up in 1925 |
V127 | Destroyer | Beached | Transferred to Japanese control, broken up in 1922 |
V128 | Destroyer | Beached | Transferred to British control, broken up in 1922 |
V129 | Destroyer | Sunk | Salvaged August 1925 |
S131 | Destroyer | Sunk | Salvaged August 1924 |
S132 | Destroyer | Beached | Transferred to American control, sunk in 1921 |
S136 | Destroyer | Sunk | Salvaged April 1925 |
S137 | Destroyer | Beached | Transferred to British control, broken up in 1922 |
S138 | Destroyer | Sunk | Salvaged May 1925 |
H145 | Destroyer | Sunk | Salvaged March 1925 |
V100 | Destroyer | Beached | Transferred to French control, broken up in 1921 |
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