From Jutland to Junkyard: The raising of the scuttled German High Seas Fleet from Scapa Flow - the greatest salvage operation of all time
Page 16
I was deeply moved and full of gratitude to my brave officers and crew who had carried out their orders so brilliantly. All these magnificent battleships and destroyers had gone, sunk, once the pride of the German nation, mighty works of German shipbuilding skill. How much thought, how much military skill and experience had gone into them! Development without parallel had been concluded and lay sunk in the grave.
The English flagship had just anchored. Turmoil seethed around her – patrol boats, drifters, guard-ships, naval boats – all crowded in, anxious to present their reports: that the German fleet had gone to its grave. At last my drifter succeeded in getting through and tying up. A ladder was dropped over the side for me. I went aboard the Revenge and was received by the English Vice-Admiral, Sir Sydney R. Fremantle.
APPENDIX 2
Secret Letter Found in Cabin Safe in SMS Emden
Letter from Admiral von Trotha, chief of German Admiralty, found in cabin safe of Vice-Admiral von Reuter in SMS Emden. Published in a statement by the British Admiralty.
From Chief of the Admiralty Berlin, 9 May 1919
No. A 111 5332 Most Secret
Sir, – You have repeatedly expressed to Commander Stapenhorst the wish of the interned ships to be informed as to their fate and the probable termination of their internment. The fate of this, the most valuable part of our fleet, will probably be finally decided in the negotiations for a preliminary peace, now being carried on. From Press news and utterances in the British House of Lords, it appears that our opponents are considering the idea of depriving us of the interned ships on the conclusion of peace; they waver between the destruction or the distribution among themselves of these ships. The British naturally raise some doubts about the latter course. These hostile intentions are in opposition to the hitherto unquestioned German right of ownership of the vessels, with the internment of which we complied on the conclusion of the armistice only because we were obliged to consent, for the duration of the armistice, to an appreciable weakening of the striking power of the German fleet. This assumption was freely expressed, and was not contradicted by the enemy, either at the conclusion of the armistice or on its prolongation. We, on the other hand, have often repeated this interpretation, when we protested in February, 1919, against the unjustified internment in an enemy harbour, designating this to be a contravention of the terms of the armistice and demanding the subsequent removal of the ships to a neutral harbour; this protest, it is true, remained unanswered. Sir, you may rest assured that it will be no more than the plain duty of our Naval Delegates at Versailles to safeguard the fate of our interned ships in every way, and to arrive at a solution which is in accordance with our traditions and our unequivocal German rights. In this connection, the first condition will be that the ships remain German, and that their fate, whatever turn it may take under the pressure of the political situation, will not be decided without our co-operation, and will be consumated by ourselves, and that their surrender to the enemy remains out of the question. We must hope that these just demands may retain their position in the scheme of our political standpoint in the question of peace as a whole. I beg you, Sir, as far as possible to express to the officers and crews of the interned ships my satisfaction that, for their part, they are so eagerly nursing our most natural hope, that the interned ships will be retained under the German flag, and to communicate to them our strong desire to make your just cause triumphant. This spirit is calculated to support the German Delegates in their efforts at the Peace Conference. The fate of the whole Navy will depend upon the results of these efforts; it is to be hoped that they will put an end to the internment which, through our enemies’ breach of faith, has become so cruel, the sufferings and trials of which are deplored by our whole Navy, and which will ever be remembered to the credit of the interned crews.
To the Commander-in-Chief of the Interned Ships,
Rear Admiral von Reuter, Scapa Flow.
APPENDIX 3
Analysis of Scrap from Break-up of SMS Friedrich der Grosse
APPENDIX 4
Comparative tables of German warships at Scapa Flow
APPENDIX 5
Ships of the German Fleet Interned in Scapa Flow
DESTROYERS
1. The distribution of destroyers among the flotillas is as listed by Vice-Admiral von Reuter.
2. All these ships were equipped with two-shaft turbines, and were oil-fired. They were armed with three 4.6-inch guns – replaced with 3.4-inch guns (except classes B97, G101 and B109 which had four 4.1-in guns), six 20-in torpedo tubes and 24 mines.
Bibliography
The Triumph of the Royal Navy by Major Gibbon – Official Record of Surrender Of German Fleet, 1919.
Das Grab der deutscher Flotte by Vice-Admiral L. von Reuter – R.F. Roehler, Leipzig 1921.
Marine Salvage in Peace and War by Commodore T. McKenzie CB, CBE, RN – The Institution of Engineers and Shipbuilders in Scotland, Vol 93, Paper 1122.
Eight Years of Salvage Work at Scapa Flow by E.F. Cox – The Institute of Mechanical Engineers, Proceedings (Fifth Thomas Gray lecture 1932).
The Salving of the Ex-German High Seas Fleet at Scapa Flow by I.D.M. Taylor, SIMechE – The Institution of Mechanical Engineers Scottish Branch – Graduates Section, November 1961.
Ocean Salvage by D. A. Koster (Ch 7) – Gerald Duckworth & Co Ltd, 1971.
Deep Sea Salvage by Whyte and Hadfield – Sampson, Low, Marston & Co.
Deep Sea Diving and Submarine Operations edited by Robert N. Davis – St Catherine Press, 6th edition, 1955.
The Man who Bought a Navy by Gerald Bowman – Harrap & Co, London 1964.
The Story of Scapa Flow by Geoffrey Cousins – Muller & Co, London 1965.
When Ships go Down by David Masters – Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1934.
Encyclopaedia Britannica.
Acknowledgements
To Mr R.W. McCrone MC, for his unstinting help and kindness in providing me with material and contacts without which this account would have been incomplete.
To former staff and employees of the salvage companies concerned who provided me with valuable information, especially Messrs Max Wilkinson, J. Robertson, CEng, FRINA, who also gave me permission to use some of his diagrams, R.R. Drysdale who provided me with some of his working papers, and A.S. Thomson and many others who volunteered memories of the salvage operations.
To Lady Esmé Whistler, Miss A. Parry and Admiral Sir Henry McCall, KCVO, KBE, CB, DSO, for permission to use copyright material relating to the surrender of the German fleet and the subsequent scuttling of the ships.
To the editors of The Engineer and Shipbuilding and Shipping Record for permission to use material and diagrams in published articles.
To Ian Allan Ltd for permission to use statistics from their publication German Warships of World War I by John C. Taylor.
To Norval Ltd for permission to reproduce several photographs.
To Gerald G.A. Meyer, Editor of The Orcadian, for help and his permission to draw upon material in past issues of his periodical.
To Mrs I. McKenzie for permission to make use of her own memories of Scapa Flow and of copyright material written by her husband, the late Commodore McKenzie, CB, CBE, RNVR.
To Mr Charles Patterson, MA, CEng, for information, photographs and for permission to make use of his lecture notes and articles on the surrender of the German fleet and salvage operations.
To Mr G. Fleming of Shipbreaking Industries Ltd for the loan of numerous photographs.
To Professor J.M. Peterson, MA for information concerning the early salvage operations.
To Dr R.V. Williams of the British Steel Corporation for information relating to post-1945 steel.
To Mr Steven Hull, BSc for information on skin-diving.
To the editors of Sea Breezes and The Shetland Times for publicising my requests for information.
To Siebe Gorman & Co Ltd for photographs and permission to use material from Deep Sea Diving and Submarine Operations by th
e late Sir Robert Davis.
The following public bodies have also been most helpful: Hampshire County Library, National Reference Library of Science and Invention, The National Central Library, Public Record Office, The British Museum, The Imperial War Museum, the Institution of Mechanical Engineers and the Ministry of Defence (Naval Historical Branch).
Index
Air, compressed, use in salvage 67
Airlocks, construction of 69–70
Alloa Shipbreaking Co 78
Armistice terms 20
Balkan War 4
Battleships and battlecruisers, constructional details of 43
Bayern 2, 102–8
Bee, John (‘Busy’), diver 46
Bertha 59, 102, 108, 115, 119
Bethman-Hollweg 4
Blücher 2
Bremse 87–8
Brummer 129
Bugsier, Reederei und
Bergungs AG 75
Carmichael, M., diver 55, 89
Cöln 129
Cowan, chemist 106–108
Cox E.F.G., biography 39
see also Cox & Danks Ltd
Cox & Danks Ltd 39–43, 97–8
Cruisers, construction details 42–3
Derfflinger 2, 9–14, 122–8
Destroyers, German 22–3, 38–9, 42, 50–8
Divers 46–7, 103–4, 130–1
Docks, floating 41–5, 55
Dogger Bank, battle of 9
Dorothy Gray, 26
Dreadnought 2–4
Drysdale, R.R. 111
Emden 24, 27–8, 34, 136–7
Ferrodanks 46, 84, 97
Fleet, British 27–8, 31
Franz Ferdinand 5
Fremantle, Vice-Admiral 33
Friedrich der Grosse 12, 24, 117–121, 138
G103 58
G104 59
German dockyards 2
German fleet 1, 8, 9, 17–36, 39-40, 132–5
German Naval Bill 1900 1
German Naval Construction Bill 1907 2
German Navy Law 1898 1
German Naval Programme 1909-10 3
Germany 2, 3, 6
Gianelli, Major 67
Goeben 129
Gribble, Bernard F. 27
Grosser Kurfürst 12–4, 121
Hall, Herbert Samson see Kaiser
Hardie, S., CA 100
Helgoland 2
Henderson, Donald 56
Hindenburg 32, 60–5, 79–81
Hitler, Adolf 98
Homer 56
Hourston, W. 61
Inter-Allied Reparations Committee 39
Internment, conditions of 26
see also German fleet
Iron Duke, see McKenzie
Jutland, Battle of 10–6
Kaiser 2, 12, 34, 86–7
Kaiser Wilhelm 6
Kaiserin 12–3, 115–7
Karlsruhe 129
Keighley, Midshipman 21, 23
König 12–3, 128
König Albert 109–11
Königsberg 17
Kronprinz 12, 128
Labour force 47–8
Lyness 84
Markgraf 12–3, 128
McCall, Henry, Admiral 29
McCrone, Robert W., biography 99
see also Metal Industries Ltd
McKenzie, Mrs 48, 81
McKenzie, T. 48, 125, 130
Mementoes 90–1
Metal Industries Ltd 99 seqq
Metinda 119, 121
Meurer, Rear Admiral 17
Mobilisation, WWI 6
Moltke 9, 14, 34, 66–7, 94–8
Monarch 121
Naval Convention, Franco-British 1912 4
Nundy Marine Metals Ltd 130
Orcadian, The 30–2
Orcadians 47–8, 52–3
Parbuckle 57
Parnass 97
Parry, W.E, Admiral 21, 23
Patches, repair see Hindenburg
Plover 56
Pollack, D., Dr 99, 102
Pontos 74
Prinzregent Luitpold 12, 92–7
Pumping operations see Hindenburg
Radioactivity, effect on steel 129
Reuter, Vice-Admiral von 22–8, 34, 132–5
Robertson, J. 103
Robertson, J.W., see Scapa Flow Salvage and Shipbreaking Co Ltd
Roode Zee 120
Rosyth dockyard see also Moltke 8
S32 59
S65 58
Scapa Flow 8, 22, 25–6
Scapa Flow Salvage & Shipbreaking Co Ltd 37–8, 54–5
Scheer, Vice-Admiral 8–9, 14
Scrap 113, 138
See Falke 75, 96–7
See Teufel 97
Seydlitz 9–12, 15, 49, 62, 74, 81–6
Ships scuttled see also Cruisers, Battleships and Battlecruisers 25–36, 139–141
Sidonian. 46, 75, 84
Siebe Gorman & Co Ltd 45
Simson 75
Skagerrack, Battle of see Jutland
Smit, I. & Co 126
Submarines, German 18, 26
Surrender, order of see German fleet, Reuter
Tait 94
Taylor, H.M. 47
Thames 120
Thomson, A.S. 33
Trotha, Admiral von 136–7
Trustee 55
V70 50, 53
von der Tann 9, 11, 14, 89
Wiesbaden 13
Wilkinson, Max 122
Zwarte Zee 120