AT SCAPA FLOW

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 24, 29 January 1932, Page 7

AT SCAPA FLOW

,nmbv

SALVING A FLEET

A DIFFICULT TASK

OBSTINATE HINDENBTJEG A cable message from London recently announced that the firm of Cox and Danks, which has spent eight years in salvaging tho German warships scuttled at Scapa Flow on 21st June, 1919, is ceasing operations. The firm bought the salvages rights in 1923, and since then has raised thirty-two of tho scuttled ships, including the 28,000-ton battleship Hindenburg. The whole of tho operations cost £40C,000, which is in excess of the value of the salvaged material. There ;are still moro than a dozen large Gorman warships at the bottom of Scapa Flow, says a writer in the Melbourne "Age." ' Scapa Flow will ~be remembered in British naval history as tho chief baso of the British Grand Fleet during the war, and the sceno of tho scuttling of fifty of tho enemy ships interned there in accordance with tho terms of 'tho Armistice. Bnt Scapa Flow, when the war broke but, -was an undefended sea basin at the south of the Orkney Islands, and no suggestion for transforming it into.a great naval baso had ever been considered. It was used bocause the chief .naval base at Rosyth, on tho Firth, of Forth^ "on which! work was commenced in 1909,.had not been completed when tho war broke out. It was not until tho dreadnought Audacious, 23,000 tons, was sunk by a German mine off tho north coast of Ireland on-27th October, 1914, that the Admiralty realised, the danger to battleships from enemy mines, and decided hurriedly to make Scapa Flow into a base for tho Grand Fleet. Merchant ships, woreT sunk. to close various entrances to this sea basin, and tho entrance reserved for tho use of British ships was fortified and protected from submarines by a steel net. But, whilo the work of making Scapa Flow into a naval base was hurriedly proceeding, rumours of an. intended attack by enemy submarines reached the Admiralty on several occasions, and to escape attack the Grand Fleet put to sea. KEPT SECRET. _. Tt is an .interesting fact that the sinking of the battleship Audacious by a German mine off the north coast of Ireland was concealed from tho British public for more than four years, ana was not officially admitted by the Admiralty until after tho war was over All other naval losses throughout the war were made public by the Admiralty as they occurred, but until tho,war ended the Audacious continued to appear on the British Navy list as a unit of the Grand Fleet. The reason the Admiralty concealed the loss of. the ship was that it was feared this disaster to a dreadnought, coming within a tew weeks of that remarkably successful German coup when tho throe British cruisers, Aboukir, Cressv, and Hoguo were torpedoed in the "North Sea m one day, would have a depress-' • n S eiTf; e* <>n the British people. Of course, the loss of tho Audacious was known in enemy countries and in the United States, where German pathisers did not fail to make the most of tho event, and to ridicule the Pohejr of concealment adopted by tho British Admiralty. "The terms''of tho'^rSnistice provided 'that all the existing German submarines should be handed, over to the Allies, and that the following surface ships should rjo disarmed and interned m Allied ports, with only maintenance parties left on board:—Ten battleships, six battle cruisers, eight light cruisers (including two mine layers), and fifty destroyers of the most modern ' type. The details pf tho ceremony of handing over the German fleet—a ceremony which ia without precedent in naval history—woio arranged on board the British battleship' Queen Elizabeth by Admiral Sir David Beatty with Admiral Meurer of the German . navy. "To1 Nelson, -whose- , portrait .looked down upon them," writes Sir Henry Newbolt in his "Naval History of the War," "the subject of the conference must havo seemed a strange one—almost tho only imaginable phase' of naval war beyond Nelson's own experience." ~ THE PLEET COMES. ■ The British Grand Fleet, which had been reviewed by King George' on the previous day, left tho Firth of Forth at daybreak on 21st November to escort tho German fleet into tho Forth. Tho German ships were sighted about 8.30 a.m. at the appointed rendezvous, about fifty miles from May Island. 'The British fleet was drawn up in two lines six miles apart, and tho British licht cruiser Cardiff, which was acting as guide ship and flying a kite balloon, entered between tho lines, and was followed by the German ships. About ■11 a.m. Admiral Sir David Beatty steeled by wireless to the 'Germans that their flag was to be liaulcd down at sunset that day, and was not to be hoisted again without permission. A protest was made by Rear-Admiral yon Reuter against this order as unjustifiable and contradictory to international custom, but Admiral Beatty replied that an armistice suspended hostilities but a state of ,war still existed between Germany and tho Allies,' and in the circumstances no .enemy vessel could be permitted to fly the national ensign in British ports while under custody On the day after their arrival in tho Firth off Forth tho interned German ships proceeded to Scapa Flow. In tho surrender there were nine battleships live battle cruisers, seven light cruisers, and forty-nine destroyers. These numbers were short of those named in the Armistice, and to make up the deficiency a battleship, light cruiser, and destroyer were sent to Scapa Flow on 4th December. In tho following month the battleship Baden was .sent to 30m the interned German vessels in place of the battle cruiser Maekonsen, Which was unfinished. ' This mado a total of seventy-four vessels interned at Scapa. Flow, and in addition 158 submarines wero surrendered at Harwich. SCUTTLED. On the afternoon of Saturday, 21st June, 1919, seven days before tho Peace Treaty was signed at Versailles, the German ships at Scapa Flow wore scuttled and abandoned by thoir crews by order of Boar-Admiral yon Bcutor. ,17 of tho scuttled vessels sank, including ten of tho eleven battleships, all o±_ tho battle cruisers, and five of the eight light cruisers. Tho ot'hor three light cruisers wero beached, and also somo of the destroyers. Thirty destroyers sank and ten remained afloat Ihe British squadron at Scapa Flow had put out to sea that morning for toi'pcdo practice, and when the Germans wero observed from 'tho patrol craft to b.) leaving their vessels tho British ships were recalled, But by the time they returned to the harbour most of the German warships had sunk. Tho officers and men of the German bhips were taken into custody on board the British ships. Some boats from the German vessels refused to stop when ordered and were fired on, and a small number of tho occupants wero '■ killed and, wounded. : ' ; The scuttling of the ships aroused indignation in : . Great-,Britain and Allied countries, but in Germany it was regarded as an act of heroism. AdBiiral Kemtold Scheer, the former com-

mander-in-ehief of v tho Gorman high seas fleet, said in'th'o course of an interview: —"It would have been painf ul~f or our good ships, after sailing the seas for years, to como under enemy flags. This humiliating and painful, sight is now spared us by tho bravo deeds in Scapa Flow. I rejoice that the stain of surrender has been wiped from the escutcheon of tho German fleet. The sinking of tho ships has proved that the spirit of tho navy is not dead. This last act was true to tho traditions of the German navy. The deed was spontaneous, and I am convinced was not ordered or. inspired'by Berlin." In a letter to tho London "Times," Admiral Sir Percy Scott pointed out that opening a valve and letting a ship sink when there was no one to stop it, and withvan assurance of personal safety to the perpetrator, was considered by Admiral Scheer to be a bravo action! SALVAGE OPERATIONS. It was in 1024 that Messrs. Cos and Banks began salvage operations by assembling at Scapa Flow the most extensive and powerful salvage plant that had ever been got together. The plant included the large submarine floating dock which the Germans had been compelled to surrender' under 'the terms of tho peace treaty, also pumps capable of drawing up.water at the rate-of a ton a second from the sunken vessels in order to make room for compressed air; hammers, drills and riveters, worked by pneumatic pressure and striking 1500 blows per minute, either above or under water; electric lamps, with which to light up the.dark recesses of the sunken vessels and enable the divers to work, and enormous pontoons or hollow tanks, filled with water, to be lashed to the hull of a sunken vessel, and then pumped out, so as to enable them to exert an enormous lifting power. The task which confronted the salvage contractors in raising fifty warships from the bottom of Scapa Flow was one of many difficulties, but none of these difficulties was regarded as insnperable in view of the wide experience of- salvage work gained during the war. _ The salvage section of the British Admiralty, created during tho war under the command of Sir Frederick Young, who had considerable experience as head of the Liverpool Salvage Association, salvaged 407 vessels, whoso cargoes exceeded £60,000,000 in value. Not all of these vessels had been sunk; somo had been ■ beached after being struck by mines or torpedoes. In those days when there waa a shortage of shipping owing to Germany's submarine campaign, designed to starve Great Britain into surrender,,- when there was a shortage of food supplies ana of various raw materials needed for war equipment, every ship that-could be salvaged was of valne. The most difficult salvage operation were successfully carried out by the -Admiralty salvage section— operations which.in these day! would not be attempted, because commercially they would not be worth while. THE HTNDENBtmO. Some 'of the German vessels at Scapa Flow sank in comparatively shallow water, and none at a depth at which divers could not work. Several cruisers sank stern first, with their bows showing above water. The battle cruiser Seydlitz turned over as she sank, and rested in the mud with her keel upwards; the Derfiinger lay on her side, and the, Hindenburg sank on an even keel. " * > . , In tho spring of 1926 operations were commenced on the • Hindenburg, tho largest of the battleships. She weighed 28,000 tons, and in her sunken condition contained 50,000 tons of water. After all the hatches and portholes and other openings had been closed 'with wooden patches by the divers, the powerful pumps were set to work to get, j-icl of, the .water, and make ,loom for compressed,. air. Three times she was raised off the bottom, but" she sank again when 'the compressed air burst some of tha rlatchcs tho divers had placed over tho hatches., After three months of continuous work it looked as if success was at hand. The fore part of the vessel had been lifted, and was afloat. 'It was possible to go aboard the vessel and inspect the damage caused , by seven years 'of submersion. But a heavy, .gale sprang up, and huge, wave's rolled into Scapa Flow from 'the Atlantic. The two largo floating docks, which carried most of the heavy machinery for lifting and pumping out the vessel, were tossed about like rafts.' One of, them collided with the .Hindenburg and knocked a hole in. her hull through which the water poured, and the old battleship sank again. Owing to the weather operations had to cease until the following spring, when eventually the Hindenburg was floated and beached. CRIME WAVE