The German High Seas Fleet at Scapa Flow

The scuttling of the Empire Seaman in 1940 significantly contributed to the wartime defences in Scapa Flow, serving as a blockship to protect the naval base. Originally built in 1922 as the SS Morea for a German company, she was captured by the British in 1940 and repurposed. Her loss as a blockship marked a strategic move in the region's defence efforts during World War II. Today, the wreck lies in East Weddel Sound, with machinery and structural remnants still visible. Although extensively salvaged, notable features like the propeller shaft and sections of the mast remain. The wreck lies beside the Barrier, with parts visible above water at low tide.

The firing charge failed. Clio (II) had been brought to one of Scapa Flow's eastern approaches on 27 February 1915 to be sunk across it as a blockship; her anchors were let go in preparation, the charge did not fire, and she dragged east and settled in the channel where she blocked nothing. The Admiralty report survives, but she was marked only on the drawing of the blockships as sunk, never added to the chart, and afterwards vanished from the record — she is still routinely confused with Clio (I), scuttled in Water Sound the previous April. The 70-metre iron hull, built at Kinghorn in 1873, lies in about seven metres on sand and rock. The stern is scattered across a skerry, though shaft, rudder and a large winch are identifiable. The bow is the best of her: three metres proud, listing to port, with anchor chain still running from the starboard hawse pipe.

Workman, Clark & Co. Ltd. of Belfast launched this steamship in 1904 as the Matatua, and in 1928 she took the name Ilsenstein. She had been sold for scrap by 1939, but the Admiralty requisitioned her instead and, during 1940, sank her deliberately in Skerry Sound, Scapa Flow, as a blockship in place of the SS Cape Ortegal. A survey in 2013 found much of her hull buried in sand. She lies north to south beside Barrier 2, only partly exposed: the bow rises prominently from the seabed, while sand has largely covered the stern. A large triple expansion engine and several boilers can still be picked out among the remains, despite the years.

The SS Emerald Wings is notable for her mast and bow sections, which remain visible above the waterline at all tides in Skerry Sound, Scapa Flow. Originally built in 1920 as the SS Depute Pierre Goujon for the French government, she changed hands several times before being renamed Emerald Wings in 1936. In 1940, she was requisitioned by the British Admiralty and scuttled as a blockship. Today, her remains are scattered across the seabed, with features like her boilers, triple expansion engine, and propeller shaft still identifiable. Her anchor, winch and sections of her stern also survive.

She sits at about 45 degrees, starboard side down, hull and fittings remarkably well preserved for a ship that has spent more than a century underwater in Orkney tidal waters. The Karlsruhe belonged to the Konigsberg class of 1915, with 60mm belt armour, eight 15cm guns, torpedo tubes, and mine rails: a ship designed to sprint at 27.5 knots, lay death in the water, and fight her way home.

Brummer earned her name — "Growler" in German — in October 1917, when she and her sister Bremse ambushed a British convoy bound for Norway and left two destroyers and nine merchant ships on the seabed in a single action. A century on, she lies on her starboard side in Cava Sound, one of the few German warships that salvage teams never touched. Mine rails run along the deck where 400 contact mines once sat ready for deployment, and scattered arsenal pieces litter the seabed around the hull.

She never fired a shot in anger. The Coln led the last class of light cruisers the Imperial German Navy was ever to build, and she came into service too late to fight. None of the cruisers still in Scapa Flow is in better condition: she rests on her starboard side with many prominent deck features in place. Ships of her class were 155 metres long and could make 27.5 knots, and they were armed for real work, with eight 15cm guns, torpedo tubes, and mine rails for 200 contact mines, and a complement of 559 men. Her starboard side lies in 34-36 metres, and the highest part of the hull is at 22 metres. Even on the bottom she still looks like a warship, down to her rivets and fittings, a relic of the navy that briefly challenged British supremacy at sea.

That versatility is no accident of geography — the Dresden lies on her port side along a natural gradient, the hull itself mapping out a progression from comfortable to challenging. Sister ship to the Coln and one of the last light cruisers the Kaiser's yards would ever launch, she carried eight 15cm guns, torpedo tubes, and rails for 200 mines at close to 28 knots.

Ravaged by decades of industrial salvage, the Konig offers something none of the other Scapa battleships can: a cross-section through the guts of a WWI dreadnought. Where Metal Industries tore away hull plating and superstructure in the 1960s, the armoured citadel now stands exposed — twelve inches of dovetail-jointed steel that once protected the magazines. Seven casemate guns lie upside down on the seabed along the starboard side like fallen dominoes.

The real draw is the main armament: half of the original complement of 12-inch guns remain visible and reachable, turret after turret lined up along a hull that still measures 146 metres on the seabed.

Often called the jewel of Scapa Flow, the Markgraf is the deepest and best-preserved of the three battleships still resting on the seabed. The reward is a warship that still looks like a warship: intact bow, stern, and rudders convey the sheer scale of a 175-metre dreadnought that once carried over a thousand men into the maelstrom at Jutland. Because the superstructure caught on the seabed before she could roll fully, much of the underside architecture remains visible rather than crushed.

The SS Elton, a British steamship, is notable for her use as a blockship in Scapa Flow, where she was deliberately scuttled in 1914. Built in 1888 by Gray William & Co., Ltd., she measured 91.4 metres in length and had a beam of 11.8 metres. Acquired by the Admiralty, she was sunk in Skerry Sound, where she rolled over and broke her back. Today, only three sections of the wreck remain exposed. These sections include the bow, a propeller shaft tunnel, and the stern. The bow section stands about 2 metres above the seabed, while the propeller shaft tunnel features an open door and is partially buried. The stern section is intermingled with the remains of another vessel, the SS Teeswood.