Orkney Wreck Map
22 wrecks in Orkney, United Kingdom. Recorded depths: 5–43 m. View on map
Orkney's wrecks are centred on Scapa Flow, the natural harbour where the interned German High Seas Fleet was scuttled on 21 June 1919. Fifty-two of the 74 interned vessels sank that day, and seven of them — three battleships and four light cruisers — are still on the seabed.
Aorangi
The Scapa Flow 2013 Marine Archaeology Survey, funded by Historic Scotland, recorded the Aorangi by side-scan sonar as a hull roughly 109 metres long, bow to the southeast, with four boilers rising about 4 metres from the seabed as her highest point. She was a steel steamship of 117 metres, built at Glasgow by John Elder & Co in 1883 for the New Zealand Shipping Company, and later passed to the Union Steamship Company. In 1915 the Admiralty took her for use as a blockship and scuttled her in Kirk Sound against the stern of the Numidian. When the sound was reopened in 1920 she was refloated and shifted to where she now lies. Recorded on the remains are a steering arm and rudder post at the stern, sections of fallen mast with a crow's nest, a donkey boiler and wooden decking at the bow; her engine and propeller shaft are gone.
Clio II
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.
F2
A winter storm took the F2 to the bottom of Scapa Flow on 30 December 1946, more than a year after the war she had been designed for was over; she never fired a shot there. She was a Geleiteboot, an escort boat, and one of ten experimental ships given high-pressure Brown-Boveri turbines. Those temperamental engines could push her to 28 knots, but they also earned her a name for mechanical misery. In 1938 she was lengthened by four metres and given a new job recovering torpedoes. After her surrender to the Royal Navy in 1945, she was towed north to Scapa. Her stern rests upright in 16 to 18 metres, while the forward section lies listing on its side. A 30-metre line joins her to the salvage barge YC21, which went down close by in 1968 during an attempt to scrap her, and a 20mm gun taken off the F2 finished up aboard the barge: a small absurdity that ties the two wrecks together.
HMS Royal Oak
On the night of 14 October 1939, Kapitanleutnant Gunther Prien threaded U-47 through the supposedly impassable defences of Kirk Sound and put four torpedoes into a battleship at anchor. Eight hundred and thirty-five men — many of them boy sailors barely into their teens — died in the cold water of Scapa Bay. HMS Royal Oak now lies upturned in 33 metres, still weeping fuel oil after more than eight decades, marked by a green buoy bearing a simple request: respect their resting place. Every year, Royal Navy divers descend to replace the White Ensign on her hull, the only people authorised to visit a wreck protected under the highest classification of the Protection of Military Remains Act 1986. The sinking transformed Scapa Flow's defences: Churchill ordered permanent causeways across the eastern approaches, and Italian prisoners of war built the barriers that still carry Orkney's roads today.
HMS Vanguard
A little before midnight on 9 July 1917, a chain of blasts ripped through the anchorage at Scapa Flow, hurling debris onto ships lying half a mile off. HMS Vanguard had exploded where she was moored. Two of the 845 men aboard lived. No accident in the whole of the twentieth century cost the Royal Navy more lives. The Court of Enquiry put it down to cordite going off by accident: unstable propellant kept in magazines whose temperatures were badly controlled. So complete was the destruction that her remains, strewn over the seabed in 34 metres off the north coast of Flotta, look little like the St Vincent-class dreadnought she had been. The Protection of Military Remains Act 1986 makes her a war grave, as it does HMS Royal Oak, and diving on her is forbidden. Those of her dead who could be recovered are buried at Lyness Royal Naval Cemetery on Hoy, looking out over the water where they died.
James Barrie
Lother Rock, close to South Ronaldsay, is where the steam trawler James Barrie, launched as Benella, came to grief when she ran aground. She stayed stuck for two days, then lifted clear with nobody aboard and was carried out into the Pentland Firth. The lifeboat Grace Paterson Richie got a line on her and tried to bring her in, but she went down at the mouth of Widewall Bay. She now rests on her starboard side in Scapa Flow. Salvors have taken her bronze propeller and much of her brass, yet the masts, the winch and the starboard anchor are all still in place. The top of the steam engine can be seen, and the rudder lies on the seabed.
Lapland
When the Scapa Flow 2013 Marine Archaeology Survey, funded by Historic Scotland, ran side scan sonar over her expected resting place, it found no trace of the Lapland. Historical charts of the blockships put her remains under the third of the Churchill Barriers, and the 1972 Undermarine Operations surveys and later records noted wreckage sticking out of that barrier, but the recent work could not confirm it. She was a British steel steamship of 1,234 tons, built at Dundee in 1890 by W. B. Thompson & Co. Ltd. as the Ptarmigan for the Cork Steamship Co. Sold to Liverpool owners in 1903 and renamed Dauntless, she took the name Lapland in 1907 under the Liverpool & Hamburg SS. Co. The Admiralty requisitioned her in 1914, and she was later sunk deliberately to block East Weddell Sound.
SM UB-116
She never made it. British hydrophone operators tracked her approach and detonated a remote-controlled mine that killed all 34 crew — the last U-boat lost in the First World War. Raised in 1919, she broke free and sank again at the mouth of Pan Hope Bay; a controlled explosion later dealt with her remaining live torpedoes, and the blast left her barely recognisable as a submarine. What remains is a scattered field of torn steel and bent piping in 26 to 32 metres, with the conning tower standing as the only clearly identifiable feature. Orientation is challenging, but the story gives every twisted plate its weight. This is the physical full stop at the end of the U-boat war.
SMS Brummer
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.
SMS Coln
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.
SMS Dresden
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.
SMS Karlsruhe
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.
SMS Konig
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.
SMS Kronprinz Wilhelm
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.
SMS Markgraf
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.
SS Almeria
The SS Almeria was surveyed as part of the Scapa Flow 2013 Marine Archaeology Survey, revealing her condition and features. Originally built by Laing James & Sons Ltd. in Sunderland, she was a British steamship with a length of 89.3 metres and a beam of 11.6 metres. Initially launched as SS Patapsco, she underwent several name changes and ownership transfers before being purchased by the Admiralty in 1914. Intended as an accommodation ship, she was scuttled as a blockship in Skerry Sound in 1915. Today, the Almeria lies partially broken in Scapa Flow, with her stern section intermingling with the wrecks of SS Ilsenstein and SS Emerald Wings. Notable features include her propeller, triple expansion engine, and boilers. Although broken, sections of the hull remain upright, with the stern standing about 4 metres above the seabed.
SS Elton
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.
SS Emerald Wings
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.
SS Empire Seaman
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.
SS Gartmore
In Scapa Flow's eastern approaches the third Churchill Barrier crosses East Weddell Sound, and the Gartmore lies a short swim off its northern shore in three to five metres of water — shallow enough to snorkel, close enough to walk in. She was already thirty-five years old and on her third name when the Admiralty bought her: launched on the Tyne as the Bedford in 1879, she became the Castilla, then the Gartmore, and on 14 September 1914 she was run into the sound and scuttled to help close an eastern approach the war had just exposed. She did not stay whole. Swimming west off the barrier you meet a large winch gear and a section of ladder, then the rudder and a single blade of a part-buried propeller; beyond them a long run of hull plating still encasing the propeller shaft lies north–south and comparatively intact, and further west again the crankshaft sits exposed on rock and sand. The remains are well dispersed rather than wrecked in one piece, but for a cargo steamer of 1845 tons there is a great deal of her left to find.
SS Ilsenstein
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.
V83
When the order came to open the seacocks on 21 June 1919, British sailors boarded this torpedo boat destroyer and ran her aground before she could sink. Ernest Cox later pressed her into service during his audacious campaign to raise the battleship Hindenburg, and an unsuccessful attempt to refloat her in 1926 left her where she sits today — upright on a gentle slope, broken into two halves. The bow section is fragmented in about eight metres; the stern sits more recognisably in 15 to 16. There is rarely any current, and the maximum depth barely troubles a single-cylinder pony bottle.
What is actually down there
The fleet wrecks divide into two groups. The battleships König, Kronprinz Wilhelm and Markgraf lie inverted or heavily listed in roughly 24 to 45 metres, all three cut about by the salvage operations of the 1930s. The light cruisers Brummer, Cöln, Dresden and Karlsruhe sit shallower and are generally more intact; Cöln is usually described as the most complete of them. Beyond the German fleet the Flow also holds blockships in shallow water and HMS Royal Oak, torpedoed at anchor in 1939 and a designated war grave.
Protection and permits
All seven German fleet wrecks were designated Scheduled Monuments by Historic Scotland in May 2001 under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979, and the site became a Historic Marine Protected Area covering 10.69 km² in August 2025. Diving on the scheduled wrecks is permitted; removing an artefact from them is a criminal offence. Diving permits are issued by the Orkney Islands Council Harbours department.