In a feature which will appeal both to divers and to those curious about the sunken wrecks of Scapa Flow, Rod Macdonald looks at some of the many ships which lie there through this fascinating account, written from the perspective of a diver, and through a series of captivatingly haunting images.
Scapa Flow is a dramatic and windswept expanse of water some twelve miles across and almost completely encircled by the islands of Orkney. On the land all around there are poignant reminders of Orkney’s wartime past – deserted barracks, airfields, the remains of POW camps and gun emplacements, all of which bear silent witness to its military history. For centu ries Scapa Flow had been a safe, sheltered anchorage for mariners.
Captain Cook’s ships Discovery and Resolution called into Stromness in 1780 on their return from the South Seas where Captain Cook had been murdered. Whaling ships bound for the Davis Strait began calling into the harbour in the 1770s, and Hudson Bay Company whaling ships had a strong presence and permanent agents in Stromness to sign up the capable seafaring Orcadian men, who were ideally suited for life on the whalers.
In 1914, at the outbreak of the First World War, Scapa Flow became …
