On March 29, 1957, the White Ensign of the British Royal Navy was hauled down for the last time at Scapa Flow. The anchorage where the great battleships of the Royal Navy’s Grand Fleet, the U. S. Navy’s Atlantic Fleet, and, at the end of World War I, the German Navy’s High Seas Fleet had made a proud display is now used only by the North Sea fishermen and the occasional ship seeking shelter.
Scapa Flow still conjures up pictures of a vast anchorage ringed by low islands to old Navy veterans, and they remember, too, its bleakness. The former base lies within the Orkney Islands, set a few miles off the extreme north-east tip of Scotland. From time immemorial it has been known as a safe anchorage, but its use by the Royal Navy only dates back to 1913. It had been considered—and rejected as a naval base many years earlier.
On June 4, 1812, Graeme Spence, late Maritime Surveyor to the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, presented his arguments to Their Lordships to support his claim that Scapa Flow was an ideal anchorage for at least thirty sail of the line.
In presenting his claim Spence employed both a detailed chart and a brief history of the Orkneys. Though he was the first person, so far as is known, to advocate the use of the anchorage as a naval base, an Orcadian, Mackenzie, who was an Admiralty surveyor in the 1740s, and later his son both compiled the first charts after the islanders had presented a petition to the Admiralty asking for the anchorage to be considered as a naval base.
In his brief history of the Orkneys, Spence pointed out that the Scandinavians had used Scapa since earliest times. They regarded it as an essential foothold for the conquest of the British Isles. It was also useful when the frozen Baltic made their own bases useless in the winter.
When the Roman Empire was divided the Emperor Constantine received the Kingdom of Orcades. Later the islands were conquered by both Piets and Saxons. In A.I). 889 Kenneth II of Scotland invaded and the islands were ruled by the Scots Crown for the next 260 years. In his struggle for the Crown of Scotland, Donald Bane, Lord of the Hebrides or Western Isles, otherwise known as Duncan by Shakespeare, called on Magnus, King of Norway, to help him.
In return for his help Donald Bane gave the Orkneys to Magnus. The Norwegians remained until 1263 when Haco, the King of Norway at that time, used the islands as a base to attack Scotland. He was repulsed by Alexander III and died in the islands. Magnus, son of Haco, promised Alexander 29,000 marks in perpetuity for the islands. The royalty was paid for over 200 years until the islands finally became part of the kingdom of Scotland.
In succeeding centuries Scapa Flow was known and used by northern traders and fishermen, but it does not appear to have been considered as a naval base though it is possible some of the remnants of the Spanish Armada may have sheltered, here. It was certainly known and used by the Hudson Bay Company’s ships. Owing to its position, the anchorage was of little use to the Navy, as England was seldom involved in conflict with the Scandinavian countries. However, when Napoleon showed more than passing interest in the Danish Fleet and forced Sweden into an unwilling alliance, the Admiralty became interested in the possibilities of using Scapa Flow for a base from which to attack the Swedish and Danish fleets. The most northerly anchorage at this time was Yarmouth Roads, and even this was not altogether satisfactory.
In his report to the Admiralty, Spence claimed that Scapa was the finest natural anchorage after Spithead and a ship could sail from one of the many openings no matter what the prevailing wind. In addition, the depth of water was at least between ten and twenty fathoms over the whole anchorage. It was also ideally suited to prevent any northerly movement of an enemy licet to Ireland or North America.
Unfortunately it seems no action was ever taken on Spence’s recommendations, no doubt largely due to the cessation of the war in 1815. So far as is known, no attempt was made to develop the anchorage for nearly a century even though it might have proved useful in the Baltic operations during the war against Russia in 1854-56.
A short while before the 1914-18 war, the First Sea Lord, Admiral Sir John Fisher, popularly known as Jackie Fisher, was sitting in his office at the Admiralty toying with a pair of compasses. He realized a base was wanted from which British ships could operate without risking themselves too close to hostile shores. There was at that time no base which could accommodate the battleships of the Grand Fleet on the East Coast. Chatham could only take vessels of a limited draught; Sheerness was too small; and the Firth of Forth could be easily mined and its facilities were not very promising. An added disadvantage to the Firth of Forth was that it would be necessary for the fleet to steam some way before reaching open waters. Even fifty miles extra steaming might make all the difference between catching the enemy red- handed on a raid and being greeted with a few fast disappearing wisps of smoke on the horizon.
In Fisher’s own words, “I put that safe distance for the British Fleet on my compasses and swept a circle, and behold it came to a large, inland, land-locked sheet of water, but there was no name to it on the chart and no soundings in it put on the chart. I sent for the Hydrographer, and pointing to the spot, I said: ‘Bring me the large scale chart. What’s its name?’ He didn’t know. He would find out. He was a da d long time away, and I rang the bell twice and sent him word each time that I was getting angry.”
As a result of Fisher’s awakening of the Hydrographic Department, a survey ship was sent to examine the possibilities of Scapa Flow as a major fleet anchorage. It was found that while there was a fourteen-knot current through the Pentland Firth and the anchorage, according to Fisher, was a “stagnant pool” in comparison.
Forty-eight hours after war was declared in 1914, the Grand Fleet sailed for Scapa. Later captured German documents revealed that it had been planned to sink the fleet with U- boats as it left its bases. For some while the Germans “lost” the Grand Fleet, so well had the secret of Scapa been kept. At this stage of the war facilities were virtually nil, but in August, 1914, the depot ships Cyclops and Assistance arrived to act as a forward base for the destroyer flotillas. The Cyclops acted as the fleet mail office and drifter base. The drifters were used as tenders to the fleet and for local patrol duties. How all the base staff were accommodated in the two depot ships was a source of wonder to visitors. Many officers had to sleep on their desks.
Soon after the Fleet arrived, various antisubmarine defenses were laid, including blockships, nets, mines, and booms. In addition, twelve, and three-pounder guns were placed at various points. Later these were reinforced by 4- and 6-inch guns manned by Royal Marine pensioners. Conditions on shore were extremely rough for the gun crews, but in spite of everything the defenses soon reached a high pitch of efficiency.
By summer, 1915, the old cruiser Imperieuse had arrived to increase the accommodation for the base staff. The patrol force had also been increased and four yachts, 85 trawlers, and 27 drifters were now in service round the anchorage. Early in 1916 the old battleship Victorious arrived for use as an accommodation ship for dockyard workmen carrying out alterations to the magazine protection in several ships and for fitting the new director system for the main armament. This work went on for a considerable period, and after the loss of several battle-cruisers at Jutland, further modifications were required to the armor in some ships.
As the war went on, it was found that recreational facilities were urgently required for the officers and men of the Grand Fleet. Working parties built a golf course, football grounds, and rifle and pistol ranges. The steamer Borodino was fitted out as a canteen ship by the Junior Army and Navy Stores. Her facilities included a boxing ring, stage, and cinema.
Training facilities were also provided, and some former merchant ships were fitted out for service as a wireless school. Early in August, 1914, the first aircraft had arrived, and a little later the former Cunard liner Campania joined the fleet for service as a seaplane carrier. Various experiments were carried out aboard at Scapa, including the first kite balloons tests from this ship.
Since the defenses were still far from adequate even by the middle of the war, more old battleships were brought in for use as accommodation ships and floating batteries. No attempt, so far as was known, was ever made by the enemy to enter Scapa, but the threat of submarine attack was a constant source of concern for the flag officer in charge of the base. Considerable alarm arose on the night of July 9, 1917. A tremendous explosion rocked the base and flames shot high in the air. The battleship Vanguard., which had just completed provisioning, had blown up. Loss of life was severe, and the ship was completely wrecked. The cause of the explosion was never really discovered, though many theories were advanced. Spontaneous combustion in a magazine was a most probable cause. One suggestion was that a load of potatoes which originated in Ireland had had a time bomb placed in it. The most fantastic story, recently put forward, was that a shipwright of German descent placed a time bomb when working on the new armor plate being fitted as a result of the loss of several battlecruisers through defective armor at Jutland. According to this account, the man concerned had been working on the cruiser Natal and the battleship Bulwark, both of which had blown up earlier in the war. The account added that the man was taken by Admiralty escort to London and nothing more was heard of him.
Late in 1918 the Grand Fleet was at sea in force, but this time no shot was fired. Germany had surrendered. The German High Seas Fleet with the guns in each ship trained fore and aft arrived quietly at Scapa Flow and anchored under the guns of the Grand Fleet. Negotiations were going on in Paris to decide among other things the disposal of the German fleet, but the ships’ crews settled the arguments by scuttling their ships in 1919.
After the war the anchorage was virtually closed. For many years the salvage of the German warships went on. It was a tremendous job, and some particularly difficult salvage work was necessary. Many of the ships had capsized, and their superstructures had to be cut away before they could be raised or towed. Some were towed away still upside down.
For some years after the 1914-18 War there is a story that shopkeepers in Kirkwall and other villages in the islands were often embarrassed by people proffering five pound notes. When the Vanguard blew up, the ship’s safe landed on the island of Flotta, and for some years money was available on the island for anyone who cared to collect it!
During the inter-war years no attempt was made to modify the defenses at Scapa Flow to meet the possibilities of air attack. When once more it was required for the fleet, it was obvious that there was much to be done before it could be regarded as a reasonably secure base.
The attack on the Home Fleet by German aircraft in 1939 showed that the base was very vulnerable to this form of attack and few anti-aircraft guns and fighters could be spared. Accordingly there was a temporary transfer of the fleet to other bases until the defenses could be built up. The only success scored by the Germans was to damage the old battleship Iron Duke, Grand Fleet flagship at the Battle of Jutland, which was being used as the base ship.
The greatest disaster suffered was the attack on the battleship Royal Oak. Prien, the German U-boat ace, took his boat through Holm Sound and then to Kirk Sound. According to his log he did not follow a vessel through the defenses as has been supposed. He fired at one battleship and obtained a hit and then fired a second salvo of torpedoes and hit the Royal Oak, which then blew up. There is no record of his having hit a second ship, and in fact it seems from survivors’ reports that he hit the Royal Oak twice. The first hit did not penetrate the armor along the ship’s side. The U-boat was seen by a man in a car, Prien reported in his log, and his attack is therefore even more remarkable as he evidently approached on the surface. His attack was the only successful one ever recorded, though, according to some reports circulating after the 1914-18 War, some German officers took a U-boat to sea to attack the anchorage in an attempt to save their honor when it became obvious that Germany would surrender.
In the minutes of one of Hitler’s naval conferences, it is noted that he realized the importance of the anchorage to the British Fleet and ordered the Luftwaffe to lay mines at the entrances. He hoped this might make the Home Fleet withdraw to the comparatively open anchorage in the Faroes.
As the war progressed, the defenses were increased and a fighter station and radar sites were established. A canteen ship was once again provided for the Fleet. Throughout the war the anchorage was used by the Home Fleet and proved of tremendous value as a base for the forces covering the Russian convoys and for the forces operating off Iceland and in the Denmark Strait sealing the Atlantic to German surface raiders.
Once again after the war the base was reduced to a care and maintenance basis, though it was visited from time to time by the Home Fleet, especially during the summer cruise as it is ideal for fleet regattas. A small base, known as HMS Pomona remained but on March 29, 1957, the White Ensign was hauled down for the last time. The closure of the base was considered necessary under the defense policy of streamlining the forces. Certain oil fuel facilities will be retained, however. The paying off of the base marks the end of one of the great chapters in British Naval history.