Rod, I really like and appreciate the way you respond to comments and answer the questions of your viewers. It's all good info. and the way things should be.
Cheers - I appreciate the feedback. The channel came about because I had all this video of important historic wrecks just sitting around. Wrecks decay and fall apart naturally over time so I thought it would be useful for posterity to get the footage out into the public domain, a snapshot in time of the life of a wreck. I just wish I’d had a video in the 80’s & 90s to record the Scapa wrecks, the cruisers are a pale shadow now of what they were. All the best from Scotland
Hi - it’s only the 3 battleships that are upside down. All the others in the Flow sit on their keel or on their beam ends. Battleships are so top heavy that they invariably capsize when they sink in deep enough water. Check out Dive Scapa Flow!
Very nice video, many thanks!😃 Of course, it's not so nice that all you see of these ships is a jumbled pile of junk and no real indication of the Imperial fleet....🧐 With lots of money and a group of investors you could theoretically lift at least a 15 inch gun turret ( 865 tonnes) from the "S.M.S. Bayern" ("H.M.S. Bavaria") and exhibit it in Scapa Flow .🤔 That would certainly be very impressive for visitors. 😎don't you think?🤔😉
Thanks for the feedback! I knew the salvor who owned and worked the wrecks in the 1970's - and he had it in mind then to lift one of the Bayern turrets. Being used to big projects, he didn't think it would be that hard to do - just dig the turret out, strop it and lift - not a big lift for today's kit, and would have made an amazing thing to see if it was displayed near Stromness. It would never happen nowadays - for economic and social reasons, so they will remain in place as interesting dives for a very long time. I
@@rodmacdonald6396 Hello Mr Macdonald, many thanks for your detailed reply, I was surprised and delighted! 😊 Your story is really very interesting, thank you again!🥰 As the turrets of the S.M.S. Bayern are so exposed, it is very tempting to salvage them. But these things are really very heavy. 😒 There are also the 12-inch turrets of the " three kings", but unfortunately the remains of the hulls lie above them.😐 (Yes, and 12 inches would probably be too small for some British visitors like "Drachinifel", bigger is better😁😉). But no government would finance something like that, that's for sure. I was thinking more of "eccentric" billionaires like "Elon Musk" giving it to the Orkneys and Scotland. 🤔 Well, maybe in the future.🙂 I hope you continue to enjoy your diving and filming!😃 Kind regards!
There are endless books on this - but in a nutshell, the war was still on, just temporarily halted by the Armistice of November 1918. The Imperial German Navy was interned at Scapa Flow, the heart of British naval power, pending peace treaty terms being worked out. When it looked like the negotiations were about to break down, the entire interned 74 German Navy warships scuttled to avoid being seized by the British.
There's a lot of fascinating background here you're maybe not aware of. In the 1920's-1930's, 67 of the 74 scuttled warships were salvaged, lifted to the surface and scrapped in the greatest feat of maritime salvage ever. If you want to learn about this, get yourself a copy of The Man who bought a Navy - amazing to read of these guys in boiler suits working back then inside pressurised wrecks on the seabed, 150 feet underwater - they were essentially decompression diving, but dry. Of the remaining 7 warships left on the bottom of the Flow, the valuable bits, the armour belt, torpedo tubes, condensers etc were all blown off them in the 1960's & 1970's. Their historical importance was belatedly recognised and in 2002 they were scheduled as Protected Monuments - they will be a draw for divers to visit Orkney for many decades.
@@16sondra Hi, yes, sorry - MSW is a tech diving term that means 'metres of sea water'. Thats about 140ft in old money to the seabed. All the best from Scotland
Rod, I really like and appreciate the way you respond to comments and answer the questions of your viewers. It's all good info. and the way things should be.
Cheers - I appreciate the feedback. The channel came about because I had all this video of important historic wrecks just sitting around. Wrecks decay and fall apart naturally over time so I thought it would be useful for posterity to get the footage out into the public domain, a snapshot in time of the life of a wreck. I just wish I’d had a video in the 80’s & 90s to record the Scapa wrecks, the cruisers are a pale shadow now of what they were. All the best from Scotland
Excellent Scapa piece....I need to return to Stromness for a week.....
Thanks, good overview and video. Andrew
My Grandfather served aboard this ship. I still have photos of him with crew mates.
Are any of the photos taken during internment at Scapa Flow? That would be part of the Orkney story of the German ships that hasn’t been seen before.
This is amazing. I love wrecks! Whats the best way to contact you?
It seems that nearly all of the wrecks at Scapa Flow capsized and hit the sea floor upside down. I wonder why this is.
Hi - it’s only the 3 battleships that are upside down. All the others in the Flow sit on their keel or on their beam ends. Battleships are so top heavy that they invariably capsize when they sink in deep enough water. Check out Dive Scapa Flow!
Very nice video, many thanks!😃
Of course, it's not so nice that all you see of these ships is a jumbled pile of junk and no real indication of the Imperial fleet....🧐
With lots of money and a group of investors you could theoretically lift at least a 15 inch gun turret ( 865 tonnes) from the "S.M.S. Bayern" ("H.M.S. Bavaria") and exhibit it in Scapa Flow .🤔 That would certainly be very impressive for visitors. 😎don't you think?🤔😉
Thanks for the feedback! I knew the salvor who owned and worked the wrecks in the 1970's - and he had it in mind then to lift one of the Bayern turrets. Being used to big projects, he didn't think it would be that hard to do - just dig the turret out, strop it and lift - not a big lift for today's kit, and would have made an amazing thing to see if it was displayed near Stromness. It would never happen nowadays - for economic and social reasons, so they will remain in place as interesting dives for a very long time. I
@@rodmacdonald6396
Hello Mr Macdonald,
many thanks for your detailed reply, I was surprised and delighted! 😊
Your story is really very interesting, thank you again!🥰
As the turrets of the S.M.S. Bayern are so exposed, it is very tempting to salvage them. But these things are really very heavy. 😒
There are also the 12-inch turrets of the " three kings", but unfortunately the remains of the hulls lie above them.😐
(Yes, and 12 inches would probably be too small for some British visitors like "Drachinifel", bigger is better😁😉).
But no government would finance something like that, that's for sure.
I was thinking more of "eccentric" billionaires like "Elon Musk" giving it to the Orkneys and Scotland. 🤔
Well, maybe in the future.🙂
I hope you continue to enjoy your diving and filming!😃
Kind regards!
Is there a SENSIBLE reason why these ships were sunk rather than scrapped? Just sending them to the bottom seems a terrible waste of material.
There are endless books on this - but in a nutshell, the war was still on, just temporarily halted by the Armistice of November 1918. The Imperial German Navy was interned at Scapa Flow, the heart of British naval power, pending peace treaty terms being worked out. When it looked like the negotiations were about to break down, the entire interned 74 German Navy warships scuttled to avoid being seized by the British.
So what is stopping the brits from recovering the scrap. No war grave excuse here.
There's a lot of fascinating background here you're maybe not aware of. In the 1920's-1930's, 67 of the 74 scuttled warships were salvaged, lifted to the surface and scrapped in the greatest feat of maritime salvage ever. If you want to learn about this, get yourself a copy of The Man who bought a Navy - amazing to read of these guys in boiler suits working back then inside pressurised wrecks on the seabed, 150 feet underwater - they were essentially decompression diving, but dry. Of the remaining 7 warships left on the bottom of the Flow, the valuable bits, the armour belt, torpedo tubes, condensers etc were all blown off them in the 1960's & 1970's. Their historical importance was belatedly recognised and in 2002 they were scheduled as Protected Monuments - they will be a draw for divers to visit Orkney for many decades.
Depth?
42msw to seabed- least depth about 24msw
Rod Macdonald is that meters? Sorry, still on imperial here in the states.
@@16sondra Hi, yes, sorry - MSW is a tech diving term that means 'metres of sea water'. Thats about 140ft in old money to the seabed. All the best from Scotland
24 fathoms in the old sailor talk
Yes .