Simon Campbell

Posted at 2041 hours on 16/06/08 | Posted in Diving

Scapa Flow, the end of the line?

After 1800 or so dives I have never been to Scapa Flow. Duncan, one of our club members, arranged a trip for June 2008; how could I resist. For the uninitiated, Scapa Flow is a body of water in the Orkney Islands, Scotland sheltered by the islands of Mainland, Graemsay, Burray, South Ronaldsay and Hoy.

At 140 square miles, with a sandy bottom, and relatively shallow (maximum depth around 50m), it is one of the great natural harbours/anchorages of the world, with sufficient space to hold a number of navies. For further detail on what happened during the world wars, go to the wikipedia article.

Now on with the tale…

Following the excruciatingly long road trip from West Marton to the ferry terminal at Scrabster, we drove our well packed LandRover Defender on the ferry. We arrived at Stromness 90 minutes later.

The boat brave enough to house our motley crew for the seven days was the Sunrise, a 20 metre converted trawler built in the 40’s. First impressions of the vessel were not particularly favourable it having a very low, aluminium covered, ‘dive deck’. At the bow end the height available for divers kitting up was around 5’ and towards midships around 5’ 8”. I know this as on numerous occasions during the week I concussed myself resulting in my seeing stars and shouting profanities. Yes indeed; a dive boat built for the vertically challenged… Other than that the Sunrise was tired but comfortable, with plenty of food and a kettle always on the boil. Dougie the skipper was skilful and Bruce the ‘crew’ very helpful.

Anyway, lets talk about the diving.

In the ‘flow’ the wrecks are big and at times impressive but I am afraid well passed their sell by date. They are understandably falling to pieces, so if you are thinking of going, make it quick…

The impression was certainly tainted by the poor underwater visibility we experienced. It was between two and three metres horizontal in the ‘flow’ and around eight on the block ships. The difference being the latter are well washed by fierce tides twice a day with clear water from the ocean. Ships that big are best experienced in better ‘vis’; we were unlucky.

The depths make it perfect for effective use of trimix / nitrox, which combined with rich ‘deco’ mixes, will give you good bottom times with minimum decompression. The size of the wrecks also lend themselves to bagging off (ie deploying a delayed surface marker buoy) as opposed to returning to the shot line.

Being my first trip I hadn’t a clue about the state of the wrecks and the accessibility for serious penetration. We therefore tended to stay outside, occasionally delving into holes and passages as they appeared. Any return journey will see me lining off and ‘scruggling’ around inside the beasties.

Highlights

Although well broken up the Karlsruhe II had plenty of war gear (guns, armoured control positions etc) and nautical stuff (bits, capstans etc) easily accessible.

To my surprise, following the dour write-ups and my colleagues memories, the Kronprinz Wilhelm was also an interesting dive. The vessel lying, bottom up on the seabed was engaging as the denuded, collapsing hull resembled rock gullies. Investigation into the many holes revealed the humongous 15” stern guns and the rangefinder on the mast.

The F2 and barge were quite interesting, the barge being the highlight being encrusted in life and sporting a workshop and 20mm recovered from the F2 in the salvage attempt.

To me the best of the diving was had on the block ship Tabarka which was very beautiful and totally encrusted in marine life. The light penetrating through the skeletal framework of the ship was in places breathtaking. If you are of a mechanical disposition, there was also lots to see, with boilers, engines and loads of mysterious pipe-work. Although lying in around 14m, this wreck has a very short tidal window and the skipper limited us to 30 minutes head down to head up. Due to popular demand we dived it twice.

The Orkney Islanders were very friendly indeed with hospitality far exceeding many of the remote Scottish island I have visited in the past. The islands seem to be a stronghold for fine food and the arts with galleries and organic delicatessen’s in evidence in Stromness. The only culinary blip occurred when we visited a curry house in Kirkwall on the last night. Angela ordered chicken, but when she was half way through, she noticed a limb of an animal that walked on four feet as opposed to two legs and a pair of wings; I convinced her it must have been rabbit ;-)

The Islands do captivate you and I would return just for the sense of place. I suppose the question is, will I return to dive? Perhaps, but there is so much in the world that has been undiscovered and undived it seem rude not to get out there and find them… When we have sorted our boat and are passing by, I am sure I won’t resist.

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