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Scapa Flow
Scapa Flow was used as the main base of the British Home
Fleet in both WW1 and WW2 due to it being a large land-locked
harbour with deep entrances and deep water anchorages. In
both wars it took some time to make it secure.
The harbour saw dramatic actions in both wars. After WW1
74 vessels of the German High Seas Fleet were interned here,
and on 21st June 1919 they were nearly all scuttled. Some
were beached, but most sank. The majority of the fleet was
salvaged during the 1920s and 1930s, but three battleships
and four cruisers remain and are much visited by scuba divers
today.
 In 1939 the U-boat U47 crept into Scapa Flow through Holm
Sound and torpedoed HMS Royal Oak, with the loss of 833 crew.
This action was to result in the construction of the Churchill
Barriers and a huge increase in the defences in general.
The wreck of HMS Royal Oak has recently been leaking considerable
quantities of fuel oil and has become a pollution threat.
As a result the Royal Navy is now removing the oil.
Up to 40,000 men were based in Orkney at the peak of activity
in WW2, and once secured maximum advantage was taken of the
strategically important position of Scapa Flow. Much evidence
still remains of the defences - coastal batteries, searchlight
emplacements, old airfields, and parts of the naval base
at Lyness on Hoy, where the Scapa Flow Visitor Centre, based
in an old pumphouse, is a museum and interpretation centre
about Scapa Flow.
 During WW2, aircraft carriers were very important and Orkney
served as base for repairs and training for many of their
aircraft. The action where Bismarck was sunk succeeded due
to the seemingly archaic Fairey Swordfish torpedo bombers
which doggedly searched out the battleship and despite their
apparent frailty damaged the ship’s rudder.
In the 1970’s oil was first exploited in the North
Sea, and the Flotta Oil Terminal continues to process and
export large quantities of crude. Oil is also handled from
the fields to the west of Orkney by shuttle tanker.
Scapa Flow is winter home to many birds which breed in the
Arctic, including Great Northern Divers and Long-tailed Ducks.
It is occasionally visited by pods of young Sperm Whales
and its shores are home to the elusive Otter. |
