Tales from Scapa Flow - Sue Rountree

At last our hols was here, it was time to hit the warm clear waters of the Red Sea- wrong dooh!! -not yet, clear water maybe correct, but warm - definitely not!!!

After a horrendous journey to Inverness, we arrived at about 12.30 on the Friday evening at the Holiday Inn express, ready for kip. We awoke quite early to a very eventful breakfast, the others in the group had already left, and we had the privilege of experiencing the Holiday Inn Fire Drill, curtsey of a strange Scottish woman and the toaster!! Still the sight of big beefy fireman at 8.30 in the morning certainly made the two Sue's day, Mike was not that impressed!

Once at Scrabster we met up with the rest of the crowd and loaded the containers with all our dive gear, boarded the ferry, watched the football and then we were there.

We all settled into the B&B, and the sun came out!! What a perfect start to the week.

We all woke up with a start. "TEA UP", came the call from the mildly spoken Mr Cundle, if you weren't awake before you were definitely awake now!! Down in the kitchen breakfast was being prepared for us by Marlene, a few managing a full cooked breakfast.

Down at the quayside we boarded the "John L" for our first days diving, before we even left the harbour the kettle was already on, it was a good job there was a loo on board!! The boat was very comfortable, with plenty of deck space to kit up, a large drying room below deck and a large cabin if the weather was bad!

Our fist dive was on the SMS Köln he was a Dresden II class cruiser and was scuttled at 13.50 hours on 21st June, 1919. The sheer size of her, and the fact that I could see so much was awesome, it is something I will not forget in a hurry. Our dive time seemed to fly past, and all too soon we were making our ascent, what a way to start.

After lunch, we were back on the open waves, and heading towards our second dive site. Sue and I had decided to move up to 15 litre cylinders, as we were literally scooped up out of the water by James the deck hand, and did not have to worry about the ladder.

We were to dive the Gobernador Boris, which was sunk as a block ship in 1915, in depths of about 17 metres. The viz and marine life on this wreck were fantastic, and you could have believed that you were diving in the Red Sea, it was that good. We cracked open a sea urchin, and was then surrounded by wrasse feeding, they then continued to follow us around the wreck hoping for second helpings. Even while making our ascent, we were entertained by a variety of jellyfish putting on a splendid show.

It did not take us long to get back into port, and we all headed back to the B&B (in the sunshine!!), for tea and cake and a few hours sunbathing in the courtyard.

After being fed and watered that evening, Bedfordshire was calling me by a pitiful 10,00pm!!! What a lightweight. I needed to recharge my batteries, for tomorrow we would be diving a battleship!!!

Next morning "TEA UP", came the call, and we all feel into our routine - tea, food & off to the boat! It was a bit overcast today, but at least it was dry.

 The first dive of the day was to be the "SMS Kron Prince Wilhelm", a Konig class battleship, she was sister ship to the Markgraf. She now rests almost upside down on her port side superstructure in about 40m of water. Built at Kiel and launched on 21 February 1914, she was scuttled at 1315 hrs on 21 June 1919. The König class battleships were an answer to the British dreadnoughts of the time; they were 177m (580 ft) long, carried 14" armour, displaced 25,390 tons and were armed with ten 12" guns in five towers.

 For lunch we stopped at Lyness. During the wars, Lyness was a hive of activity. The Lyness Interpretation Centre houses an important record of the role the Royal Navy played in Orkney during both World Wars, as well as being home to a fascinating outside collection of military equipment such as vehicles and guns. World War I displays include a propeller and other artifacts from HMS Hampshire, mined off Orkney in 1916 with the lost of Lord Kitchener. Guns salvaged from the German High Seas Fleet. There is a large photographic collection as well as objects on display inside. Ooh almost forgot, the café there serves the best homemade soup and fresh cream sponges ever.
For our second dive of the day we were treated to the delights of the YC21 and the Flottenbegleiter "F2". The YC21 was a 550ton wooden barge, which was being used in salvage operations on the F2. She sank in a storm in 1968. The F2 is a World War II German Escort vessel; she sank at her moorings in December 1946. And so back to port and to the B&B - the sun was out and it was time for our daily mug of tea in the courtyard.

That evening we were treated to a home cooked meal, curtsey of Alan, Craig, Tony and Richard (if I have forgotten anybody else who assisted then I apologies now!!) 



Spaghetti bolognese and chilli were on the menu, with ice cream viennetta to follow. Well Done chaps I'll do it next time!!. And top marks to the chaps who did the washing up. You guys can come again.

An so the routine continued throughout the week, excellent morning dive, lunch and an excellent afternoon dive, followed by tea and sunshine in the courtyard.

But it was not all diving; we did manage to get out and about. We visited Skara Brae one afternoon, home to a prehistoric village and Skaill House. We also took a trip into Kirkwall, the capital of the Orkneys. Spending time searching through the archives of the Kirkwall Photographic library.

On our way back from St Marys one evening we visited the Italian Chapel - which is on the tiny island of Lamb Holm- connected to the Mainland by the first of the Churchill Barriers-is a unique memorial to 550 Italian Prisoners of War. The Chapel is all that remains of Camp 60, where they were interned in the 1940s. The Chapel was converted from two corrugated-iron nissen huts, which were transformed internally into a beautiful little chapel.

Diving the battleships and cruisers were magnificent, but the two dives that stick in my mind were the Gobernador Boris on day one, and the diving the Tabarka, on the Thursday. I can now say quite honestly that I think I know what it is like to dive in a washing machine!!! The wreck was superb, but trying to make an ascent was an experience of a lifetime, I compare it to an old country and western cowboy film, where the cowboy falls off his horse, but gets his foot stuck in the horse's stirrups, and is then dragged along the desert floor, that was what out ascent was like, until we hit a large mound on the seabed, and crushed fly on the windscreen then comes to mind!

My thanks goes to Martin for organising the trip, Russell (my dive buddy) for putting up with me and Tony for his wake up calls. Until next time…….

Red Sea 2004 - North, Maldives,

The Scilly Isles - 2003, Red Sea 2003 - North, Red Sea 2003 - South
Scapa Flow 2002, Red Sea 2002, Weymouth 2002,
Australia, Red Sea 2001, Red Sea 2000,     
Brixham, Weymouth, Key Largo,
Red Sea 1999, Diving Down Under.