Scapa Flow on John L - July 2006
by Lee Brown

Another GLUG trip to remember… We all arrived at the S/C House in Stromness High Street on the Saturday having travelled from all over the UK [and Holland] by air, sea, bus and car. A very strange sight greeted us as the Stromness carnival was on, filling the streets full of drunken Vikings and kilted types… One interesting float was the ‘First Gay Bar in Stromness’ with lots of dragged up locals…. The weather on arrival was foggy and cool unlike the rest of the UK basking in a 30 degree heatwave, but the following morning it was hot and sunny in Stromness too and that was more or less it for the rest of the week with a bit of early morning mist each day which burned off. Sea water temperatures this trip were in the 12 to 13c range at the bottom and up to 16c on the surface but it felt warmer… I guess we were quite warm on the boat and too taken with the wrecks to think about much else anyway!

After our luxury breakfasts prepared by Marlene [Cinders as we call her] we would schlep down to the pier to join the delightfully idiosyncratic ‘John L’ which is a restored red and white 1930’s Dublin Bay tugboat. Masses of space and well-designed with easy onboard air and nitrox fills. Not very fast, not that it mattered much though… I often thought we could walk faster than it was puttering across the flow! Jamie, our captain, had obviously recently seen the Pirates of the Caribbean judging from what he was wearing…. Apparently a shy lad according to Corinne, he gave an interesting demonstration of some choice expressions to a few of us on the first day before settling down a bit to be somewhat more friendly! We fairly quickly got into the daily routine of the boat [as you do] and with hyper efficiency each day set up and were ready for the day’s dives. We had our own wonderful Italian tealady and general factotum, Camilla who had come with Terry and doesn’t dive but likes divers and diveboats! An interesting feature was that most of us were ‘electronically tagged’ for the diving after a DAN rep asked us to help with a survey of divers. This involved wearing a little orange box and filling in medical info sheets.

Scapa Flow, if you don’t already know, is probably one of the top ten dive sites on the planet, being where Admiral Von Reuter scuttled the entire German naval fleet in 1919, partly by accident. Most of the battleships were salvaged for scrap over the next 30 years from the 30 to 40m deep natural harbour but several were left and it is these that we dive. They are mostly on their sides or upside down and vary a fair bit in how intact they are. Since around 2000 they have been protected historical sites [like Stonehenge!] and nothing may be removed from them. Something that produced a few twitches and shakes from some of us [they know who they are....] unable to pass over a wreck without removing something! The wrecks are pretty awesome, with huge areas of intact hulls, swim throughs and penetrations possible, also with decking and guns visible. Visibility this trip was in the 10 to 15m range, fairly good but dropped when us divers were on them or we followed another group. Luckily a lot of boats this year have been out of the Flow doing the Northern Orkneys which has become a popular diving area.

The first days’ dives were pretty good. We did the SMS Dresden first, very nice viz and masses of life on her. All the big wrecks here are permanently shotted with very thick lines and being taut are easy to use up and down though you got to beware the bits of jellyfish on the them and the Lions Mane Jellyfish floating by. Although quite interesting to watch [they even sometimes have little fish in their fronds] they can pack quite a sting . Fiona discovered this later in the week but she was soon OK, and completed her 400th dive over the week. She also managed some of her best penetrations this time! [she said it....] The huge walls of the ships hulls and the debris around where the salvagers had blasted holes in provide for lots of holes to explore and for fish to hide. There seemed to be enormous Wrasse everywhere, mainly Balaan but also Marbled and Rainbow. Large Pollock and Cod also as well as a few Conger Eels. I think I saw an arctic Wolffish here… Crabs of all sizes and types and the most beautiful collections of Plumose Anemones, Sponges and Dead Mans Fingers.

Into Lyness for lunch each day to wander round the museum and try out the NAAFI style restaurant, nice home made soups, rolls and a goodly collection of cakes including a personal trip down memory lane, The Butterfly Cream Bun! In the afternoon we did the F2 and barge…a dive made somewhat confusing by the shot being tied onto the barge rather than the F2 [UK WW2 Escort vessel]. I was suspicious when I discovered the ship was made of wood which is not how I remembered it! Anyway the penny dropped quite quickly for us all and we swam over to the main wreck some 50m away. Although fairly small as wrecks go, the stern having been cut off, the F2 is a lovely dive with lots of life and a wonderful overhung bow that looks like a big cheese wedge on the seabed. Light, fairly shallow and good viz made this a very easy and enjoyable dive. I think we all enjoyed it a lot.

The second day was the Koln and Karlsruhe, for me around 29m and 24m respectively, which I did with my rebreather …one of 2 present as the other Lee had brought his also. Both very good large wrecks with awesome large intact sections giving a very good impression of a battleship and lots of fish and general life. Andrew and Allen saw a Butterfish here as well as a very nice Ammo case… Some nice little penetrations were done here also. One good thing about wrecks like the Karlsruhe is that there is a lot of scope for working up slowly as you circumnavigate the ship from stem to stern. The shots are very easy to find as well, generally midships and tied to something memorable. Terry and Lee E annoyed the wildlife by staging crab fights, tsk tsk, and finally revealed his sausage [which had previously been strapped to his leg... oo-er] to have it gulped down by a Conger, which might very well have taken a few fingers as well if it had been given the chance.

Day 3 was the Kronprinz Wilhelm, a massive 30000 tonne destroyer, upside down with guns visible on the seabed. The keel is so large it feels like a rocky underwater island full of life and colour slowly shelving off to vertical sides to the seabed. In the afternoon the ’submarine’ was done in the shallows, more like a metal tube covered by weed, but apparently quite fun. I and Martijn had a day off debubbling exploring the Islands but got some nice accounts of the days diving from the others. It being Terry’s 40th he decided to avail himself of a hardhat dive from Stromness Quay in the afternoon when we returned…this was something of a mixed experience as the overenthusiastic pumpers filled the suit with air to the point of immobility…despite banging his head against the dump valve in the helmet he seemed to do an awful lot of helpless floating on the surface. Finally getting to the bottom of the 5m deep mudpit that is the seabed hereabouts, he fumbled about a bit in near zero viz finally rocketing to the surface in a mode not unreminiscent of a Trident Missile departing a submarine. Lee E then had a go and sunk like a stone disappearing head first when he tripped over a pipe into the goo that consists of 200 years of dumped fish heads. Quite a bit of roaring with laughter by us watching and pumping for Britain on the surface! An interesting one for the log book though. Andrew kitted up and supported them in the water, getting sore ears for his trouble….

Wednesday was a deeper dive on the Dresden, down below 30m for most of us. I got to 37.9m with the rebreather with the other Lee, but finished the dive with Martijn as we went down as a 4… but it all seemed very easy in the clear water. Have to say Jamie and the John L were very organised at getting us in and out the water… it’s also a really stable boat which makes quite a difference when you are kitting up. The loo discharges directly behind the ladder which gave rise to some near misses with floaters on the surface for Terry….

Thursday was spent on the Brummer and the Mara. The Brummer is a deeper wreck and pretty awesome, my personal favourite. Most of us got below 30m on this one and I spent a bit of time at 32m in clear quite bright water [or was it the narcs kicking in?] the big guns are quite impressive on this one. The Mara in the afternoon was our Scalloping dive… a wooden trawler at 16m then a drift south over a weedy/rocky seabed hunting for shellfish. We found lots of Queenies and a few normal ones… enough for a great starter to our Fish Supper in the evening. Funny, I remember the seabed as being sandy here 4 years back but maybe the nearby fish farm has changed the seafloor. Certainly the Mara was doing a good imitation of Cousin Itt from the Addams family being covered in fine kelp Martijn said his most memorable dive in Scapa Flow was here laughing his head off at me chasing after the Queenies who kept trying to escape my clutches!.. Plus ca change…

On the last day we had to be flexible as our planned location was being dived already so we decided on the Karlsruhe and this was a very good choice. Masses to see again: colour, light, life, visibility… saw a massive conger-like fish here. We all seemed to do the whole length of this and work our way up to 13m at the top. It’s the shallowest of the main wrecks but is very good all the same. I think the keel with all the plates missing and covered with anemones is very spectacular even though it can be done at 20m. Corinne and Fiona had dealings with a large Cuckoo wrasse here which gave Fiona a bit of a kiss and settled down on Andy’s head, so tame it was… Less tame was a dab which when pointed at went for Corinne! Finally onto the last dive, planned as the Tabarka but in actuality not… Jamie overshot it and was mortified to find we had all missed it, despite the running jump into the water method of entry here [BCs deflated, straight down please...] sadly I tripped over the step and went in head first, a somewhat novel way of entering the water with 60kg of dive kit… Very funny as we all regrouped on the bottom amongst the kelp making shrugging signs and ‘I see no wreck’ looks. There was a lump of something covered with kelp which held our interest for 15 seconds, the boilers of the Urmstone Grange.. we went off for a little drift over various bits of wreckage surfacing some 30 minutes later as requested. We all had a bit of a laugh at the surface about it with Jamie looking sheepish, though I was a bit sad at missing the planned wreck which is pretty excellent. You’d be surprised at the number of times it is used in magazines and dive adverts….

In the evenings we shared the cooking, producing some highly nutritious, tasty and economical repasts! We also managed to find time to do some sightseeing in the evenings, visiting Scara Brae [a 5000 year old preserved village], enjoying a spot of stone hugging at Stenness Stone Circle and the Ring of Brodgar. The Italian Chapel was also popped into and we had a look around the blockships near the Churchill Barriers as well as a wander round Kirkwall. All this done in the Dive Cellars’ rather idiosyncratic minibus that had certainly seen better days ['Alright for you...I had to drive it!']

A very good time was had by all, it was a good larf and some great diving. Corinne once again did a sterling job of organising it all. She is like a swan….serene on the surface but paddling furiously underneath. Many thanks to everyone that made it such a success…we were all exhausted at the end having burnt our candles every which way….Lovely Jubbly!