Sept 2010

Von Reuter who?

Following some long hard work by club committee members attracting and training up new members to the club, the time had come to set them a new goal and challenge. Would they be up to it? Would they take it up?

Scapa Flow was traditionally a destination for the experienced old and bold of the club. However, an opportunity had arisen, because most of the old and bold had been on a trip to Truk Lagoon so were dived out for Scapa. Martin the Training Officer, put out the word, and the shiny newby divers took up the challenge:- Dive the remains of the German WW1 fleet.

It all started on a dark morning in August at about 2:30am. The hire minibus bumped along the quiet country lanes on the outskirts of Salisbury collecting the last bleary eyed stragglers. The start of an epic 14hour drive the length of the country, to an overnight stay in Dornoch before catching the following noon ferry to Orkney. Usually the bus would be stuffed to the gunnels with twinsets, stage tins, and all sorts of technical divers toys that big boys like to play with, this year it was looking a bit on the light side. A mere 4 measly twinsets and half a dozen side slings marked us as a technically barren group, We did our best to mask the rear windows..

We arrived in Stromness on Orkney to bright sunshine, slight wind and warm weather. It looked great. We unloaded our gear at the B&B congratulating ourselves on our fine fortune with the weather, celebrating with a ration of one or two pints of Orkney’s finest, ‘Scapa Special.’

We rose early the next morning tingling with anticipation and peeled back the curtains to invite in the day. The rain drummed on the window like a hungry animal trying to get in, urged on by a rattling wind. We put our enthusiasm on hold whilst we consoled ourselves with a fatboy breakfast at the Millers House. Martin gave a dive brief and paired up the newbies with the experienced divers. Then we weathered the storm, and walked the short distance to the harbour where we met our Skipper and his dive boat Triton.

Triton was once a fishing boat, but has been converted to a dive boat for many years, and is extremely comfortable with excellent facilities, deck space, drying room day cabin, night cabin and divers hoist. Dougie Fotheringhame is the Skipper, who has been diving Scapa for many years, but this is his first season here as a dive boat skipper. Dougie was keen to impress us, and didn’t fail to deliver. The rain had slackened, but not so the wind, but we headed out to the Flow to check it out.

Half an hour later we were out in the flow. This was my 4th visit to the Flow and this was the worst weather I had seen so far. Waves and white horses criss-crossed the usually mild waters. We looked for some sheltered water for some diving, and found the F2. (As did about 4 other boats!) This was not surprisingly popular, and once our turn came Dougie dropped us onto the shotline. The F2 is a WW2 German patrol boat, sunk in 18m of water. It is linked by rope to a salvage barge that sank nearby whilst salvaging one of the F2 guns.

We eagerly descended the shotline to the barge in a stunning 12 metres of visibility. I was diving with Brian one of our new divers, and as we settled our buoyancy and swam around the outside of the bow, I could see his look of amazement as we interrupted a small seal swimming somersaults beneath us. We followed a route around the barge and along the rope linking it to the wreck of the F2. This lies on its port side with rear section a tangled mess of wreckage. The bow section is good though, with the bow gun still secured on the front deck, which allows some swim throughs beneath the deck. I took Brian inside behind the gun, and we met a beautiful blue conger eel stretching out of a large pipe to look at us.

It was a great start to the week, but due to today’s poor weather, we agreed to sack the rest of the day, and Dougie agreed to give us an extra dive later on in the week, so we headed back to Stromness, and the pleasure of the harbour side hostelries. These were jammed with anglers from a sea-fishing competition, wearing the traditional sowester, tweed and wellies. “Aye, it were that big, son of Orca!” was a typical boast, that would swell with the telling as the night went on..

The next day the weather was better, and we headed out to dive one of the light cruisers, the Koln. We dived it early in the morning and were the first out to the wreck. This morning as we went down the shot-line the visibility was an outstanding 15+ metres, and the site of the wreck approaching at the end of the shot was truly awesome. The wreck lies on its starboard side in 34 metres, and Brian and I dropped over the hull and halfway down the deck. We headed along towards the bow, watching another two of our divers in the distance, giving excellent perspective to this fine wreck.

The highlight of our week was the 3 dive day the skipper threw in for us. It started off with an early start, being the first dive boat to leave harbour at 8:00 bound for Burra Sound. Conditions were perfect with flat calm conditions and even some sunshine. Burra Sound is one of the entrances to the natural harbour of the flow, and during WW2 great efforts were made to increase the security of the Flow by sinking blockships across such entrances, providing substantial obstacles to submarines. With a fierce 7 knot current and narrow slack window, this was considered a formidable deterrent.

Our next dive took place on one of the Battleships, the Crown Prinz Wilhelm. At a depth of 34 metres it was no deeper than the cruisers, but due to its immense size it felt like it! Due to the weight of its guns and armour belt, when it was scuttled, it turned turtle and came to rest upside down. Some salvage blasting has taken place towards the stern, allowing some opportunities for wreck penetration from the top of the wreck.

I took Jon, one of our new divers on a hunt along the hull sternwards, looking for a way in. We passed the first large blast area, and reached a second damaged area, where we could see the remains of a prop-shaft and drive gear. Around this, the wreckage of the hull towered in all directions, and I glimpsed a small cave like hole about 6 meters below us. I signalled to Jon I was going to investigate, and we dropped down and around to the hole.

I leaned in and had a look with my torch, beyond was a huge cavernous black chamber, with what looked like a small patch of distant blue like a window. I dropped in for a recce, to a chamber about 4 metres high by 4 metres wide, with about a 10 metre swim to the hole in the outer hull I had seen as a window. It looked safe enough so I called Jon in. We did a tour of the hole, avoiding finning the floor, examining pipes and various old plumbing artefacts from a buy gone age. We reached the window, and carefully eased ourselves through and outside the hull, back into the bluey-green world.

Computers were beginning to flash decompression time, so we ascended slightly, and headed along the edge of the hull towards the first blasted section, Looking below me I could see the edge of the battleship dropping away into deeper water. A short scramble through the blasted section brought us back to the shot line, and time to return to the Triton.

During our surface interval, Dougie took us over to the barrel of butter, a very small rock island and miniature lighthouse, with its own colony of seals. 4 of us grabbed camera and snorkels and leapt overboard into the flat mill-pond like conditions. Underwater visibility was great, with a depth at the boat of 20 metres we could easily see the bottom. We swam off towards the pile of rocks in the distance where we could see a few heads already bobbing in the water and looking our way. As we got closer, the seals broke into little groups to circle each of us, then dive down through the water for a high speed swim past for a closer look. I climbed onto the island for a walk round, all the seals were in the water, with nothing to see but a pile of rocks and dwarf lighthouse. I watched the seals swimming around the blind side of the other divers where they couldn’t be seen, but could sneak up on them, I could almost see them laughing.