Scapa Flow: Where Britannia Ruled the Waves

Over the summer, RealClearHistory Editor Samuel Chi embarked on a two-week tour of the British Isles and France. He filed a few dispatches via the transatlantic telegraph cable, which we just received now.

Part I: Guernsey - British Land Under German Boots

Part II: Cobh - Titanic and 'The Saddest Place in Ireland

Part III: Belfast - Rising From Ashes of 'The Troubles'

HOY, Orkney, Scotland - The MS Caribbean Princess steamed north from Belfast, toward the North Sea and into the northernmost waters of the British Isles. We finally reached port in the Orkney Islands, the windswept and seemingly treeless archipelago just north of Scotland. Orkney is about as Viking as it is British, as it has been a crossroads and a safe haven for travelers for thousands of years.

Amidst Orkney's 70 islands is Scapa Flow, a body of water that became the focal point of naval warfare in both World Wars. Throughout its history, the Royal Navy had always operated out of ports on the English Channel, but in 1904, concerned by the rapid buildup of German Kaiser's High Seas Fleet, the Admiralty decided to construct a northern base to counter a potential menace.

It turned out to be a prescient decision. On May 31, 1916, the Grand Fleet of the Royal Navy met the High Seas Fleet in the Battle of Jutland, the biggest and only major naval battle of the First World War. Though the battle turned out to be a draw - or maybe even a narrow German victory - it proved to be a strategic triumph for Britain. Fearing the loss of his precious fleet, Kaiser Wilhelm II forbade the High Seas Fleet from leaving its base in Wilhelmshaven, where it remained until the end of the war.

These German capital ships actually made it to Scapa Flow - after the war. Following the armistice in November 1918, under the terms of German capitulation, 74 battleships, cruisers and destroyers sailed to the Royal Navy base where they were interned. The fate of the fleet was a source of contention during the Treaty of Versailles negotiations as several Allied nations wanted at least some of the ships as war booty.

But before the Paris Peace Conference came to a conclusion, German admiral Ludwig von Reuter took the matter into his own hands. On the morning of June 21, 1919, with his British captors completely oblivious, he signaled to his fleet to scuttle the ships. Of the 74 ships, 52 sank to the bottom of Scapa Flow while the rest were beached and salvaged by the British. Nearly a century later, with the ships still resting in shallow water, Scapa Flow remains the largest scuba diving site in Europe.

Location of German ships in display case at Scapa Flow Visitor Centre and Museum

I had to wade (OK, travel by ferry) across that same body of water even though I didn't have my scuba gear. Instead, the ferry took me from the Mainland island of Orkney to Lyness, on the island of Hoy, where the Scapa Flow Visitor Centre and Museum is located.

The main building of the museum is inside what used to be an oil pumping station whereas a large oil tank has been converted into a large exhibition hall and theater, with a big screen showing a series of films on life in the Scapa Flow during World War II. At the height of the war, more than 12,000 Allied military and civilian personnel - including thousands of Americans - were stationed in the sprawling Lyness complex that included barracks, storage for 15,000 tons of oil for the fleet, ammunition depots as well as soccer fields and squash courts. A few of the buildings are still standings, but most of the area has returned to being pasture land.

Scapa Flow as a naval base proved to be vulnerable in the Second World War. On Oct. 14, 1939, German submarine U-47 entered the water and sank HMS Royal Oak before making its escape. The Luftwaffe also bombed the harbor a few days later, putting the Royal Navy fleet's safety  in question.

Winston Churchill responded by stepping up security for the islands, beefing up coastal batteries and adding anti-aircraft guns - but most importantly erecting causeways to block the eastern approaches of Scapa Flow. These "Churchill Barriers" became an enormous project that required substantial labor to complete. Most of the work was done by the 1,300 Italian prisoners captured in the North African campaign. Though the use of POWs for this kind of project was prohibited by the Geneva Convention, the work went on. It was "officially" completed four days after the war in Europe was over in May 1945.

The prisoners, in their spare time, managed to scrape together material to build what's now known as the "Italian Chapel" on Lamb Holm. It's an impressively ornate structure considering the prisoners' limited resources. Most of the interior work was done by Domenico Chiocchetti, who actually stayed to complete the project even after his fellow prisoners were released from captivity.

Our stay in Orkney didn't last nearly as long as Chiocchetti's, just a few hours on the small islands that offered an incredible amount of history from ancient times to war times. Our next stop is the land of Scotch and kilts and the home of golf.