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I want to see if we can re-discover some of those feelings over the next months, particularly with the work that I’ll be doing on an animation of the event. But it’s an event about which we no longer have eye-witnesses to talk to us, to convey the sense of fear, wonder, excitement and, even sadness that accompanied it. Names like SMS König, SMS Markgraf and SMS Kronprinz Wilhelm stir the soul of those whose curiosity would take them beneath the surface of Scapa Flow.įor me the fascination in this story is this: the scuttling of a Fleet that took twenty years to build was monumental enough. The ships that remain on the seabed are one of the world’s most alluring challenges for divers. The subsequent salvaging of much of the fleet is the stuff of legend, combining ingenuity, tenacity and no small quantity of sweat and blood. It would turn out to be a recipe for disaster. Since they had not surrendered, the ships were still regarded as under German sovereignty. The solution that was arrived at, after the idea of destruction had been ruled out and Admiral Beatty’s argument that it be forced to surrender turned down, was that 74 of its most modern ships be interned at Scapa Flow. This neither Lloyd George nor the French were prepared to demand if it would risk the Peace being signed. If it was going to receive German ships, the Admiralty preferred to have them formally surrender. But they certainly did not want to give more ships to the French. Incorporating them into the Royal Navy wouldn’t be easy. The British, like the Americans, did not necessarily want German ships. Destruction of the German Navy might have sounded sensible but politically impossible when, in the same breath, the politicians wanted budgets for continued naval building. But they also wanted an end to what they saw as Britain’s arrogant dominance of the world’s oceans and would have been quite happy to see other naval powers bettered if that would keep Britain in check. The Americans, late-comers to the war, had nevertheless contributed significantly to Britain’s naval defence of the Atlantic convoys and the protection of the North Sea. The country had lost 1 ½ million men, half of the male population under the age 30. The French wanted their share of the German Navy’s ships, as compensation for the immense destruction and loss of life.
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