The German fleet appear to be sinking

Ninety-five years ago today, the German Fleet was scuttled in Scapa Flow. After WWI the fleet had been interned in the same sheltered body of water that had been the home base of the British fleet throughout the war.
 They were allowed very little communication and Rear Admiral Ludwig von Reuter had only four day old copies of The Times with which to follow the progress of the negotations leading up to the Treaty of Versailles. He therefore didn't know that the signing of the treaty had been postponed four days so, when nothing happened on 21 June, he took action to prevent the seventy-four German ships falling into enemy hands. A pre-arranged signal was sent and the crews opened all the sea-cocks and abandoned ship.

The British fleet were out on exercise and a signal was sent, "The German fleet appear to be sinking", closely followed by, "The German fleet are sinking." One eye-witness, Hester Scarth, said the most impressive sight of the day wasn't the bows of the German battleships rearing up and disappearing beneath the waves, it was the bow-waves on the British destroyers coming back into the Flow.

 A funeral was going on in the Orphir churchyard, overlooking the Flow. According to WS Hewison in This Great Harbour Scapa Flow,"When the minister opened his eyes he was shocked to see not a single mourner left at the graveside - they were lining the kirkyard dyke above the shore gazing out at this unique spectacle."   

 Bill Hewison, a reporter on The Orcadian, saw the spectacle himself, as a car-load from the paper had dashed to Orphir, the Mainland parish that overlooked the Flow.

"The battleships. as a rule, gradually submerged until their decks were awash, turned turtle and quietly slipped out of sight... The light cruisers settled by the stern. As the afterparts of the ship disappeared, the bows and a hundred feet or more of the hull projected sheer from the sea looking like some huge whale leaping through space, for more than an hour before the final plunge."

Twenty-two of the ships were beached or settled in very shallow water, Some of them, such as the Hindenberg, were easy to spot

Others, less so, as this trawler discovered.

Most of the ships were salvaged eventually and became the world's best source of non-radioactive steel but

seven are still down there making Scapa Flow one of the most popular diving sites in the world.