IT was sunk nearly 100 years ago and has remained untouched and largely unseen ever since.
But new 3-D images of the German battleship Markgraf show the mighty ship’s rudder and propeller blades are still intact despite lying on Scapa Flow seabed since 1919.
The ship was one of the German fleet scuttled at the end of the First World War and now scientists are compiling maps of the remaining wrecks to observe how they are being affected by the sea and the tides.
The unprecedented act of self destruction saw 52 vessels scuttled in less than seven hours by the German Imperial Navy’s own officers. It represented the greatest single loss of shipping in history.
Four hundred local schoolchildren on a sightseeing boat trip got a close-up view of an astonishing scene as mighty battleship after battlecruiser crashed beneath the waves.
The High Seas Fleet was interned at the Royal Navy base at Orkney at the end of the war. Admiral Ludwig von Reuter, believing the fleet was to be commandeered by the Allies, ordered all his vessels to be scuttled.
Forty-five of the 52 were later salvaged but various components of the ships’ structures lie on the seabed marking these wreck sites, a cultural heritage resource that is relatively undocumented.
Today, the seven wrecks that were not salvaged constitute one of the most famous wreck diving sites in the world and they are being mapped digitally and in 3-D for the first time.
Divers have also taken images of the Royal Oak, HMS Hampshire and HMS Vanguard and have made new discoveries about the ships’ demise but details will be held as the sites are official war graves.
Equally fascinating are the new images of the Markgraf which played a pivotal role at the Battle of Jutland in 1916.
The survey is using a suite of geophysical equipment, ROV and diver survey to collect data that will accurately record the wrecks as they sit on the seafloor today.
The data will be used to continue to monitor, protect, conserve and promote the ship wrecks.
This is the first image to emerge and was created by Dr. Kieran Westley, from Ulster University, who worked on the raw data collected through a multi-beam echo sounder. The image shows the Markgraf lying in 30 metres of water with propellers and rudders still in place.
She was damaged at the Battle of Jutland in 1916 where she sustained five hits and 11 men were killed. She was scuttled in the deepest part of Scapa Flow and so escaped the attentions of the 1930s salvage operations.
Visualisations of the wrecks are being made by Chris Rowland, from University of Dundee 3D Visualisation Lab using the latest technologies.
Andrew Fulton, Historic Environment Scotland, said: “We are pleased to see this next stage of survey work at Scapa Flow. The results will help update existing records.”
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