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Jutland to Junkyard
 | Price: £7.99 Supplier: Birlinn Ltd |
The salvaging of all but seven of the seventy-four ships of the German High Seas Fleet that was scuttled in Scapa Flow in 1919 is an astonishing story of hard work and human ingenuity.
As the title suggests, the first chapters of this book tell the story of the growth of the German Navy, the Battle of Jutland and the internment and scuttling. The remainder of the book goes into very interesting detail on just how these large ships were brought up from the depths of the Flow. The book was first published in 1973 and the author was able to talk to several of the men involved in work that is almost literally unimaginable.
Paperback, 145 pages
Published 1999
ISBN 184158001
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Finally Moltke was ready for her tow. The tow-rope of the leading tug was half a mile long except when quiet water was reached when it was shortened. A kitchen, bunkhouse and mess room for the crew were built on her broad bottom, and also a power-house with compressors able to maintain pressure inside the hull during the 200 mile tow through the Pentland Firth and open waters of the North Sea to the Admiralty dry dock at Rosyth.
On Friday 18 May 1928 Moltke, upside-down, began her last voyage. The weather forecast was good when they left Lyness. Cantick was safely negotiated, and the tugs headed for Swona but were tested severely in their efforts to keep Moltke off the rocks. Sailing west they ran into bad weather which increased rapidly to a raging gale. It was impossible to turn back, and soon the tugs were being towed by Moltke in the opposite direction to which they were heading at full-steam. Moltke wallowed in heavy seas which flooded the deck-houses built for the crew and the protective shelters for the compressors. Sometimes the rusty hull was completely out of sight, and in the deck-house, the water was knee-deep. As compressed air broke from the hull in gigantic bubbles she sank six feet, rolling with a list of 12 degrees on either side. They passed Snelsetter, Aith Hope and Torness and went into open sea. Then the tide slackened, the wind began to ease, and the tugs got Moltke moving again, so that the rolling diminished and the escape of air ceased. The sky began to clear, compressors restored lost buoyancy, and Sidonia, which had been brought alongside for her airlines to be connected, was able to cast off. Before 08.00 hrs they had rounded Duncansby Head.
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