The Royal Oak was built in 1914-1916, and
was one of a class of five British Revenge
Class battleships. They are often called
the "R" Class, because all five
ship's names started with "R".
She and her sisters were nearly 600 feet
long, carried 8 x 15" guns, and could
sail at 20 knots.
Royal Oak was one of the most obsolete British
battleships in service in WWII. Unlike the
slightly older Queen Elizabeth Class battleships,
she and her sisters had received little in
the way of modernization in the last 15 years
before the war.
Shortly after the outbreak of the war, on
October 13, 1939, the German submarine U-47
made a daring entry into the British fleet
anchorage at Scapa Flow. The fleet was gone
on maneuvers, but the Royal Oak had been
left behind as anti-aircraft protection for
the city of Kirkwall. The German sub fires
a salvo of torpedoes, one of which struck
the Royal Oak's anchor chain. The explosion
failed to alert the ship's crew, so the German
commander reloaded his torpedo tubes and
fired again. Three torpedoes struck the old
battleship, and she disappeared into the
blackness in less than 11 minutes. A small
tender, the Daisy II, managed to pull 390
men out of the cold water, but 833 perished.
Two days later the Royal navy spread nets
over the wreck to catch floating bodies,
and surveyed the wreck to determine if salvage
was possible. In 1949, a private individual
offered the British Government 50 pounds
for the salvage rights to the vessel. The
offer was refused, and the ship declared
a war grave. Diving had been off limits ever
sense, with the exception of an annual dive
to survey the wreck. The ashes of crewmen
who survived the sinking are often interned
in the wreck.
Royal Oak rests in 98 feet of water, with
the high side of her hull only 24 feet below
the surface. The hull is visible as you pass
over the wreck. Her bell was salvaged and
put in a memorial at Kirkwall Cathedral,
and a green buoy is maintained over the wreck.
The ship has been leaking fuel oil sense
the day she sank, but in the late 1990s the
amount of oil was steadily increasing to
the point of concern. An estimated 1,800
tons of oil remain on board, and would create
an environmental disaster if the wreck began
to collapse. Several solutions were tried,
such as sandbags over the hull leaks, steel
patched on the hull, and a canopy built over
the wreck to catch the oil. But none of the
plans worked, and in 2001 Department of Defense
engineers hired a private contractor, who
began to drill into the hull to extract the
oil. The operation was expected to remove
1000 tons of oil by September, but only about
150 tons of oil were recovered. The work
will continue this year.
The diving ban is strictly enforced, and
boats must request permission to pass directly
over the wreck. Occasionally a diver will
attempt to violate the wreck, but the ban
is easily enforced because of the proximity
to shore and distance from the other Scapa
Flow wrecks. A china plate reportedly looted
from the wreck was offered for sale to the
webmaster of this site, but further investigation
revealed that the item was almost certainly
removed from the ship prior to the war.
 HMS Royal Oak at anchor in Scapa Flow |
|
 A painting of the HMS Royal Oak today. Image courtesy of Peter Rowlands, Ocean Optics Ltd |
|
 The bell salvaged from Royal Oak at Kirkwall Cathedral. |
|
 This green buoy marks the location of the wreck. |
|
 Make sure your skipper requests permission to pass over the wreck. |
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