The German battleship Ostfriesland was built at Wilhelmshaven, Germany in 1908.
She was 546' in length and 93' in breadth.
Launched in September 1909, she was commissioned
into the Imperial German Navy in May 1911.
She was one of a class of four, which included
her sister Thuringen, who's wreck is also featured on this site.
Ostfriesland saw action at the Battle of Jutland, and
was damaged by a mine while returning to
base. After the war, she was interned at
Scapa Flow with the bulk of the High Seas
Fleet, but was moved to Rosyth before the
scuttle. The vessel was awarded to the United
States as a war prize, and taken over in
April 1920. She was hurriedly commissioned
into US service, and sailed to New York under
her own power. She was decommissioned at
New York Navy Yard in September of 1920.
The US Navy drydocked the vessel for examination,
and removed pieces of armor, guns, etc from
the vessel for further study. Along with
other captured German vessels, she was given
over for destruction in a live-fire exercise.
In one of the most famous such exercises
ever, General Billy Mitchel and his Army
fliers sank the vessel as a demonstration
of air power on July 21, 1921. While the
rules of the exercise were broken by the
fliers using 2000-pound bombs, and the vessel
would no doubt have survived easily if buttoned
up and given even a minimum amount of damage
control, the film footage of those tiny little
planes sinking a battleship had the desired
effect in promoting airpower.
The wreck lies 60 miles off the Virginia
Capes, in 380 feet of water. The top of the
wreck is at 310 feet, and the vessel lies
upside down resting on its gun turrets and
superstructure. The current is light, and
the bottom sandy, but visibility is limited
in the darkness. This is a very challenging
dive, pushing the limits of sport diving
technology. Very few have visited the wreck,
which was first re-located in 1990.
One such explorer is Christina Young, who
is a New Jersey resident with a passion for
deep diving and seldom-visited wrecks. She
was kind enough to provide the wreck photos
for this page. You can see other photos of
the Ostfriesland, and many other wrecks, at her excellent
web site, which includes CHRISTINA'S SCUBA PAGE. Thanks you Christina! Now, if I can just
get her to show me that compartment on the
Andea Doria where she found those silver
platters...
The Ostfriesland hit by a large bomb, and
later sinking.
The overturned hull of the battleship, and
fittings from the superstructure.
More fittings laying about the wreck site.
