Always remembered – stunning new images of WWI naval wrecks will keep memory of losses alive

Divers working with Orkney’s Scapa Flow Museum have captured some amazing underwater imagery this weekend of two First World War wrecks, both widely regarded as among the UK’s most significant naval losses.

The images were captured during survey work on the cruiser HMS Hampshire, lost off Marwick Head on 5 June 1916 with Lord Kitchener aboard, and HMS Vanguard, which sank in an accidental explosion on 9 July 1917.

Videos, still images and photogrammetric survey data collected will inform, update and enhance digital 3D models of these wreck sites in Scapa Flow Museum – one of five museums shortlisted for the Art Fund Museum of the Year 2023.

The resting place of both these vessels are official war graves - 843 men were lost in the HMS Vanguard disaster and 737 from HMS Hampshire – meaning they are not accessible to members of the public.

The National Museum of the Royal Navy (NMRN) were instrumental in helping Orkney Islands Council’s museums team secure permission from the Ministry of Defence for these surveys to be carried out.

The two Museums recently signed a partnership agreement to share experience and expertise in developing the awareness and understanding of the UK’s naval heritage.

Nick Hewitt, Culture Team Manager, said: “It would not be possible for us to have visited these war graves without NMRN’s support and encouragement. The end result will be an improved digital resource for visitors to Scapa Flow Museum and one which helps tell the story of Orkney’s role in the world wars as the UK’s key naval base - and the immense losses borne out here.

“I’d also like to thank the local dive team from Huskyan Charters, who put together an extraordinary specialist team of international experts to do the work. Huskyan surveyed the wrecks for the Ministry of Defence during the centenary period and are once again undertaking this sensitive work with great care and professionalism.”

The Council’s Harbour Authority also helped the Scapa Flow Museum team arrange access to HMS Vanguard, which lies in a restricted area close to the Flotta Oil Terminal.

Professor Dominic Tweddle, Director General of The National Museum of the Royal Navy, said: “The study of wrecks is important in understanding the events around their loss, these are sometimes obscure.

“It is also important to preserve wrecks as monuments to those who gave their lives both in war and peace and that is why we are pressing the MoD and the UK government to institute a proper database of Royal Navy losses built on the work of the Maritime Archaeology Sea Trust (MAST).

“Orkney Islands Council does an exemplary job in protecting the many wrecks in they care and we are delighted to support them.”

Councillor Gwenda Shearer is Chair of the Council’s Education, Leisure and Housing Committee:“I am so pleased to see our partnership with NMRN help bring about work of such importance and national significance. More than 100 years has passed since both these disasters, and Scapa Flow is no longer heaving with naval vessels - but this work will help ensure the scale of the losses are sensitively retold and remembered.”

The project was self funded by the Huskyan team with additional support from the National Lottery Heritage Fund, the 3DVisLab at the University of Dundee and Servitech International Limited.

Scapa Flow Museum is run by the local authority in Orkney, Orkney Islands Council, for and on behalf of the local community and war history enthusiasts the world over.

Sited at the former Lyness Royal Naval Base HMS Proserpine, on the island of Hoy off Mainland Orkney, the Museum tells the story of Scapa Flow as the UK’s most important naval anchorage during both world wars - and the impact on the Orkney community.

It provides a safe home for a major collection of wartime artefacts, many of national and international importance.

The Museum’s dramatic redevelopment, which completed in 2022, was supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, thanks to National Lottery players, Historic Environment Scotland, the Orkney LEADER 2014-2020 programme, Highlands and Islands Enterprise, Museums Galleries Scotland, and the Scottish Government’s European Regional Development Fund programme, managed by NatureScot through the Natural & Cultural Heritage Fund.

(The Natural & Cultural Heritage Fund is part of the Scottish Government’s European Regional Development Fund programme, which finishes in 2023. NatureScot is also managing another element of the programme – the Green Infrastructure Fund. The Scottish Government is the Managing Authority for the European Regional Development Fund and the European Structural Funds 2014-20 Programme. For further information visit the Scottish Government website or follow @scotgovESIF.)

To find out more visit www.orkney.gov.uk/scapaflow

The slideshow of images on this page shows a diver suspended above stern of HMS Vanguard, showing ship’s name; divers with partial section of HMS Hampshire name; a ship’s badge from HMS Vanguard. An earlier Vanguard was Nelson’s flagship at the Battle of the Nile in 1798, which is why the crest shows his silhouette.