DEATH OF A DREADNOUGHT

The sheltered waters of Scapa Flow were bathed in soft twilight as the midsummer sun rested briefly below the horizon of Scotland’s Orkney Islands. The war with Germany was in its third year in 1917, but while casualties were mounting on the Western Front, all was peaceful in the Royal Navy’s bustling main base in the north. Scapa Flow was well placed to intercept ships of Germany’s High Seas Fleet entering the North Sea and was of strategic importance in a distant blockade of Germany, preventing cargo ships from bringing much-needed materials and food into the starving country.

Here, on the SS —known as “the Theater Ship” because it had a stage set up on board to help bring some cheer to the Grand Fleet—happy concertgoers were singing the “Goodnight” song when they felt the ship quake beneath their feet. Admiral Sir David Beatty, the commander in chief of the Grand Fleet, issued the recognition was lying on the seabed, ripped apart. In a matter of seconds, 843 men had perished.