HMS Royal Oak ( 08 ) HMS " Royal Oak " was a of the British Royal Navy . Launched in 1914 and completed in 1916 , " Royal Oak " first saw action at the Battle of Jutland . In peacetime , she served in the Atlantic , Home and Mediterranean fleets , more than once coming under accidental attack . The ship drew worldwide attention in 1928 when her senior officers were controversially court - martial led . Attempts to modernise " Royal Oak " throughout her 25 - year career could not fix her fundamental lack of speed , and by the start of the Second World War , she was no longer suited to front - line duty . On 14 October 1939 , " Royal Oak " was anchored at Scapa Flow in Orkney , Scotland , when she was torpedoed by the German submarine . Of " Royal Oak " s complement of 1 , 234 men and boys , 833 were killed that night or died later of their wounds . The loss of the old ship – the first of the five Royal Navy battleships and battlecruiser s sunk in the Second World War – did little to affect the numerical superiority enjoyed by the British navy and its Allies . However , the sinking had considerable effect on wartime morale . The raid made an immediate celebrity and war hero out of the U - boat commander , Günther Prien , who became the first German submarine officer to be awarded the Knight ' s Cross of the Iron Cross . Before the sinking of " Royal Oak " , the Royal Navy had considered the naval base at Scapa Flow impregnable to submarine attack . " U - 47 " s raid however demonstrated that the Germans were capable of bringing the naval war to British home waters . The shock resulted in rapid changes to dockland security and the construction of the Churchill Barriers around Scapa Flow . The wreck of " Royal Oak " , a designated war grave , lies almost upside down in of water with her hull beneath the surface . In an annual ceremony to mark the loss of the ship , Royal Navy divers place a White Ensign underwater at her stern . Unauthorised divers are prohibited from approaching the wreck at any time under the Protection of Military Remains Act 1986 . Construction . The " Revenge " class to which " Royal Oak " belonged was ordered in the 1913 – 14 Estimates to be a cheaper — but smaller and slower — coal - fired version of the earlier oil - fired super - dreadnoughts . The design , seemingly a technological step backwards , was partly a response to fears that a dependence upon fuel oil — all of which had to be imported — could leave the class crippled in the event of a successful maritime blockade . High - quality coal , on the other hand , was in plentiful supply , and homeland supplies could be guaranteed . Furthermore , in contrast to the " Fast Squadron " " Queen Elizabeths " , the " Revenge " class were intended to be the heaviest - gunned vessels in the line of battle proper . " Royal Oak " and her sisters were the first major vessels for the Royal Navy whose design was supervised by the newly appointed Director of Naval Construction , Sir Eustace Tennyson - D ' Eyncourt . " Royal Oak " was laid down at Devonport Dockyard on 15 January 1914 , the fourth of her class . Concerned over the performance limitations of coal , and having secured new oil supplies with a contract agreed with the Anglo - Persian Oil Company , First Sea Lord Jackie Fisher rescinded the decision on coal in October 1914 . Still under construction , " Royal Oak " was redesigned to employ eighteen oil - fired Yarrow boilers supplying four Parsons reaction steam turbines , each directly driving a single three - bladed screw . The battleship was launched on 17 November , and after fitting - out , was commissioned on 1 May 1916 at a final cost of £ 2 , 468 , 269 . Named after the oak tree in which Charles II hid following his defeat at the 1651 Battle of Worcester , she was the eighth Royal Navy vessel to bear the name " Royal Oak " , replacing a pre - dreadnought scrapped in 1914 . While building she was temporarily assigned the pennant number " 67 " . " Royal Oak " was refitted between 1922 and 1924 , when her anti - aircraft defences were upgraded by replacing the original QF 20 cwt AA guns with QF high - angle mounts . Fire - control system s and rangefinder s for main and secondary batteries were modernised , and underwater protection improved by ' bulging ' the ship . The watertight chambers , attached to either side of the hull , were designed to reduce the effect of torpedo blasts and improve stability , but at the same time widened the ship ' s beam by over 13 feet ( 4 m ) . A brief refit in early 1927 saw the addition of two more high - angle AA guns and the removal of the two guns from the shelter deck . The ship received a final refit between 1934 and 1936 , when her deck armour was increased to 5 inches ( 12 . 7 cm ) over the magazines and to 3 . 5 inches ( 8 . 9 cm ) over the engine rooms . In addition to a general modernisation of the ship ' s systems , a catapult for a spotter float plane was installed above " X " – turret , and anti - aircraft defences were strengthened by doubling up each of the AA guns and adding a pair of octuple Mark VIII pompom guns to sponsons abreast the funnel . The mainmast was reconstructed as a tripod to support the weight of a radio - direction finding office and a second High - angle Control Station . The extra armour and equipment made " Royal Oak " one of the best equipped of the " Revenge " class , but the additional weight caused her to sit lower in the water , lowering her top speed by several knots . Career . First World War . The First World War had been under way for almost two years when " Royal Oak " was commissioned . She was assigned to the Third Division of the Fourth Battle Squadron of the British Grand Fleet , and within the month was ordered , along with most of the fleet , to engage the German High Seas Fleet in the Battle of Jutland . Under the command of Captain Crawford Maclachlan , " Royal Oak " left Scapa Flow on the evening of 30 May in the company of the battleships , and Admiral Jellicoe ' s flagship . The next day ' s indecisive battle saw " Royal Oak " fire a total of thirty - eight and eighty - four shells , claiming three hits on the battlecruiser , putting one of its turrets out of action , and a hit on the cruiser . She avoided damage herself , despite being straddled by shellfire on one occasion . Following the battle , " Royal Oak " was reassigned to the First Battle Squadron . On 5 November 1918 — the final week of the First World War — she was anchored off Burntisland in the Firth of Forth accompanied by the aircraft carrier ( formerly a Blue Riband winner for the Cunard Line prior to its conversion for wartime use ) and battlecruiser . A sudden Force 10 squall caused " Campania " to drag her anchor , collide with " Royal Oak " and then with the 22 , 000 - ton " Glorious " . Both " Royal Oak " and " Glorious " suffered only minor damage ; " Campania " , however , was holed by her initial collision with " Royal Oak " . The ship ' s engine rooms flooded , and she settled by the stern and sank five hours later , though without loss of life . At the end of the First World War " Royal Oak " escorted several vessels of the surrendering German High Seas Fleet from the Firth of Forth to their internment in Scapa Flow , and was present at a ceremony in Pentland Firth to greet other ships as they followed . Between the wars . The peacetime reorganisation of the Royal Navy assigned " Royal Oak " to the Second Battle Squadron of the Atlantic Fleet . Modernised by the 1922 – 24 refit , she was transferred in 1926 to the Mediterranean Fleet , based in Grand Harbour , Malta . In early 1928 , this duty saw the notorious incident the contemporary press dubbed the " Royal Oak Mutiny " . What began as a simple dispute between Rear - Admiral Bernard Collard and " Royal Oak " < nowiki > ' < / nowiki > s two senior officers Captain Kenneth Dewar and Commander Henry Daniel over the band at the ship ' s wardroom dance , descended into a bitter personal feud that spanned several months . Dewar and Daniel accused Collard of " vindictive fault - finding " and openly humiliating and insulting them before their crew ; in return , Collard countercharged the two with failing to follow orders and treating him " worse than a midshipman " . When Dewar and Daniel wrote letters of complaint to Collard ' s superior , Vice - Admiral John Kelly , he immediately passed them on to the Commander - in - Chief Admiral Sir Roger Keyes . On realising that the relationship between the two and their flag admiral had irretrievably broken down , Keyes removed all three from their posts and sent them back to England , postponing a major naval exercise . The press picked up on the story worldwide , describing the affair — with some hyperbole — as a " mutiny " . Public attention reached such proportions as to raise the concerns of the King , who summoned First Lord of the Admiralty William Bridgeman for an explanation . For their letters of complaint , Dewar and Daniel were controversially charged with writing subversive documents . In a pair of highly publicised courts - martial , both were found guilty and severely reprimanded , leading Daniel to resign from the Navy . Collard himself was criticised for the excesses of his conduct by the press and in Parliament , and on being denounced by Bridgeman as " unfitted to hold further high command " , was forcibly retired from service . Of the three , only Dewar escaped with his career , albeit a damaged one : he remained in the Royal Navy in a series of more minor commands and was promoted to Rear - Admiral the following year , one day before his retirement . Daniel attempted a career in journalism , but when this and other ventures were unsuccessful , he disappeared into obscurity amid poor health in South Africa . Collard retreated to private life and never spoke publicly of the incident again . The scandal proved an embarrassment to the reputation of the Royal Navy , then still the world ' s largest , and it was satirised at home and abroad through editorials , cartoons , and even a comic jazz oratorio composed by Erwin Schulhoff . One consequence of the damaging affair was an undertaking from the Admiralty to review the means by which naval officers might bring complaints against the conduct of their superiors . Spanish Civil War . During the Spanish Civil War , " Royal Oak " was tasked with conducting ' non - intervention patrols ' around the Iberian Peninsula . On such a patrol and steaming some east of Gibraltar on 2 February 1937 , she came under aerial attack by three aircraft of the Republican forces . They dropped three bombs ( two of which exploded ) within 3 cables ( 555 m ) of the starboard bow , though causing no damage . The British chargé d ' affaires protested the incident to the Republican Government , which admitted its error and apologised for the attack . Later that same month , while stationed off Valencia on 23 February 1937 during an aerial bombardment by the Nationalists , she was accidentally struck by an anti - aircraft shell fired from a Republican position . Five men were injured , including " Royal Oak " s captain , T . B . Drew . On this occasion however the British elected not to protest to the Republicans , deeming the incident " an Act of God " . In May 1937 , she and escorted SS " Habana " , a liner carrying Basque child refugees , to England . In July , as the war in northern Spain flared up , " Royal Oak " , along with the battleship This same period saw " Royal Oak " star alongside fourteen other Royal Navy vessels in the 1937 British film melodrama " Our Fighting Navy " , the plot of which centres around a coup in the fictional South American republic of Bianco . " Royal Oak " portrays a rebel battleship " El Mirante " , whose commander forces a British captain ( played by Robert Douglas ) into choosing between his lover and his duty . The film was poorly received by critics , but gained some redemption through its dramatic scenes of naval action . Second World War . In 1938 , " Royal Oak " returned to the Home Fleet and was made flagship of the Second Battle Squadron based in Portsmouth . On 24 November 1938 , she returned the body of the British - born Queen Maud of Norway , who had died in London , to a state funeral in Oslo , accompanied by her husband King Haakon VII . Paying off in December 1938 , " Royal Oak " was recommissioned the following June , and in late 1939 embarked on a short training cruise in the English Channel in preparation for another 30 - month tour of the Mediterranean , for which her crew were pre - issued tropical uniforms . As hostilities loomed , the battleship was instead dispatched north to Scapa Flow , and was at anchor there when war was declared on 3 September . The next few weeks proved uneventful , but in October 1939 " Royal Oak " joined the search for the , which had been ordered into the North Sea as a diversion for the commerce - raiding " pocket battleships " and . The search was ultimately fruitless , particularly for " Royal Oak " , whose top speed , by then less than , was inadequate to keep up with the rest of the fleet . On 12 October , " Royal Oak " returned to the defences of Scapa Flow in poor shape , battered by North Atlantic storms : many of her Carley float s had been smashed and several of the smaller - calibre guns rendered inoperable . The mission had underlined the obsolescence of the 25 - year - old warship . Concerned that a recent overflight by German reconnaissance aircraft heralded an imminent air attack upon Scapa Flow , Admiral of the Home Fleet Charles Forbes ordered most of the fleet to disperse to safer ports . " Royal Oak " remained behind , her anti - aircraft guns still deemed a useful addition to Scapa ' s otherwise scarce air defences . Sinking . Scapa Flow . Scapa Flow made a near - ideal anchorage . Situated at the centre of the Orkney Islands off the north coast of Scotland , the natural harbour , large enough to contain the entire Grand Fleet , was surrounded by a ring of islands separated by shallow channels subject to fast - racing tides . The threat from U - boats had however long been realised , and a series of countermeasures were installed during the early years of the First World War . Blockship s were sunk at critical points , and floating booms deployed to block the three widest channels . Operated by tugboats to allow the passage of friendly shipping , it was considered possible — but highly unlikely — that a daring U - boat commander could attempt to race through undetected before the boom was closed . Two submarines that had attempted infiltration during the war were ill - fated : on 23 November 1914 was rammed twice before running aground with the capture of her crew , and was detected by hydrophone and destroyed with the loss of all hands on 28 October 1918 . Scapa Flow provided the main anchorage for the British Grand Fleet throughout most of the First World War , but in the interwar period this passed to Rosyth , more conveniently located further south in the Firth of Forth . Scapa Flow was reactivated with the advent of the Second World War , becoming a base for the British Home Fleet . Its natural and artificial defences , while still strong , were recognised as in need of improvement , and in the early weeks of the war were in the process of being strengthened by the provision of additional blockships . " Special Operation P " : the raid by " U - 47 " . " Kriegsmarine " Commander of Submarines Karl Dönitz devised a plan to attack Scapa Flow by submarine within days of the outbreak of war . Its goal would be twofold : firstly , that displacing the Home Fleet from Scapa Flow would slacken the British North Sea blockade and grant Germany greater freedom to attack the Atlantic convoys ; secondly , the blow would be a symbolic act of vengeance , striking at the same location where the German High Seas Fleet had surrendered and scuttled itself following Germany ' s defeat in the First World War . Dönitz hand - picked " Kapitänleutnant " Günther Prien for the task , scheduling the raid for the night of 13 / 14 October 1939 , when the tides would be high and the night moonless . Dönitz was aided by high - quality photographs from a reconnaissance overflight by Siegfried Knemeyer , ( who received his first Iron Cross for the mission ) , and which revealed the weaknesses of the defences and an abundance of targets . He directed Prien to enter Scapa Flow from its east via Kirk Sound , passing to the north of Lamb Holm , a small low - lying island between Burray and Mainland . Prien initially mistook the more southerly Skerry Sound for the chosen route and his sudden realisation that " U - 47 " was heading for the shallow blocked passage forced him to order a rapid turn to the northeast . On the surface , and illuminated by a bright display of the aurora borealis , the submarine threaded between the sunken blockship s " Seriano " and " Numidian " , grounding itself temporarily on a cable strung from " Seriano " . It was briefly caught in the headlights of a taxi onshore , but the driver raised no alarm . On entering the harbour proper at 00 : 27 on 14 October , Prien entered a triumphant " Wir sind in Scapa Flow ! ! ! " in the log and set a south - westerly course for several kilometres before reversing direction . To his surprise , the anchorage appeared to be almost empty ; unknown to him , Forbes ' order to disperse the fleet had removed some of the biggest targets . " U - 47 " had been heading directly towards four warships , including the newly commissioned light cruiser , anchored off Flotta and Hoy 4 nautical miles ( 8 km , 5 mi ) distant , but Prien gave no indication that he had seen them . On the reverse course , a lookout on the bridge spotted " Royal Oak " lying approximately 4 , 400 yards ( 4 , 000 m ) to the north , correctly identifying it as a battleship of the . Mostly hidden behind her was a second ship , only the bow of which was visible to " U - 47 " . Prien mistook it to be a battlecruiser of the , German intelligence later labelling it . It was in fact the World War I seaplane tender " Pegasus " . At 00 : 58 " U - 47 " fired a salvo of three torpedo es from its bow tubes , a fourth lodging in its tube . Two failed to find a target , but a single torpedo struck the bow of " Royal Oak " at 01 : 04 , shaking the ship and waking the crew . Little visible damage was received , though the starboard anchor chain was severed , clattering noisily down through its slips . Initially , it was suspected that there had been an explosion in the ship ' s forward inflammable store , used to store materials such as kerosene . Mindful of the unexplained explosion that had destroyed in Scapa Flow in 1917 , an announcement was made over " Royal Oak " s tannoy system to check the magazine temperatures , but many sailors returned to their hammocks , unaware that the ship was under attack . Prien turned his submarine and attempted another shot via his stern tube , but this too missed . Reloading his bow tubes , he doubled back and fired a salvo of three torpedoes , all at " Royal Oak " , This time he was successful : at 01 : 16 all three struck the battleship in quick succession amidships and detonated . The explosions blew a hole in the armoured deck , destroying the Stokers ' , Boys ' and Marines ' mess es and causing a loss of electrical power . Cordite from a magazine ignited and the ensuing fireball passed rapidly through the ship ' s internal spaces . " Royal Oak " quickly listed some 15° , sufficient to push the open starboard - side portholes below the waterline . She soon rolled further onto her side to 45° , hanging there for several minutes before disappearing beneath the surface at 01 : 29 , 13 minutes after Prien ' s second strike . 833 men died with the ship , including Rear - Admiral Henry Blagrove , commander of the Second Battle Squadron . Over one hundred of the dead were Boy Seamen , not yet 18 years old , the largest ever such loss in a single Royal Navy action . The admiral ' s wooden gig , moored alongside , was dragged down with " Royal Oak " . Rescue efforts . The tender " Daisy 2 " , skippered by John Gatt RNR , had been tied up for the night to " Royal Oak " s port side . As the sinking battleship began to list to starboard , Gatt ordered " Daisy 2 " to be cut loose , his vessel becoming briefly caught on " Royal Oak " s rising anti - torpedo bulge and lifted from the sea before freeing herself . Many of " Royal Oak " s crew who had managed to jump from the sinking ship were dressed in little more than their nightclothes and were unprepared for the chilling water . A thick layer of fuel oil coated the surface , filling men ' s lungs and stomachs and hampering their efforts to swim . Of those who attempted the half - mile ( 800 m ) swim to the nearest shore , only a handful survived . Gatt switched the lights of " Daisy 2 " on and he and his crew managed to pull 386 men from the water , including " Royal Oak " s commander , Captain William Benn . The rescue efforts continued for another two and a half hours until nearly 4 : 00 am , when Gatt abandoned the search for more survivors and took those he had to " Pegasus " . Although aided by boats from " Pegasus " and the harbour , he was responsible for rescuing almost all the survivors , an act for which he was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross , the only military award made by the British in connection with the disaster . Aftermath . The British were initially confused as to the cause of the sinking , suspecting either an on - board explosion or aerial attack . Once it was realised that a submarine attack was the most likely explanation , steps were rapidly made to seal the anchorage , but " U - 47 " had already escaped and was on its way back to Germany . The BBC released news of the sinking by late morning on 14 October , and its broadcasts were received by the German listening services and by " U - 47 " itself . Divers sent down on the morning after the explosion discovered remnants of a German torpedo , confirming the means of attack . On 17 October First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill officially announced the loss of " Royal Oak " to the House of Commons , first conceding that the raid had been " a remarkable exploit of professional skill and daring " , but then declaring that the loss would not materially affect the naval balance of power . An Admiralty Board of Enquiry convened between 18 and 24 October to establish the circumstances under which the anchorage had been penetrated . In the meantime , the Home Fleet was ordered to remain at safer ports until security issues at Scapa could be addressed . Churchill was obliged to respond to questions in the House as to why " Royal Oak " had had aboard so many Boys , almost all of whom lost their lives . He defended the Royal Navy tradition of sending boys aged 15 to 17 to sea , but the practice was generally discontinued shortly after the disaster , and under 18 - year - olds served on active warships in only the most exceptional circumstances . The Nazi Propaganda Ministry was quick to capitalise on the successful raid , and radio broadcasts by the popular journalist Hans Fritzsche displayed the triumph felt throughout Germany . Prien and his crew reached Wilhelmshaven at 11 : 44 on 17 October and were immediately greeted as heroes , learning that Prien had been awarded the Iron Cross First Class , and each man of the crew the Iron Cross Second Class . Hitler sent his personal plane to bring the crew to Berlin , where he further invested Prien with the Knight ' s Cross of the Iron Cross . This decoration , made for the first time to a German submarine officer , later became the customary decoration for successful U - Boat commanders . Dönitz was rewarded by promotion from Commodore to Rear - Admiral and was made Flag Officer of U - Boats . Prien was nicknamed " The Bull of Scapa Flow " and his crew decorated " U - 47 " s conning tower with a snorting bull mascot , later adopted as the emblem of the 7th U - boat Flotilla . He found himself in demand for radio and newspaper interviews , and his ' autobiography ' was published the following year , titled " Mein Weg nach Scapa Flow " . Ghost - written by a German journalist , in the post - war years certain of its claims relating to the events of October 1939 were brought into question . The British Admiralty ' s official report into the disaster condemned the defences at Scapa Flow , and censured Sir Wilfred French , Admiral Commanding Orkney and Shetland , for their unprepared state . French was placed on the retired list , despite having warned the previous summer of Scapa Flow ' s deficient anti - submarine defences , and volunteering to bring a small ship or submarine himself past the blockships to prove his point . On Churchill ' s orders , the eastern approaches to Scapa Flow were sealed with concrete causeways linking Lamb Holm , Glimps Holm , Burray and South Ronaldsay to Mainland . Constructed largely by Italian prisoners of war , the Churchill Barriers , as they became known , were essentially complete by September 1944 , though they were not opened officially until just after VE Day in May 1945 . They now form part of the transport infrastructure of Orkney , carrying the A961 road between the islands . In the years that followed , a rumour circulated that Prien had been guided into Scapa by one Alfred Wehring , a German agent living in Orkney in the guise of a Swiss watchmaker named Albert Oertel . Following the attack , ' Oertel ' escaped with the submarine " B - 06 " back to Germany . This account of events originated as an article by the journalist Curt Riess in the 16 May 1942 issue of the American magazine " Saturday Evening Post " and was later embellished by other authors . Post - war searches through German and Orcadian archives have , however , failed to find any evidence for the existence of Oertel , Wehring or a submarine named " B - 06 " , and the story is now held to be wholly fictitious . Survivors . In the immediate aftermath of the sinking , " Royal Oak " s survivors were billeted in the towns and villages of Orkney . A funeral parade for the dead took place at Lyness on Hoy on 16 October ; many of the surviving crew , having lost all their own clothing on the ship , attended in borrowed boiler suits and gym shoes . They were generally granted a few days survivors ' leave by the navy , and then assigned to ships and roles elsewhere . The Royal Oak Association ' s Honorary Secretary is Kenneth Toop , who survived the sinking while serving as a Boy , First Class on " Royal Oak " . An annual ceremony of remembrance is held by the survivors and descendants of the crew at the Naval War Memorial , Southsea on the anniversary of the sinking . Prien did not survive the war : he and " U - 47 " were lost under unclear circumstances on 7 March 1941 , possibly as a result of an attack by the British destroyer . News of the loss was kept secret by the Nazi government for ten weeks . Several " U - 47 " crew from the " Royal Oak " mission did survive , having been transferred to other vessels . Some of them subsequently met with their former enemies from " Royal Oak " and forged friendships with them . Wreck . Status as war grave . Despite the relatively shallow water in which she sank , the majority of bodies could not be recovered from " Royal Oak " . Marked by a buoy at , the wreck has been designated a war grave and all diving or other unauthorised forms of exploration are prohibited under the Protection of Military Remains Act 1986 . In clear water conditions , the upturned hull can be seen reaching to within 5 m of the surface . The brass letters that formed " Royal Oak " s name were removed as a keepsake by a recreational diver in the 1970s . They were returned almost twenty years later and are now displayed in the Scapa Flow visitor centre in Lyness . " Royal Oak " s loss is commemorated in an annual ceremony in which Royal Navy divers place the White Ensign underwater at her stern . A memorial at St Magnus ' Cathedral in nearby Kirkwall displays a plaque dedicated to those who lost their lives , beneath which a book of remembrance lists their names . This list of names was not released by the Government until 40 years after the sinking . Each week a page of the book is turned . The ship ' s bell was recovered in the 1970s and , after being restored , was added to the memorial in St Magnus ' . A number of bodies , including some that could not be identified , were interred at the naval cemetery in Lyness . Environmental concerns . " Royal Oak " sank with up to 3 , 000 tons of fuel oil aboard , the precise amount being unknown since such records were lost with the ship . Oil leaked from the corroding hull at an increased rate during the 1990s and concerns about the environmental impact led the Ministry of Defence to consider plans for extracting it . " Royal Oak " < nowiki > < / nowiki > ' s status as a war grave required that surveys and any proposed techniques for removing the oil be handled sensitively : plans in the 1950s to raise and salvage the wreck had been dropped in response to public opposition . In addition to the ethical concerns , poorly managed efforts could destabilise the wreck , resulting in a mass release of the remaining oil ; the ship also containing many tons of unexploded ordnance . The MOD commissioned a series of multi - beam sonar surveys to image the wreck and appraise its condition . The high - resolution sonograms showed " Royal Oak " to be lying almost upside down with her top works forced into the seabed . The tip of the bow had been blown off by " U - 47 " s first torpedo and a gaping hole on the starboard flank was the result of the triple strike from her second successful salvo . Following several years of delays , Briggs Marine was contracted by the MoD to conduct the task of pumping off the remaining oil . " Royal Oak " < nowiki > ' < / nowiki > s mid - construction conversion to fuel oil had placed her fuel tanks in unconventional positions , complicating operations . By 2006 , all double bottom tanks had been cleared and the task of removing oil from the inner wing tanks with cold cutting equipment began the next year . By 2010 , some 1600 tonnes of fuel oil had been removed , and the wreck was declared to be no longer actively releasing oil into Scapa Flow . Operations continue at a reduced pace to tackle the oil known to be remaining .