Scuttling of the German fleet in Scapa Flow The scuttling of the German fleet took place at the Royal Navy ' s base at Scapa Flow , in Scotland , after the end of the First World War . The High Seas Fleet was interned there under the terms of the Armistice whilst negotiations took place over the fate of the ships . Fearing that all of the ships would be seized and divided amongst the allied powers , the German commander , Admiral Ludwig von Reuter , decided to scuttle the fleet . The scuttling was carried out on 21 June 1919 . Intervening British guard ship s were able to beach a number of the ships , but 52 of the 74 interned vessels sank . Many of the wrecks were salvaged over the next few years and were towed away for scrapping . Those that remain are popular diving site s . Background . The signing of the Armistice on 11 November 1918 , at Compiègne , France , effectively ended the First World War . The Allied powers agreed that Germany ' s U - boat fleet should be surrendered without the possibility of return , but were unable to agree upon a course of action regarding the German surface fleet . The Americans suggested that the ships be interned in a neutral port until a final decision was reached , but the two countries that were approached – Norway and Spain – both refused . Admiral Rosslyn Wemyss suggested that the fleet be interned at Scapa Flow with a skeleton crew of German sailors , and guarded in the interim by the Grand Fleet . The terms were transmitted to Germany on 12 November 1918 , instructing them to make the High Seas Fleet ready to sail by 18 November , or the Allies would occupy Heligoland . On the night of 15 November , Rear - Admiral Hugo Meurer , the representative of Admiral Franz von Hipper , met Admiral David Beatty aboard Beatty ' s flagship , . Beatty presented Meurer with the terms , which were expanded at a second meeting the following day . The U - boats were to surrender to Rear - Admiral Reginald Tyrwhitt at Harwich , under the supervision of the Harwich Force . The surface fleet was to sail to the Firth of Forth and surrender to Beatty . They would then be led to Scapa Flow and interned , pending the outcome of the peace negotiations . Meurer asked for an extension to the deadline , aware that the sailors were still in a mutinous mood ( which earlier led to the Wilhelmshaven mutiny ) , and that the officers might have difficulty in getting them to obey orders . Meurer eventually signed the terms after midnight . Surrender of the fleet . The first craft to be surrendered were the U - boats , which began to arrive at Harwich on 20 November 1918 ; 176 were eventually handed over . Hipper refused to lead his fleet to the surrender , delegating the task to Rear - Admiral Ludwig von Reuter . The German fleet was met by the light cruiser on the morning of 21 November , and led to the rendezvous with over 370 ships of the Grand Fleet and other allied navies . There were 70 German ships in total ; the battleship and the light cruiser had engine trouble and had to be left behind . The destroyer struck a mine while crossing , and sank . The German ships were escorted into the Firth of Forth , where they anchored . Beatty signalled them : The German flag will be hauled down at sunset today and will not be hoisted again without permission . The fleet was then moved between 25 and 27 November to Scapa Flow ; the destroyers to Gutter Sound and the battleships and cruisers to the north and west of the island of Cava . Eventually a total of 74 ships were interned there , the " König " and " Dresden " having arrived on 6 December accompanied by the destroyer , which replaced the sunken " V30 " . The last ship to arrive was the battleship on 9 January 1919 . Initially the interned ships were guarded by the Battle Cruiser Force ( later reduced to the Battle Cruiser Squadron ) , commanded in succession by Vice - Admiral Pakenham , Rear - Admiral Oliver and Rear - Admiral Keyes . On 1 May 1919 Vice - Admiral Leveson and the Second Battle Squadron of the Atlantic Fleet took over guard duties , and were succeeded on 18 May by Vice - Admiral Sir Sydney Fremantle and the First Battle Squadron . In captivity . The naval historian Arthur Marder described the state of affairs in the German ships during the internment as " one of complete demoralization " . He identified four reasons that exacerbated the situation : lack of discipline , standard of food , lack of recreation and slow postal service . The cumulative result of these problems created " indescribable filth in some of the ships " . On 29 November the Second - in - Command of the Grand Fleet , Admiral Sir Charles Madden , wrote to his brother - in - law and former superior Lord Jellicoe that , " All proposed orders are considered and counter - signed by the men ' s committee before they are executed and then they are carried out as convenient " . When visiting an interned ship the German officers were reported to have been " dumb with shame " . Food was sent from Germany twice a month but was monotonous and not of good quality . Catching fish and seagulls provided a dietary supplement and some recreation . A large amount of brandy was also sent over . Recreation for the men was limited to their ships , as the British refused to allow any of the interned sailors to go ashore or visit any other German ships . British officers and men were only allowed to visit on official business . Outgoing post to Germany was censored from the beginning , and later incoming post also . German seamen were granted 300 cigarettes a month or 75 cigars . There were German doctors in the interned fleet but no dentists , and the British refused to provide one . Command of the interned ships was exercised through Rear - Admiral von Reuter , flying his flag in the battleship . He had a British drifter at his disposal for visiting ships and issuing written orders on urgent business , and his staff was occasionally allowed to visit other ships to arrange repatriation of officers and men . Von Reuter , whose health was poor , requested that his flag be transferred to the light cruiser on 25 March after he was repeatedly prevented from sleeping by the stomping on his cabin roof by a group of sailors called the " Red Guard " . Over seven months the number of men in his command was continually reduced from the 20 , 000 men who had sailed the ships over in November . 4 , 000 returned to Germany on 3 December , 6 , 000 on 6 December and 5 , 000 on 12 December , leaving 4 , 815 , of whom approximately 100 were repatriated a month . Negotiations over the fate of the ships were underway at the Paris Peace Conference . The French and Italians each wanted a quarter of the ships . The British wanted them destroyed , since they knew that any redistribution would be detrimental to the proportional advantage in numbers they had compared to other navies . Under Article XXXI of the Armistice the Germans were not permitted to destroy their ships . Both Admirals Beatty and Madden had approved plans to seize the German ships in case scuttling was attempted ; Admirals Keyes and Leveson recommended that the ships be seized anyway and the crews interned ashore at Nigg Island , but their suggestions were not taken up . Their concern was not without justification , for as early as January 1919 , von Reuter mentioned the possibility of scuttling the fleet to his chief of staff . Having learned of the possible terms of the Treaty of Versailles in May 1919 , he began to prepare detailed plans to scuttle his ships . Admiral Erich Raeder later wrote that von Reuter was informed that the fleet was to be scuttled at all costs . A further reduction of crews with the departure of two transports to Germany on 18 June 1919 meant that von Reuter was left with reliable men to carry out preparations . On that day he sent out orders , paragraph 11 of which stated : " It is my intention to sink the ships only if the enemy should attempt to obtain possession of them without the assent of our government . Should our government agree in the peace to terms to the surrender of the ships , then the ships will be handed over , to the lasting disgrace of those who have placed us in this position . " His orders were sent to the interned ships on 18 June . In the meantime the signing of the Treaty of Versailles was scheduled for noon on 21 June 1919 . The First Battle Squadron prepared to board the German ships in force to check for signs that the fleet was preparing to scuttle . On 13 June Admiral Madden requested in person at the Admiralty a daily political appreciation from 17 June onwards so as to be prepared to take action , but as Madden related to Beatty shortly afterwards , " they had no reliable indication of the German attitude towards the peace terms " . Admiral Fremantle submitted to Madden on 16 June a scheme for seizing the German ships at midnight of 21 / 22 June , after the treaty was meant to be signed . Madden approved the plan on 19 June , but only after he was informed that the deadline for signing the treaty was extended to 19 : 00 on 23 June and he neglected to officially inform Fremantle . News of the extension was seen by Fremantle in a newspaper on the same day and he assumed it to be true . He had been under orders from Madden for some time to exercise his battleships against torpedo attacks , which required good weather in order to recover the torpedoes . The weather on the night of 20 June was favourable so Fremantle ordered the First Battle Squadron to sea at 09 : 00 the next morning , 21 June . The operation to seize the German ships was postponed until the night of his squadron ' s return to Scapa Flow on 23 June , after the deadline to sign the treaty had expired . Fremantle later claimed that before he left Scapa he had unofficially informed von Reuter that the armistice was still in effect . The fleet is scuttled . Around 10 : 00 a . m . on 21 June 1919 , von Reuter sent a flag signal ordering the fleet to stand by for the signal to scuttle . At about 11 : 20 the flag signal was sent : " To all Commanding Officers and the Leader of the Torpedo Boats . Paragraph Eleven of to - day ' s date . Acknowledge . Chief of the Interned Squadron . " The signal was repeated by semaphore and searchlights . Scuttling began immediately : seacock s and flood valves were opened and internal water pipes smashed . Portholes had already been loosened , watertight doors and condenser covers left open , and in some ships holes had been bored through bulkheads , all to facilitate the spread of water once scuttling began . One German ship commander recorded that prior to the 21st seacocks had been set on a hair turning and heavily lubricated , while large hammers had been placed besides valves . There was no noticeable effect until noon , when " Friedrich der Grosse " began to list heavily to starboard and all the ships hoisted the Imperial German Ensign at their mainmasts . The crews then began to abandon ship . The British naval forces left at Scapa Flow comprised three destroyers , one of which was under repair , seven trawlers and a number of drifters . Fremantle started receiving news of the scuttling at 12 : 20 and cancelled his squadron ' s exercise at 12 : 35 , steaming at full speed back to Scapa Flow . He and a division of ships arrived at 14 : 30 in time to see only the large ships still afloat . He had radioed ahead to order all available craft to prevent the German ships sinking or beach them . The last German ship to sink was the battlecruiser at 17 : 00 , by which time fifteen capital ships were sunk , and only survived . Four light cruisers and thirty - two destroyers were sunk . Nine Germans were shot and killed and about sixteen wounded aboard their lifeboats rowing towards land . 1 , 774 Germans were picked up during the afternoon and transported by battleships of the First Battle Squadron to Invergordon . Fremantle had sent out a general order declaring that the Germans were to be treated as prisoners - of - war for having broken the armistice and they were destined for the prisoner - of - war camps at Nigg . Von Reuter and a number of his officers were brought onto the quarterdeck of , where Fremantle gave a speech , translated by an interpreter while von Reuter and his men looked on " with expressionless faces " : Admiral Fremantle subsequently remarked privately " I could not resist feeling some sympathy for von Reuter , who had preserved his dignity when placed against his will in a highly unpleasant and invidious position " . Reactions . The French were disappointed that the German fleet was gone , having hoped to acquire at least some of the ships . The British Admiral Wemyss privately remarked : German Admiral Reinhard Scheer declared : Aftermath . Of the 74 German ships in Scapa Flow , 15 of the 16 capital ship s , 5 of the 8 cruisers , and 32 of the 50 destroyers were sunk . The remainder either remained afloat , or were towed to shallower waters and beached . The beached ships were later dispersed to the allied navies , but most of the sunken ships were initially left at the bottom of Scapa Flow , the cost of salvaging them being deemed to be not worth the potential returns , owing to the glut of scrap metal left after the end of the war , with plenty of obsolete warships having been broken up . After complaints from locals that the wrecks were a hazard to navigation , a salvage company was formed in 1923 , which raised four of the sunken destroyers . At about this time , the entrepreneur Ernest Cox became involved . He bought 26 destroyers from the Admiralty for £250 , as well as the and . He began operations to refloat the destroyers using an old German dry dock he purchased and subsequently modified . He was able to lift 24 of his 26 destroyers over the next year and a half , after which he began work on the larger vessels . He developed a new salvage technique whereby divers patched the holes in the submerged hulls , and then pumped air into them so they would rise to the surface , where they could then be towed to the breakers . Using this technique , he refloated several of the ships . His methods were costly , however , and the final cost of raising the " Hindenburg " ran to some £30 , 000 . Industrial action and a coal strike in 1926 nearly brought operations to a halt , but Cox instead dug out the coal in the submerged " Seydlitz " , using it to power his machines until the end of the strike . Salvaging the " Seydlitz " also proved difficult , as the ship sank again during the first attempt to raise her , wrecking most of the salvage equipment . Undaunted , Cox tried again , ordering that when she was next raised , news cameras would be there to capture him witnessing the moment . The plan nearly backfired when the " Seydlitz " was accidentally refloated while Cox was holidaying in Switzerland . Cox told the workers to sink her again , then returned to Britain to be present as the " Seydlitz " was duly refloated a second time . Cox ' s company eventually raised 26 destroyers , two battlecruisers and five battleships . Cox sold his remaining interests to the Alloa Shipbuilding Company , ( later Metal Industries Group ) and retired as the " man who bought a navy " . The latter company went on to raise a further five cruisers , battlecruisers , and battleships , before the outbreak of the Second World War brought operations to a halt . The remaining wrecks lie in deeper waters , in depths up to , and there has been no economic incentive to attempt to raise them since . Minor salvage is still carried out to recover small pieces of steel . This low - background steel is used in the manufacture of radiation - sensitive devices , such as Geiger counter s , as it is not contaminated with radioisotope s , having been produced prior to any chance of nuclear contamination . The seven wrecks that remain are scheduled under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979 . Divers are allowed to visit them but need a permit to do so . The last living military witness to the scuttling of the fleet was Claude Choules , who died on 5 May 2011 aged 110 . Choules was the last known living combat veteran of the First World War . While the rebuilding of the German Army in the 1930s was based upon the combined myths of " invincibility on the battlefield " and the " stab in the back " , the attitude and actions of the High Seas Fleet at Scapa Flow became a symbol of defiance for the new recruits and officers of the Kriegsmarine .